So if this happened in the Charlotte area, would you cheer or boo?
This Pennsylvania restaurant owner -- and from the video, it's not a fine dining place, per se -- decided to stop serving children younger than 6. An accompanying story points out that he e-mailed customers to tell them about the ban, and includes one of those customers asking, "What do they plan to do about the loud people at the bar?"
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Restaurant owner bans kids
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45 comments:
I support this 100%. More, if not most, restaurants should do this. Before any starts screaming about age discrimination know that you aren't really entitled to any protections against discrimination based on age until you are relatively old.
haha you know there were a few choice families that pushed him over the edge.
Amen!
We've too long been suffering from folks thinking everything should be "family-friendly". There are places that responsible parents shouldn't even think about taking small children. Places with bars should be one of them. Kudos to the owner for making this move.
Before anyone starts screaming about age discrimination, know that you really aren't entitled to any protections against discrimination based on age until that discrimination manifests itself in the employment context. Nice try, but next time, why don't you wait for someone to start screaming about it.
If people would actually act as responsible parents and keep their kids under control (ie-have control in the first place), this type of action would be unnecessary.
I'd like to find a restaurant that bans yankees! You may as well eat a pig trough around them
tPet, you realize that would preclude Chilis, Fridays, heck, pretty much every restaurant aside from Chuck-E-Cheese, fast food and K&W. Is that truly what you intend w/ your comment?
Families go where it's Family Friendly. Ergo, RESTAURANTS make themselves more appetizing to families or not. It's THEIR choice. Having been in the industry for a decade, I can tell you that it's certainly not "forced" on a restaurant to do so.
Totaly cheer!!! I went to a very nice restaurant a year ago and while trying to enjoy my meal, this family let their small child run and scream through the restaurant. Scream, cry and yell...that is all I heard for an hour and a half. The best part????? When leaving the mother looked at me and said "you know how children can be". I responded "no, I don't have any children and now I am sure that I don't want any." She walked away in quiet shock....the only quiet I got that night!
It would be nice if restaurants use common sense when seating. I went to a local Mexican restaurant- spouse and I... and they seat us between two families that looked like they were having a food fight. I immediately asked to be moved to be seated elsewhere, and lo and behold, a section mainly of adults, no kids was where we were seated.
Why in the world did the host think we (a couple) would want to sit between two families with loud kids throwing food when there were alternatives?
Since there aren't any smoking sections anymore, why not have the option to have child free sections?
If a restaurant doesn't want to serve families, that is their right.
It also is my right - and the right of other parents - to not patronize such a place where our children are not welcome. I bet this place puts up a "Closed" sign very soon.
I vote for restaurants with my $'s. By the look of the restaurant they need all the customers they can get!
OK then, just don't have your kids sitting in the bar area while waiting for your table. How many times have I wanted to sit in the bar and have a drink but all of the chairs are taken up by minors with sippy cups?
Anybody else upset that 12:40 won't be gracing the Earth with his or her progeny?
Please share the name of this "very nice restaurant" that had the kid running around for an hour and a half. No "very nice restaurant" worth the adjective would allow that.
Seems like a lot of people want you to love thier children as much as they do.....not happening until they can teach them nanners.
As the mother of a 4 year old, I don't mind this. By no means is my son perfect, but he does know how to act in a restaurant. If your child acts up and you are unable to get it under control quickly, then you need to get the check quickly and let everybody else eat in peace. There is nothing worse than going to ANY restaurant and listening to a screaming child, watching a kid misbehave, etc. I would like to enjoy my dinner just as much as everybody else. I don't want every restaurant to do this as I would like to go out with my son on occasions, but I do believe it is the owner's choice.
If more parents would stop trying to be their kids best buddy and actually "parent," little Johnny and Janey might actually learn how to behave in a restaurant and other public places.
CHEER! Before I had a child I swore that I would not allow my child to act out in a restaurant. And I DON'T. But don't blame the kids, blame the lazy parents for not teaching them any better!
It is the restaurant owner's choice, and I am sure many people will be happy with it. Definitely surprised to see the restauarant in question- I was expecting it to be a fancy establishment, not...that.
REstaurants should have this right as much as they should have the right to open their doors to smokers (I am a non-smoker). We were not born with the right to eat at any establishment we choose. Remember the old signs, "Management reserves the right...?" So long as it isn't exclusion based on one of the protected classes (race, creed, color, national origin, etc.), it should be the managment's right.
As a parent of a four-month-old, I don't mind if a restaurant decides to prohibit babies or small children from their establishment. Not all restaurants need to be "family friendly". So long as it is clearly indicated on the front door that children are not allowed, then I feel like it's perfectly fine.
My wife & I get a babysitter when we want to eat at a fine dining establishment, and we would certainly frown upon screaming and ill-behaving children interrupting our romantic night out.
Parents need to have consideration for others when dining with their children and make sure they go someplace that welcomes their kids. Nonparents also need to be understanding when they dine at "family friendly" restaurants that the occasional child may cry or run around.
A little consideration will go a long way here and diffuse many conflicts that erupt over this subject.
Anon 12:40- "It would be nice if restaurants use common sense when seating. "
They DO use common sense when seating. They don't happen to apply what YOU think is sensible but then again, they do not have perfect clarity that you and some other table would get along or not.
They seat to create/establish balance across the dining room.
It's great that this restaurant choose to not allow children. But it's not a child's problem that they misbehave, it's a parent problem. Too bad the well behaved children have to pay for parents that are to ignorant and lazy to teach their children good behavior. The exception is babies.
I think restaurants should have separate sections like someone stated. I hate going to a nice restaurant where I choose to relax and enjoy a quiet meal with my loved one, and all I hear are kids screaming and yelling. People would like to eat quietly without having a kid screaming in their ear the entire time. You wouldn't let your child scream and yell during a movie, would you? (well, actually I've had that happen to me several times as well.) Rude people.
Anonymous #7 ... I have absolutely no problem with that. Get a sitter.
I would welcome this action and fully support a resturant that banned children- lets face it you are really banning the parents since they are the ones who created the lack of manners/social skills nightmare. Also the places 'parents' take children is shocking- this weekend I watched as two "Dads" brought there 4 daughters into a beer/wing joint put them at a booth and the adjourned to the bar for beers- no one screamed but its that mentality that is behind so many of the screaming kids incidents- the parents simply dont care and dont want to be bothered-
to answer 12:46's question it was Sullivan's...satisfied? Maybe not as classy as The fig tree but still no place for screaming brats
This is Nuts. But... it is their right. But good luck getting me into this place then the babysitter was around. I would spend my money some place else.
Although... looking at this place... I wouldn't eat their under any condition.
There was a steak house place in Ballantyne that came with much fanfare. We checked it out and it was packed with kids. I concluded that the management chose the kids over the adults and I never went back. It is now out of business - I'm just saying.....
Not sure what to think here. I'm from the Carolinas and have unfortunately seen parents bringing children younger than 6 to smoky bars... once even saw a mom with 2 babies in a pretty rough biker bar. I guess you could say they were a "restaurant" of some sort. Now for classy upscale places, yes I think it's proper not to let children sit through a meal when they can't even order anything on the menu.
Yay! I chose not to have kids. I think children should be seen and not heard anywhere in public. I hate when whiny kids are making noise, running around, even walking around unattended, playing video games or games on cell phones (we left a restaurant before we got our entrees because of the beeping & sounds) while I am trying to eat. Or see a movie. Or shop in a nice store. I also find it very insulting when a parent brings in takeout food to a restaurant for their spoiled kid to eat. I ate in a 100% vegetarian Indian restaurant (run by non meat eating Hindus) and a mother (not Indian) brought in BURGER KING beef for her brat to eat. btw by the time the staff realized it, the meat was out on the tablecloth & one of the Hindu staff was in tears. If the kid won't eat there, leave them at home.
I have three children - a 3 year old and twin 2 year olds.
While I feel that we have to right to occasionally eat somewhere other than our dining room, we do so rarely, and out of the courtesy of others we are very choosy about where we dine. The local Mexican restaurant with outdoor dining? Great. Village Tavern or Longhorn? Thats a date without the kids. Additionally, we do not tolerate our kids acting up in restaurants - if a child somehow manages to get out of their seat (where is that high chair with working buckles?) then he is obviously done eating and it's time to go to the car. If I can keep three small children quiet and contained while eating out then there is no reason why I have to endure the constant seat kicking, screams and "tossed" salad administered by the single 4 year old of the clueless parents behind me.
If this restaurant wants to ban children, that’s his choice. But for the rest of us with children, please be considerate of other diners and teach your children respect and manors from a young age!
Love it. Huevos grande! I would eat there 3 nights a week....sans my kids!!
Think this is a great idea...
After all they have changed to
nonsmoking only, thanks to Gov Perdue
Why not make restaurants that serve alcohol non kids?
LOVE it! But why children under 6? How about banning everyone under 18?
As a business owner I have the choice of whom I deal with in business! so does this business owner, if you dont like the fact that he does not want your unruley child in his place...DONT GO! I have been to many restaurants with kids just running around the place while the parents think its wonderful....excuse me "parents" I didnt come here to baby sit your offspring I came here to eat a meal that I am paying for with my hard earned cash and I would like to do it in peace!!!
I realize that not all parents are like that but it seems to me that in todays world the kids are in charge not the adults....when I was a kid and my parents took us out to eat we were not allowed to leave the table unless we were going to the bathroom...my age is 43....Maybe I should get some of my friends together and go to chucky cheese and get really drunk and make a big scene and when I get banned from the place start complaining and point fingers!!!!
I would probably say boo if it is a middle of the road establishment...meaning not upscale and generally (for us not rich folks) reserved for special occasions. My son was eating fish with the head and tail on at 6 and has been cooking since he was four. He was taught early on how to behave in a restaurant and if he didn't we would pay the check and leave. It only happened once and never again because he had something he wanted taken away from him. We also believe that people deserve to have a night out without a screaming child nearby. The problem is that parents don't parent their children. It shocks me how people will let their kids openly misbehave in public places with no repercussions. God forbid they should set rules and then stick to them. The problem isn't the kids it's the adults who should be more thoughtful. If that were the case, the proprietor of this establishment wouldnt have to ban kids. Now babies...that's another question as they can't be told how they need to act. It just means the parents have to be willing to take the child to the car or leave them home!
So what's next, no women or no minorities. If this is acceptable, where will it end?
Good!!
There is nothing worse than trying to have a quiet relazing dinner and some person who thinks the whole world loves their ill-mannered child is sitting next to, or near, you. Loud crying, screaming and food thrown all around. The restaurant owner should hand them a broom and mop and have them clean their mess up. In lieu of that add a service charge to their bill for his staff having to clean up the mess left behind.
Anons 2:24 and 5:09, great comments. It's encouraging to hear from parents who show courtesy to others and teach their children to do the same. Wish there were more of you!
That said -- as a middle-aged married childfree woman, I would LOVE to try a no-kids restaurant. Of course, the food would have to be good too. Having worked my way through college as a waitress at a "family-dining" chain, I can attest to the hell it is for the staff.
When word gets out that this gig does not involve having to serve chicken nuggets, wipe down sticky high chairs and vacuum wide swaths of ground-in Cheerios for a $2 tip, Mr. Vuick will be flooded with applications, so talent shouldn't be a problem.
BTW, speaking as a native Pennsylvanian -- yes, this is "fine dining" for these folks. The regular clientele probably consists of businesspeople and/or retirees. My own parents hang out at a place just like this (go Mom and Dad!)
There is nothing "family-friendly" about McDain's. It is a Driving. Range. people. Where grownups work out their frustrations by launching high-speed airborne projectiles with steel clubs, often with poor and unpredictable aim. It is not a place for babes in arms.
Mr. Vuick is trying to tell you something, Stephanie and friends. Don't despair ... every other restaurant in town has a high chair waiting for you and your your "quietly fussing" little angle. Bon appetit.
I'm pretty much a yeah! on this. While I know a few children can handle "fine dining", sometimes a firm cut off is the best way. I have no children but have 9 nieces and nephews, only one whom I felt comfortable taking to places like The Palm, Capital Grill, etc. when he was 5. Not only did he have the manners, he had the temperament for a more sedate atmosphere.
From a servers (I did it for 10 years) stand point, THANK YOU to all caregivers of the little people who attempt to keep order and tidy up-it is greatly appreciated! To those that think it is a servers job to clean up your mess, it's not, we're here to serve food and drink not be babysitters or cleaners.
I was chatting with a lady at the airport and commented on how well behaved her 3 young children were and she thanked me but also said she thought her kids type of behavior should be the rule, not the exception.
I love it. I hate screaming brats in otherwise nice eateries. Even more, I detest the parents who do little or nothing to control their children.
I love it! I wish more restaurants would do this because too many parents FAIL at containing their children. As I child, I was not permitted to go out to eat with the rest of the family until I could behave. Going out was a privilege, not a right. Everyone should not have to be subjected to a child who cannot sit still, be quiet or behave.
I think this is awesome and I would SO go there if the food were great. I have 3 kids. This is a private establishment and the mgmt can require whatever they want. I'm glad the majority of the folks who posted here feel the same way and I sure do worry about the ones that whined.
I just want the kids to stop sitting at the bar. In the state that I'm from, it's illegal for a child to sit at a bar. That's apparently not the case in NC, because kids are always sitting in the bar chairs. It's not good business, it's not enjoyable for the majority of bar patrons, and it's not not a kid-friendly environment. Plus, it diminishes an adult-friendly one.
I agree with the previous comment. Maybe if restaurants start limiting kids in the bar areas, then they wouldn't have to ban them from restaurants completely. I never spent time in the bar area before because it was always the smoking section. Now that restaurants are smoke-free in NC, let's limit this area to adults only!
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