Restaurant bans kids, nearby chains and individuals virtue-signal about it immediately
I for one would be totally on board about some restaurants having a no kids allowed policy. I would go further and say that I would like to see this same procedure used on a lot of other services most notably flights. I would pay more in order to have child-free environments in many parts of my life.
It isn't that I hate kids or anything, I just sometimes feel as though there are parents out there that think that their little baby screaming and running around the place is "cute" but it isn't cute, nobody thinks it is cute except the parents.
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mama is taping and giggling but the table to the right doesn't share her enthusiasm... is that Obama?
In New Jersey there is a mid-range Italian restaurant named "Nettie's house of Spaghetti" that recently banned all children under the age of 10 from dining there. They made this very clear to the customers that while they were sorry that they had to do this, the restaurant simply isn't big enough to accommodate naughty children running around the restaurant and also making a huge mess of the floor.
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The place doesn't look child-friendly at all and to me anyway, that looks like the kind of environment that I would call intimate or fancy. This intimacy and fanciness could easily be destroyed for all other diners with the presence of just one screaming toddler.
While there hasn't been any sort of lawsuit brought against Nettie's, surprisingly, there has been some backlash in the local community but mostly in the form of other businesses taking an opportunity to virtue signal about how much they love kids and welcome all of them.
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Applebees is exactly the kind of place that I avoid because of the noise factor and if this means that more families with kids are going to be going to that Applebees, I know exactly what restaurant I am going to be avoiding if I ever find myself in New Jersey. I can't really think of any reason why I would ever be in New Jersey so it probably isn't an issue in my life.
Others took to social media in order to get some SJW points by attempting to name and shame Netties
This lady embodies what I would imagine a real life "Karen" is like. In my mind the restaurant is entirely in the right if they want to ban children. I feel the same way about places that have dress code requirements: It's their establishment and they can do whatever they want provided that it isn't something illegal like "whites only." Of course she took it to an extreme, which is common on Twitter, to suggest that Nettie's is saying that parents shouldn't exist - which is not what they said at all. Their press release was very apologetic and kind actually.
If you have kids (I don't) then I feel your pain but let's just think about this for a minute ok? You say it is a "gross policy" but is it fair that a room full of people who are paying a premium to go out to dinner have their experience ruined because some parents have misbehaving kids? I think we can only take the "oh she/he's just a kid, that's what they do!" so far. At some point people started going too far with what they believe it is reasonable for their kids to do in public. I was a naughty kid and remember that my parents would reprimand me for slight deviations for acceptable behavior in public. While I have no memory of it, I am sure that my parents would have never taken me to a fine dining establishment and just allowed me to run wild. Unfortunately, this is exactly what a lo of parents do and they seem to think it is ok that Jr is using the dining room as his own personal playground rather than sitting at the table.
I fully support this sort of policy and would actually go out of my way to patronize an establishment that has this policy. If you want to let your kid run wild then take them to Chucky Cheese. In the meantime please allow those of us that chose to not have children to have a little bit of peace and quiet at our overpriced Italian dinner.
I think it is unreasonable to punish all families because some kids are bad. But it's up to the business. I'm not sure it will be a net positive for them in the long run. I know that if I were bringing my well behaved child out to a restaurant and was told that wasn't allowed then I would be unlikely to take my business there again, with or without children. Seems like sort of the same logic as banning guns because some people are bad or banning alcohol because some people are alcoholics. Let's ban kids because some kids are bad.
On the other hand, if a child is causing a disturbance they need to be asked to leave.
But in all of my life, I can't think of one instance where I witnessed a child behave so badly that they should have been asked to leave (i.e. if there was a disturbance, the parent removed the child or got them under control quickly without being asked). But then I don't live in New Jersey. And now that I've said that, I've cursed myself to bad experiences every time I go out.
For sure. I suppose they weighed the options and thought they would be able to make it anyway.
The thing where you have never witnessed a child being so badly behaved that they were asked to leave has probably never happened because the staff were afraid to do this sort of thing. I worked in restaurants in the past where kids would cause absolute mayhem in the dining area and left a huge mess behind afterwards. I think if I were a parent I would probably do like you do and do something about it..
You are right that it is not fair that all people with children be banned for the actions of the few but what other choice do they really have? I suppose they could put up a sign that says that this sort of thing will not be tolerated and people will be asked to leave if it does but I can also see that situation getting wildly out of hand if the parents are also unruly.