Family Friendly

"Family Friendly" - Loosely translated, it means you have no reasonable expectation of a quiet meal. People will bring their children and turn them loose. They are free to run around flailing their arms like windmills. They can scream. They can beat the table with silverware. And no one will say anything to them or to the parents who are ignoring them. (This is bad enough on a regular day, but when you're suffering with the aftermath of a root canal, it's nearly intolerable.) And mind you, it wasn't even the same child. It was coming from all directions!

I've always been a proponent of taking children out to eat. How will they know how to act in a restaurant if no one ever takes them? The problem is that too many parents are taking them, but not teaching them how to behave in a restaurant (or any other public place).

It was not always so. My mother had a "look". She didn't even need to say anything. That look was enough to let you know you'd better stop whatever it was you were doing. When my son was little, I tried to have a look. I'm not certain it was successful, but I did have words. When looking at him didn't work, I told my son  to stop obnoxious and annoying behavior, particularly in public. And I know that my son and his wife do not tolerate bad behavior from my grandchildren. When they were toddlers, if they were having meltdowns they were taken out of the restaurant. My daughter-in-law's philosophy was that it was unfair to inflict their screaming on other diners. It seems to have worked because we can take them anywhere, including places that are not "family friendly" and not worry about their behavior.

But I fear her philosophy is not shared by most moms. I was having lunch last week with my Bible Study group and there was a table with a man, a woman, and two little girls. One of the little girls was so well behaved, you almost didn't realize she was there. But the other one screamed, twisted her face up, shoved food in her mouth with her hands and pounded the table. Both children appeared to be about the same age - maybe five or six. All of us were fighting the urge to go to that table and offer some unsolicited parenting advice, or perhaps a good old-fashioned whack. Probably not Christ-like behavior. But it's hard to imagine our Lord welcoming the little children if they behaved like that one. Anyway, perhaps the child had a medical condition. Perhaps it was possessed by a demon. Who am I to judge? But I would ask parents not to inflict their child's bad behavior on complete strangers.