http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09bakery.html?8hpib
Child free sections in restaurants? Signs saying "We love children, especially when they are in their seats and behaving" and "Children should remember to use their indoor voices while at XYZ Coffeeshop". High society mothers who are on the trendy kick by having kids feeling threatened by establishments that do this, or litiginous? Wonder what Kelly Ripa would do if her and her yammering/sprawling/disruptive tot were asked to leave a coffeehouse/bakery where patrons retire to read and work and sip?
Not everyone thinks your kid is cute. Not everyone has a darling child that can sit through a dinner/coffee. Take them to McD's if you can't teach them the difference between playground and restaurant. At least until they are older and understand the meaning of a hissed "I will break every bone in your body if you don't sit still." And seriously, those who complain that just because they have kids they can't enjoy these places - how can they enjoy if they are constantly correcting and monitoring? If you are enjoying, you are probably ignoring your unruly child. I am a mother, and I hate when people without kids make rules regarding how I should discipline, but I also know where not to take my child if it will disrupt others. I have walked out of Panera once, and that was a good lesson.
Okay, off my soapbox. Some snippets from the article, if you can't get to it.......
The owner of A Taste of Heaven, Dan McCauley, said he posted the sign - at child level, with playful handprints - in the hope of quieting his tin-ceilinged cafe, where toddlers have been known to sprawl between tables and hurl themselves at display cases for sport.
But many neighborhood mothers took umbrage at the implied criticism of how they handle their children. Soon, whispers of a boycott passed among the playgroups in this North Side neighborhood, once an outpost of avant-garde artists and hip gay couples but now a hot real estate market for young professional families shunning the suburbs.
At Mendo Bistro in Fort Bragg, Calif., the owners declare "Well-behaved children and parents welcome" to try to stop unmonitored youngsters from tap-dancing on the 100-year-old wood floors.
Here in Chicago, parents have denounced Toast, a popular Lincoln Park breakfast spot, as unwelcoming since a note about using inside voices appeared on the menu six months ago. The owner of John's Place, which resembles a kindergarten class at recess in early evening, established a separate "family friendly" room a year ago, only to face parental threats of lawsuits
After a dozen years at one site, Mr. McCauley moved A Taste of Heaven six blocks away in May 2004, to a busy corner on Clark Street. But there, he said, teachers and writers seeking afternoon refuge were drowned out not just by children running amok but also by oblivious cellphone chatterers.
Children were climbing the cafe's poles. A couple were blithely reading the newspaper while their daughter lay on the floor blocking the line for coffee. When the family whose children were running across the room to throw themselves against the display cases left after his admonishment, Mr. McCauley recalled, the restaurant erupted in applause. So he put up the sign. Then things really got ugly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09bakery.html?8hpib
Child free sections in restaurants? Signs saying "We love children, especially when they are in their seats and behaving" and "Children should remember to use their indoor voices while at XYZ Coffeeshop". High society mothers who are on the trendy kick by having kids feeling threatened by establishments that do this, or litiginous? Wonder what Kelly Ripa would do if her and her yammering/sprawling/disruptive tot were asked to leave a coffeehouse/bakery where patrons retire to read and work and sip?
Not everyone thinks your kid is cute. Not everyone has a darling child that can sit through a dinner/coffee. Take them to McD's if you can't teach them the difference between playground and restaurant. At least until they are older and understand the meaning of a hissed "I will break every bone in your body if you don't sit still." And seriously, those who complain that just because they have kids they can't enjoy these places - how can they enjoy if they are constantly correcting and monitoring? If you are enjoying, you are probably ignoring your unruly child. I am a mother, and I hate when people without kids make rules regarding how I should discipline, but I also know where not to take my child if it will disrupt others. I have walked out of Panera once, and that was a good lesson.
Okay, off my soapbox. Some snippets from the article, if you can't get to it.......
The owner of A Taste of Heaven, Dan McCauley, said he posted the sign - at child level, with playful handprints - in the hope of quieting his tin-ceilinged cafe, where toddlers have been known to sprawl between tables and hurl themselves at display cases for sport.
But many neighborhood mothers took umbrage at the implied criticism of how they handle their children. Soon, whispers of a boycott passed among the playgroups in this North Side neighborhood, once an outpost of avant-garde artists and hip gay couples but now a hot real estate market for young professional families shunning the suburbs.
At Mendo Bistro in Fort Bragg, Calif., the owners declare "Well-behaved children and parents welcome" to try to stop unmonitored youngsters from tap-dancing on the 100-year-old wood floors.
Here in Chicago, parents have denounced Toast, a popular Lincoln Park breakfast spot, as unwelcoming since a note about using inside voices appeared on the menu six months ago. The owner of John's Place, which resembles a kindergarten class at recess in early evening, established a separate "family friendly" room a year ago, only to face parental threats of lawsuits
After a dozen years at one site, Mr. McCauley moved A Taste of Heaven six blocks away in May 2004, to a busy corner on Clark Street. But there, he said, teachers and writers seeking afternoon refuge were drowned out not just by children running amok but also by oblivious cellphone chatterers.
Children were climbing the cafe's poles. A couple were blithely reading the newspaper while their daughter lay on the floor blocking the line for coffee. When the family whose children were running across the room to throw themselves against the display cases left after his admonishment, Mr. McCauley recalled, the restaurant erupted in applause. So he put up the sign. Then things really got ugly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/09/national/09bakery.html?8hpib
