Should More Restaurants Ban Children?

We’ve all been there.

You go to a restaurant expecting to enjoy a nice meal, and you get seated near the “children from Hell.”

They bang silverware on the table, run in the aisles, crawl under the tables and scream at the top of their lungs.

Bad behavior from kids can ruin the dining experiences of even the most tolerant people, and some restaurants have decided to take a stand against it.

They are banning children.

A Pennsylvania restaurant is the latest to make the news for saying no to children under the age of 6.

Despite the controversy their mandate has created, it’s apparently worked out well for them. Their business is up 20 percent since they’ve made the change, according to the Wall Street Journal.

I can see the reasoning. Some restaurant owners have gotten so sick of having to “parent” their customers’ children that they feel they have no other choice but to get rid of the kids all together. And that’s unfortunate. 

Generally, children live up to the expectations you set for them. If you go into a restaurant and your children know that they need to behave properly or else you’ll leave, then they’ll act appropriately. And the opposite holds true as well.

I was having lunch with my kids a few weeks ago at Rubio’s in Vallejo – not exactly “fine dining," but a bit better than fast food.

Two young mothers were also there with their kids, and these children were running wild in the restaurant. Their four little boys were playing tag in the restaurant, shouting, screaming and climbing over and under the tables.

One boy, who appeared to be 3 or 4 years old, was loudly proclaiming to anyone within earshot that “frickin” was a bad word.

What did these kids’ moms do to stop this unacceptable behavior? Absolutely nothing. They just went on eating their meals.

Should all children be banned from restaurants because of the behavior of kids like these? Perhaps.

But maybe restaurants should think about banning their parents instead.