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Don't Feed The Children
If you're like us, having kids isn't going to stop you from dining out once in awhile. When the good old days of being a new mom and carrying around your newborn in a car seat and enjoying a meal while he or she sleeps the entire time are gone, you'll be on a search for family-friendly establishments. After all, some restaurants have gone so far as to ban children from even entering.
What do you think of restaurants baning kids? Shouldn't it be left up to the paying customer if they want to bring their children in, and even yet, shouldn't we be teaching our kids to be well behaved in certain places?
Parents magazine has put together a list of the top ten family restaurants. We are bummed to see most of them are chain restaurants and not very healthy at that. Is this what parents have succumb to? Chili's on a Friday night?
What do you think of the list? Do you think once you have kids you need to suck it up and sit at a Red Robin for dinner instead of a smaller bistro? Do you think many of these smaller places are not kid friendly? We'd love to hear your opinion!
Allowing children in upscale restaurants is great, as long as the parents insist that their children show good manners and don't destroy the experience for childless diners. However, my experience has been that there are far too many parents who do not ensure that their children behave appropriately (I have even seen kids on those shoes with skates build into the soles skating around the salad bar!), and those children can ruin the experience of fine dining for the rest of the people in the restaurant. No one wants to listen to a toddler throw a tantrum or an older child whine about the menu. I put in my years with three children, going to restaurants that were appropriate for their age level and state of behavior. When they got older, going to a nice restaurant was a privilege, not an expectation. There are lots of places to take the kids -- there need to be some places that are "adult only"!