We've all seen that kid. Screaming, having a tantrum, talking back, making a scene. It's always awkward, and it's even more so when the parent either doesn't do anything, or worse, screams back. This post is not about that.
More often than not when I go out to eat and my almost-3 year old is along, I get treated shabbily. This has happened in various combinations: My hubby, son and I together were passed over for seating for almost an hour, before we said something and were begrudgingly given a seat at a local family steakhouse, where my boy went on to charm our server and the families sitting near us. The 3 of us plus my best friend, her hubby, and daughter once went to a somewhat nicer Italian restaurant, and were treated like second class diners by our server, who did not hide her irritation with us and our kids BEFORE WE EVEN SAT DOWN. The manager took care of business though after noticing we were not happy campers. My BF and I took our kids out to eat during a shopping excursion and were seated in a hidy-hole corner like we were lepers. Neither of our kids have ever had a screaming melt-down crying fit of any sort during these times. I take it all servers expect all little guys to act like the above mentioned hellions, then preemptively ignore and/or mistreat those tables without waiting to see what kind of table it's going to be. I wish all those servers and the one random hostess could have seen what I saw on Saturday.
I took Edward to his first big Easter egg hunt at a pastor's house. The teenagers hid the eggs for the younger crowd, and left lots of eggs in plain view for the under-3 set. The toddlers went out to hunt first while the other little kids heard the Easter story. It was great fun as my son and all the other munchkins carried their baskets and picked up eggs from the ground. No tantrums, no trying to grab each other's eggs. Then the older-little kids came out, and every single one of them walked right past where the easy eggs were "hidden" and the little guys were toddling around picking them up. Not one of them stopped to get an easily-placed egg. It's like they just all automatically knew to let the toddlers have their fun, and they would walk til they spotted harder to find eggs. Nobody compared baskets, nobody cried because they hadn't found a special prize egg, nobody tried to knock down anybody else. Everyone was just so happy to be there. It seriously could not have been a better experience. That many kids plus candy and excitement and no behavior problems? Incredible.
Because I know what I know, that my boy can behave in public, and so can all these other kids, I'm going to keep doing what I do. Maybe through our actions, we can turn the tide of this discriminatory attitude that people have towards parents with small children. I know the hunt on Saturday wasn't an anomaly. I believe we outnumber the occasional public temper tantrum thrower. Who's with me?
3 comments:
I can't believe they treated you that way! That's awful! I've seen my fair share of tantrums in public, but it's not right to judge any family that way UNTIL there really is a tantrum. There have been plenty of times when I've been out and seen families with toddlers and thought nothing of it except "Oh my word! How cute are you?!" It's the very rare occasion that you encounter a hellion with parents who either don't care or are equally hellish, and, unfortunately, those are the ones that leave an impression. :/
Go, girl. Start a movement.
totally with you!!! glad you posted on it, its so silly to discriminate against children and mother's that way. I've seen adults give bigger tantrums in public and they are excepted in the public domain. Even if a child were to throw a tantrum, how is a parent ever supposed to teach their child how to behave in public, if they are not welcomed out and about. Its a part of the learning process as a whole. I understand not bringing your child to a fancy restaurant on a Saturday night, but seriously, can we not grab a nice meal with our children? Also, it must be said that the poor service and rude attitude, is more likely to cause a tantrum, when, as per the situation at the Italian place, you keep us waiting for 2 hours!!!! Wouldn't you want to offer quick, efficient, quality service to get us out of there, if you dislike us that much?
Good job Jess! this is actually b, not Sam, I was just already logged on as him
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