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Nov-17


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discussion title:
 

Good parents in restaurants

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message #:
  9268.1
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  4
from:
  lucy4980  Member Icon
date:
  Nov-4 4:41 pm

Last night DH and I went out to dinner and encountered some GOOD parents, so I thought I would share - seems like we always have rants about kids and parents in restaurants, but these guys were good :)

Looked like the family was out for grandma's birthday with 2 small children in tow.  Everybody was fine, kids sitting in their seats, nobody too loud, only a few food bits on the floor around the kids.  The kids got antsy after awhile, but dad and grandpa made a good effort to keep them entertained at the table.  After some time though, the kids were clearly done - their patience with sitting at a table had worn thin.  However, before things got out of hand, dad snagged the waiter and asked for the check - said that things were getting ready to fall apart and he figured they should get out while the getting was good.  Mom and grandma gathered the kids and took them outside, while grandpa gathered the stuff and dad paid the bill.  They were like a well-oiled machine. 

I don't know who those people were, but I thought they should get some props :) 
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Nov-22


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discussion title:
 

Good parents in restaurants

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  9268.2 in response to 9268.1
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from:
  slkbird
to:
  lucy4980  Member Icon
date:
  Nov-4 6:00 pm

...and then the alarm went off and you woke up and realised it was all just a dream :)

Seriously though, why can't this be the general consensus and the inconsiderates be the exception to the rule? I agree it's nice to share some praise to balance out rants, but it's a shame that what should be Normal behaviour is deemed praiseworthy because the majority let themselves down.

Last week I popped in to see a friend one evening and she was a bit frazzled. Said she'd been to Pizza Express for dinner as she'd got a voucher from the newspaper and hadn't eaten out for a while. But she didn't enjoy it because her toddler wouldn't stop crying, so she had to take him to the car while her partner gobbled down his pizza and then he went outside while she popped back in to hurriedly eat her cold pizza. The only person who enjoyed himself was her older one. She said, "that's it we are not taking him to a restaurant again until he's much older, people were giving us terrible looks!"

I said fair play to her because a lot of parents zone out to their kids' noise and would jump on the defensive if another customer let them know they were disturbing them.
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discussion title:
 

Good parents in restaurants

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  9268.3 in response to 9268.2
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from:
  runnerchick69
to:
  slkbird
date:
  Nov-5 7:30 am

It really is refreshing when you encounter parents that actually care about the other diners!  I know many who would sit right there and if the kids screamed and yelled, oh well, they wouldn't actually do anything about it.

 

 

 

Run to live and live to run!
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discussion title:
 

Good parents in restaurants

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  9268.4 in response to 9268.1
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from:
  spectrachic
to:
  lucy4980  Member Icon
date:
  Nov-5 5:47 pm

Yeah, that's so great when parents realize what their kid's limit is.  A few weeks ago, we were at dinner with my grandma, aunt, uncle, mom, dad, cousin, sister, and my sister's 17 month old son.  Of course, my nephew was ready to get up and run around about halfway through dinner and my sister immediately knew he had to go or he would throw a royal fit.  She called her husband to come to the restaurant (he had to work late, so he didn't eat with us) and pick up my nephew.  She took him out to the lobby so she could play with him out of the way of people eating their food.  She's definitely one of the "good" parents out there.
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