Dining and whining
You said it. And you said it well [“I’m A Grown Adult Who Flees the Sound of a Child’s Voice,” Feb. 24, by Ross Werland]. My question is, Why do parents let their children wander at will through a nice restaurant? Or bellow at the top of their lungs? If they didn’t want the child to eat at the table with them, why didn’t they get a sitter and leave it at home? Oh, wait, I forgot, they ran out of sitters because they haven’t taught their child how to behave.
I have often asked to be seated elsewhere when a host or hostess wants to deposit me next to a cluster of mommies and daddies with offspring. I’ve offended my own daughter by refusing to dine in any restaurant with her children.
Put them in the old smoking section? Nah, put them out on the patio, weather be damned!
— Sheila DiUlio, Vernon, Wis.
My 6-year-old and I were dining at the Nordstrom cafe yesterday for lunch and were seated next to a table of five, including two children who were about 8 and 10 years old (boy and girl, respectively). Not only did they shout, eat with their hands (salad), hit and scream — at one point they were on the floor wrestling under the table. Of course, the women who were surrounding them did nothing but ignore their juvenile antics.
My son, a boy who travels via airplane more than most adults and can assimilate at both Chuck E. Cheese’s and the Ritz-Carlton with ease, looked at me and said, “Mum, those kids are not very well behaved.” We both sighed with relief when they finally left.
So it is not just the parents of grown children — it is the children too — who sometimes need the non-shrieking section in order to enjoy a meal.
— Jennifer Pembroke, Glen Ellyn
I must say that I was highly disappointed in your article regarding children in public restaurants. My two children are my husband’s and my life, and we take them with us almost everywhere we go. Children are a part of our society, and they learn from everyone around them.
I am surprised that, as a father of two, you do not have the understanding and patience for children. I think your article would have been more appropriate had you addressed the underlying problem: Parents aren’t disciplining their children and are not teaching them proper social skills.
I understand your point that it can be frustrating when a child is out of hand in a public place where you are trying to relax and enjoy food and drink. I don’t get upset with the child. I tend to get upset at the parents’ lack of control and knowing when to take a child away from a table for a break or change of scene.
I thought your article made you seem like a crabby old man. Your idea of cattling families into certain sections of public places are very similar to the ideas of having separate schools, drinking fountains and bathrooms for blacks and whites. Don’t you believe in equality for all, including families?
— Melissa Neyfeldt, Cary
Leaping double
I am the mother of Alexis and Francis Szot, a set of leap twins who burst into the world the year of the millennium [“4 Times the Fun,” Feb. 24, by Nancy Watkins]. I call them my millennium leap twins. They were not supposed to be born till March 31 but insisted on being born on this very special day! [In non-Leap Years] we normally celebrate on March 1 since I feel technically this is the day after the 28th; however, I do find myself starting to celebrate with them on the 28th throughout the 1st.
They have a baby sister who just celebrated her second birthday, and we like to harass them about the fact that she has been alive for a shorter time, yet she is officially older than them. They get a big kick out of it.
— Deanne Henle, Plano
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q@tribune.com
