Family restaurants are always too noisy, because there's always someone that has to bring their young offspring in. You're enjoying a really tasty meal in a restaurant, sitting by the window, then all of a sudden in comes a family with about 5 little kids, all aged between 10 months and 4 (no twins, just tiny age gaps), and they drag out those special chairs for the babies, and the older kids have to sit on a normal chair. The older kids can't sit still and the parents let them run around the restaurant while they're waiting for their meal. The very oldest likes to show off, so the second oldest copies and is too little to be aware of anything it is doing and how annoying it sounds to the other people trying to enjoy their meal. The youngest is a baby, much too young to notice much at all, and is probably the quietest, just wants his or her milk. The second oldest is too young to talk, and just shouts and makes unpredictable noises. The third oldest has entered the terrible two's and is screaming because it wants to run around like it's older siblings but is strapped in a baby chair instead. This is what you normally get around where I come from. Big families with lots of kids all around the same age - and all practically babies.
It just puts me off my food, and ruins everything. I know I sound like a grouchy old woman, but I do think the old-fashioned way ''kids should be seen and not heard''.
But even in some fancy restaurants what aren't really child-friendly, people still bring their young crew along with them.
I can filter out the noise of toddlers in fast food restaurants because they're usually noisy places anyway, and people are in and out and you get all sorts that go in there, and you just kind of expect it and don't take a lot of notice. But when you choose a restaurant that looks peaceful, calm, quite expensive, but lovely food, and you just want to dine out in peace, and then a family enters with all their offspring....
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Female
28 Jun 2015, 8:22 am
