When you take your children out to eat with you

please be considerate of the other customers and MAKE THEM BEHAVE!!! [and yes, I meant to yell that]

We were at a small local Mexican restaurant today for lunch and at another table there were two ladies, probably Mom and Grandma from the looks of them, and three boys. The youngest boy looked to be about four years of age and he was the main problem. He yelled, for no reason that we could ever discern; he yelled at his brother, he yelled at the waiter, he yelled at his mother, and never once did either of the ladies tell him to quit or correct him in anyway. As they reached the end of their meal he was allowed to get up and roam the room. He must have opened and closed the door a dozen times; it was one of those with a chime that goes off every time it is opened. He also destroyed a display of flyers sitting on a counter, again neither of the ladies ever told him to quit or corrected him in anyway nor did they clean up the display he dumped.

We have always taken our kids out to eat from the time they were little and I know that they did not always behave. I can in fact remember a few times Toby had to take one or another to the bathroom for a chat, but they were never allowed to get up and roam and we always tried to be conscious of whether or not their behavior was disrupting to others.

All children have to learn what is acceptable in public and what isn't and it is their parents job to teach them that. I just don’t understand why people think it is okay to inflict their child/children on the general populace when they don’t/won’t/can’t make them behave and obvisouly have no intention of teaching them how to behave correctly.

Okay, end of rant!