Is this fair? Having raised five kids of my own, I can sympathize with parents who try taking their kid, or kids to a restaurant only to have that child throw a screaming fit over dinner and ruin, not only the parents meal, but also the meal of anyone around them.
My patience and tolerance has grown short anymore for that kind of stuff when parents allow it to go on.
I have seen parents look around, trying to ignore their kid, or trying to appease a screaming child who refuses to quit screaming.
My advice? Either take the child to the restroom to calm them down, outside to calm them down or ask for the meal in to go boxes and take the kid home or better yet, hire a sitter so you can go to an adult restaurant.
Why? I never tolerated screaming in a restaurant from my own kids, knowing it would disrupt everyone's meal and making for an unpleasant time out.
My oldest daughter likes to tell people: "When Mom said we were leaving the restaurant or store; we left the restaurant or store.
" She is right I just didn't tolerate those antics.
Well one restaurant in North Carolina has a solution; a sign saying "Screaming children will not be tolerated.
' Plain and simply put.
This is a privately owned restaurant and the owners feel they should be allowed to post such a sign.
When eating in a restaurant and kids start screaming, I can see the evil glances thrown to the parents and some looks give the impression they want to throw their dinners at the parents.
Some people get mighty angry when they have planned a quiet dinner out and then it gets ruined by screaming kids.
It's hard to ignore the wails for a long period of time when those screams make our ears ring and make us feel like we may go deaf, or at least, hearing impaired if it does not stop.
I have even seen patrons ask for their checks and to go boxes and walk out muttering under their breath on their way to the exit.
One mother, has a bone to pick with the restaurant that has the 'no screaming children' sign in its window.
This mother says her child is autistic and is prone to bouts of screaming, due to his disability.
She claims her son is being singled out and the sign violates the 'Americans with Disabilities Act.
' Now that sign does not state 'which children' will not be tolerated, it simply covers all children who scream, for whatever reasons.
All children, apparently, will be treated the same way if screaming.
The restaurant owner says she is not out to silence all children or even trying to find a method to silence them.
She just feels her patrons should enjoy their meals too, minus the background wailing of a screaming child.
My guess is that most kids, mine included, would much rather be in a restaurant where there is a playground or, like Chuck E.
Cheese, a place to play anything and be able to be a regular kid.
Another person's point of view One gentleman wrote an opposing article on this subject saying yes, screaming kids are annoying but he went further and said 'old people' in restaurants are annoying to him too.
He says 'old people usually talk too loudly, usually yelling due to being hard of hearing and talking about old people's ailments.
' He also says he does not like the good ole boys who talk about the 'gummit' and how Obama is just a com-un-nist anyway.
' He calls those in the previous category, 'mouth breathers.
' Then he says the 'only thing worse than them, is the 'giggling teenage girls.
' He says restaurants have no right to keep those screaming kids out than they do to banning deaf people who 'make all those annoying hand gestures.
' He says that parents cannot control the screaming, especially a child who is autistic and even in any kid who is screaming.
As parents we do know screaming at the kid just makes it worse and that telling them to simply stop does not work either.
He says the 'public should be more understanding' and that screaming bouts only last a short time.
Well, maybe, but I have sat through an entire meal, myself, with a kid nearby who had more energy than I ever imagined and screamed the entire meal.
So I beg to differ about what is considered 'a short time.
' He claims that nearby adults tend to incite his kid and make him scream louder, by their foolish reactions to the screams.
A man in Florida did allegedly assault another patron in Olive Garden because the guy's autistic son kept screaming.
He was jailed on assault charges.
This parent claims that North Carolina restaurant is 'singling out' certain patrons when other patrons, who are equally as annoying are allowed to have a free pass to eat there, while his kid, who cannot help it, is not able to eat there.
He says if we banned 'all the annoying' people of the world, it would make any establishment a very lonely place.
He says: "There would be no one left but you, and you annoy me.
' What do you think? Is this unfair?