Film at 11: No Velociraptors

[athelind]

Restaurant Says "NO" to Screaming Children

Excerpt the First:

A restaurant in Carolina Beach is stirring up controversy over a couple of signs reading, "Screaming children will not be tolerated."

Excerpt the Second:

"I've never seen a restaurant say, don't bring your screaming kids in here," said Ashley Heflin, who is a mom of two. "You can't help it if your kids scream."

YES. YES, YOU CAN.

You can either pay attention to them -- and that includes "discipline", if need be -- or you can stay the BLEEP home and take care of them.

You can even find a baby sitter, if you just need some out-of-the-house time and a break from parenting.

When I first reacted to this story, hoodahdc said, "Athe is angry about babies."

No, Athe is angry about parents.

Nine times out of ten, when I see some kid screaming its head off in a restaurant or a mall or in my BLEEPing store, the parents are blithely ignoring it and doing their damnedest to hold a conversation over their progeny's howls.

I would, for the record, consider the stereotypical parental brush-off of "not now, dear, Mommy's talking" that is media shorthand for "parental neglect" vastly superior to the parents I see who flat-out ignore their offspring.

So yes. YES. Hooray for Brenda Armes, and I hope beyond hope that she's the harbinger of a trend.

Comments

[athelind.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I actually count as a "person without kids" anymore.

I'm just sayin'.

[toob.livejournal.com]

Did you ever raise a child that was under the age of, say, seven?

I've never waterboarded anybody, but I have pretty strong opinions on THAT, too.

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Nope.

Nor do I plan to, because I know that I'm a self-absorbed, ill-tempered git.

However, I do know many, many parents, and have in fact discussed the principles of childrearing with them regularly and at length.

I also know far too many self-absorbed, ill-tempered gits who went ahead and had kids anyway.

The positions I express are, by and large, based on a synthesis of the positions held by actual parents, weighted by empirical results.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

I'm a parent of one and co-raiser of several more, and what our host has to say about this is largely correct in my experience. There are strategies to deal with poor behavior, some work better than others for different kids, but outside of some gross disabilities or equally disfunctional home environment (both with which I have some experience as well), there's rarely a good reason to let a young child continue their obnoxious display in public instead of packing them up to deal with the issue elsewhere.