OK, I'm a curmudgeon {rant}

[atavar]

I am officially a curmudgeon!  It annoys the crap out of me that I cannot even go to a bar for lunch anymore without peoples untended little kids having races up and down the aisles and coming over and handling stuff at *my* table like extra silverware or the salt and pepper dispensers.  When I tell the parents to control their kids I am somehow the bad guy and I am supposed to put up with their brats because "they have a legal right to be there".. 
They do not have a legal right to interfere with my dining or drinking.  I think from now on when the kids start running around i am going to start telling dirty jokes and using lots of four letter words very loudly, or maybe I'll start leaving shots of whiskey at the edge of the table where the kids can reach them.

Let's bring back smoking in bars so people will stop bringing their snot-nosed ankle biters to drinking places.  What on earth gives parents the idea that a drinking establishment is an appropriate venue for little kids anyway?

Don't get me wrong, I love kids and I have a lot of fun around kids, but undisciplined screaming brats running amok while I am trying to relax really raises my stress level. A colicky one year old screaming does not bother me at all, they are making noise for a reason.  A whining crying four year old trying to get the attention they think they deserve just annoys the crap out of me. 
I have a curse.  It is pretty much guaranteed that if I go to a bar or a restaurant the hostess will try to seat me right next to the whining four year old. 

I guess I am going to have to start eating lunch in strip clubs, or are people bringing their kids to those too these days?

okay, end of rant.. 

[rocker59]

Isn't there a law against that?

No, seriously, doesn't Sioux Falls have a law noting that children under a certain age are barred from bars?

[atavar]

Not if the bar serves food, then you can bring your brats in and let them run free unsupervised so long as the management allows it.

Parents - get a clue!!  Bad people go to bars, they could do bad things to your kids when you let the kids run around unmanaged.  Drunks are not known for being tolerant.. 

[twhitaker]

Tolerant? When I was a drinker I was very tolerant. Sometimes it would take close to 24 beers to get me 'drunk'.  :BEER:  ;D

[atavar]

Tolerant? When I was a drinker I was very tolerant. Sometimes it would take close to 24 beers to get me 'drunk'.  :BEER:  ;D

Yeah, and what would have happened when a kid ran over to your table and took your beer or your french fries?    :food :wife:

[sib]

Carry a small sign and put it on your table:  "Caution, HIV positive, herpes positive, bowel incontinence, child friendly."  You won't be bothered by ankle biters.

[Spuddy]

Ask management to install a playground (outside) for the little tikes.

[atavar]

Ask management to install a playground (outside) for the little tikes.

in the mood I'm in i feel there is already a playground outside for them..  with a curb on either side of it and white lines in the middle..   **C

[Rich A]

I remember a thread once on a different board where someone asked if the Sturgis rally was a good place to bring kids. One person responded that they thought the kids would enjoy "Titty alley."

Rich A

[Guzzistajohn]

I think I'd ask the parents, WTF do you think this is a daycare? What kind of a nimrod takes thier kids to a bar?? And aren't bars supposed to be smoky? Like the song says, Dim lights, thick smoke and loud, loud music! :BEER: :BEER: :BEER:

[Moto Fugazzi]

I work in a retail store with expensive and delicate electronics. Parents just let their kids run around and touch everything with their cheato-crusted fingers, or what ever junk food they give them these days. Then the parents get all pissy when you politely ask them to keep an eye on the kids.

When did it become acceptable to bring coffee, food, or other open bottle items into retail stores? I'm sick of cleaning fluids from our carpet, not to mention hamburger wrappers off of the merchandise.

How about those people that get the roller dogs from the gas station and start eating before they pay? Then they lick the ketchup off of their fingers just before handing the cashier money. When they drive off, they have a hot dog in one hand, and cell phone in the other.
Ken

[travelingbyguzzi]

And keep 'em off my lawn, too!

[Lannis]

And keep 'em off my lawn, too!

We need a stick-shaking emoticon.   "You damn kids, why, I ought ....."

[Guzzistajohn]

Get away from me kid, you're buggin me! >:(

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Let's hear it for the curmudgeons among us.  I can agree with most of what he complains about although
 I have seen very little of it here.  It seems that here in my part of Hawaii, parents usually teach their kids to not do those things to people.
 I saw a lot more of it in the 48 than here.

[Guzzistajohn]

Kids today........I'll tell you what!     How many generations have said that?

[Chuck in Indiana]

The answer's simple. Move to Indiana. Kids aren't allowed in bars. That's why we always eat in one.

[lucydad]

Ata,

I hear you man.  Try darker, grimier bars?  I know one in Casper, WY called the Beacon Club.
Another favorite is the Bush Company in Anchorage, AK.  My hometown of Durango, CO has a couple real dives...

[krglorioso]

I think I'd ask the parents, WTF do you think this is a daycare? What kind of a nimrod takes thier kids to a bar?? And aren't bars supposed to be smoky? Like the song says, Dim lights, thick smoke and loud, loud music! :BEER: :BEER: :BEER:

You're behind the curve.  The words now are, "Dim lights, thick smoke and loud, loud children". 

I totally agree with the OP.  Karen and I go out to eat and have a quiet meal.  Children that are not supervised have spoiled many such meals and I don't long suffer in silence.  Why should I?

Ralph

[balvenie]

           Don't waste your money on whiskey shots. Try rat traps instead ~;

[Lannis]

Yep,society is collapsing down around us and we are helpless to prevent the complete disintegration of modern civilization . Or maybe we are just a bunch of grouchy old men that can't remember what we acted like as children  :o Dunno  ;)

  Dusty

I can promise you that neither I nor my siblings ever acted like that.   Behaving in public was one of the first things I ever learned, and it was backed up with negative reinforcement in the shape of leather belts and fly swatters.

Same when we raised our boys.   Matter of fact, we used to have people come to our table and congratulate us for having such well-behaved children.   I do the same thing today when I see children behaving well in public.   Good POSITIVE reinforcement for the parents and the folks around them.

Lannis

[Vasco DG]

Our local, the Royal, is a 'Family Friendly' pub but there are rules. No kids in the front bar, legally no kids in the Pokie room, and in the back bar all kids have to be supervised at all times and it is generally well enforced by both parents and staff. Generally, in summer. Most kids are out the back in the large and accomodating beer garden or in the restaurant.

The one time things tend to unravel a bit is Friday evenings between five and seven. There is a particular type of patron who only appears once a week and will come down with their young kids and they then think that if they go to the restaurant for Chinese it's perfectly OK to allow their loathsome spawn, usually equipped with a packet of chips, to run around annoying the shit out of everybody else!

Because Friday evenings are also always busy sometimes the staff are too busy to immediately do anything and it's then Jude and I don our 'Grumpy Little Old Person' personas and growl and scowl. 95% of the time the ill-disciplined little bastards will run whimpering off back to their parents. On a couple of occasions Mum or Dad has come out of the restaurant to 'Have Words' about 'Frightening' little Troy or Samantha, we shrug and point out it's an adult place and its up to them to make sure their kids aren't annoying any of the adults. If they have an issue? That's the landlord/bar manager over there. Take it up with him and we'll see who gets asked to leave. Oddly enough this always makes them STFU! Quite often they don't come back! The publican Scot and Sunny the restauranteur don't care as people like that rarely buy more than one, usually soft, drink and are pain in the arse complainers when it comes to food. They or their horrible sprogs will always have 'Special' needs that make cooking for them a nightmare, they always question the bill and never tip! I'm surprised Ling hast come boiling out of the kitchen with a cleaver sometimes! ;D

At other times there are often several kids in the back bar area and it is rare for them to cause problems. Oddly enough the kids of the 'High-Viz' crowd are generally much better behaved than those of the 'Proffesional/Deskbound' classes...........

Pete

PS like Lannis we tend to compliment people on their well behaved children. Yes, every family will have 'Bad' days but with some people the problem is systemic.

[Penderic]

Years ago I had dinner with friends in Kitchener Ontario, at a large family restaurant packed with local people, many with young children, all dressed neatly, well behaved and almost totally silent.

I think it was a large religious group of relatives/friends celebrating with a night out. Their kids were perfectly behaved, polite and quite.

I thought I lost my hearing it was so quiet.

[Lannis]

Yep  Lannis, we were all perfect well behaved children , as were all of our brothers, sisters,cousins,and friends . Yep , no fist fights , stealing candy from the 5 & Dime , never threw water balloons at cars , never terrorized the hood on motorbikes , by damn , we were all just perfect  ::) Heck , my perfect little cousin , big baseball star , pride of his parents , Grannie's favorite , why he simply didn't buy those girly mags and hid them under his bed , and when his mom found them , he didn't tell her he was storing them for a friend of mine , a known hoodlum . Why my Aunt even warned me not to hang around that hoodlum friend of mine , why he made her son hide them dirty books for her perfect little boy  :o ::)

  Dusty

As you knew before you even posted this silly over-the-top sarcasm, I never claimed perfection nor anything near it.  

But it IS a fact that us kids never behaved in a public place as the OP described.    We each threw ONE tantrum in the grocery store at about age 3 and that was it.   The outcome was too painful to try it ever again.

I never stole candy from any store, never threw a water balloon at a car, and always asked permission of the landowners before riding my trail bike anywhere I didn't own.

It's not true that everything in the world is just OK because we're all just as bad and we shouldn't throw stones.   Some people and their kids ARE, in fact, insensitive, anti-social a$$holes and it's OK to say that without any self-flagellation, because we try our best not to be that way.

Lannis

[Red07]

Yea, I can't believe people  let their kids run wild, screaming and hollering in a public place.  It friggin drives me nuts.  The parents seem to act oblivious to the noise and commotion.  

We have a favorite bar/grill that we like to go to that serves the "best" burgers.  (3 pound triple anyone?). The owner has a sign hanging for all to see when you walk in the door.  It tells parents that they need to watch their children,  running and hollering not allowed, or will be asked to leave.  When he does ask customers to leave, they raise hell, and of course he's the ass.  Oh well.

Randy

[Lannis]

Actually Lannis , most of that over the top sarcasm is true , and yes , my Mom or Grandfather never let me be a little helion in public . My beef is with the idea that this generational , always been antisocial types , always will be .

  Dusty

I agree.   However, I don't think that the OP is claiming that this sort of behavior is anything new; just that it gets more annoying the more of it you see.   Me personal, I don't see enough of it to bother me.   I lot of it I can just "turn off" because after all, I'm out in public and I'm should expect a sampler of everything that people do.

I was eating breakfast in a little down-home place in our town last week, and a guy my age came in with his father.   Overalls, JD cap, brogans, normally the salt-of-the-earth type.   I don't know if the old man was ALWAYS like this, or whether Altzheimer's or something was affecting him,  but he had the loudest, foulest mouth of anyone I've ever heard lately.   If Fay had been there, I'd have got up and walked out; you couldn't say anything, because the old dude was combative and aggressive.   Makes you glad a man's home is his castle!

Lannis

[old as dirt 2]

let the owner/manager know of your issues and ask them to correct the situation that the parents need to control underage patrons. Let them know if they don't you'll be happy to spend your money elsewhere.

[Guzzistajohn]

And now for a different twist on curmudgeonisim, stand by for two old farts giving each other crap on that internet machine thing ;D

[oldbike54]

 Kev m , when did I say bad behavior is acceptable . Dang , well mannered kids are a joy and parents that teach their children to be sweet natured and to not act out are to be commended . That is a great picture of Seamus , is he sorting those crackers in order of size or color ? :D

  Dusty

[oldbike54]

And now for a different twist on curmudgeonisim, stand by for two old farts giving each other crap on that internet machine thing ;D

 Quiet young 'en  ;D

  Dusty