The owners of Grant Central Pizza, an Atlanta Georgia restaurant, have banned crying kids, asking patrons to “tend to their crying tots outside”.
Dear all present and future patrons: GCP is proud of its reputation as a family restaurant, a title that we will work to keep. Unfortunately a number of our diners have posted unpleasant experiences because of crying and unsupervised children. To ensure that all diners have an enjoyable lunch or dinner with us we respectfully ask that parents tend to their crying tots outside.
According to Bites, The owner says he’s “still in favor of kids visiting his restaurant”, but that he was forced to enact an official policy on crying after customers complained about noise.
I get lots of emails asking for family friendly places, and some emails asking for restaurants that families don’t frequent. It’s been a common issue raised in comments. What do you think? Should you be asked to take your crying children outside?
What about running wild around the place as if it were a playground? That’s ok at this place?
Oh, the story I could tell!
I used to live in Atlanta, and I’ve eaten at Grand Central Pizza. They’re going to lose a lot of business with this.
Well, you should already KNOW to take your crying child outside but since that seems to be knowledge that not every parent has these days then I say fine. Tell them to go outside if it’s really that disturbing. A little whimper or yelp, no, but screaming and long run cries? That’s annoying for everyone. Fortunately, my kid is past the crying in restaurant phase, but every parent experiences the public meltdown. Just take them outside to chill out.
Dined in a nice restaurant on Sunday afternoon where a screeching child a few tables away was allowed to continue this abhorrent behavior for the entire meal. The unsupervising parents should have been shown the door along with the child, who apparently had never been educated or admonished for inappropriate public behavior. And which made the meal a miserable experience for the other diners.
It’s not a nice restraurant. It’s a pizza joint.
Ahh, I see, so pizza joint patrons should be able to tolerate a screaming child, right? Are there other types of restaurants that should be added to your “it’s OK for your kid to scream at the top of his/her lungs” list? I think it’s bad parenting all the way around, and it doesn’t freakin’ matter what type of restaurant it is IMHO.
Amen, JandJ! There is a certain age, which varies from case to case, at which a child can be taken to public places like restaurants without being a nuisance, and before that age, it’s the parents’ responsibility to keep their precious little centers of the universe from driving the rest of us nuts, be it in a “nice restaurant,” a pizza joint, the farmers’ market, or wherever (and yes, this includes “family friendly” establishments such as HUB). While there are still parents reasonable enough to recognize this, there are also those who seem to have reproduced their outsized senses of entitlement along with their genes…
I totally agree. The problem is that parents now (children of boomers and their children) believe that I’m supposed deal with their screaming brats in public. Whatever happened to a babysitter? If you can’t afford one then eat at home.
Pizza joint or fine dining, parents should have some manners to understand if the kid is crying. We have this serious problem at my restaurant, and understand how a Restauranteur feels.
Parents are brain dead when it comes to the whining and screeching…….I once offered to take someones child outside so the rest of my family could finish a celebratory meal in peace. One of the parents whisked that baby out so fast! They were so use to the noise it was lost on them. Management should step up, better to lose one table than have six more not want to come back.
Unfortunately some parents think their spawn can do no wrong & that only they can decide how to handle junior.
But for taming even the most terrible tempestuous tots in public spots, I suggest half a valium & a glass of red wine …a tried-and-true remedy guaranteed to calm the raging baby beast.
No, you shouldn’t have to ask me to take my crying child outside because I should already be on my way out the door! My husband and I take our 2 yr old to restaurants and work to make sure he doesn’t disrupt everyone else’s meal. Yes, it takes dedication/effort to teach him not to misbehave, but that’s my job.
I salute mothers like you!!
As do I!
Bill Mahar was talking about this on “Late Night”. His best line was, “Wow, can a restaurant win the Nobel Prize?”
Mahar has never been funny to me….I do not know the context or flow in which he delivered it, but it sounds clunky.
I regularly have to ask people to take a crying child outside. I used to think they are just entitled assholes, but the more of it I see and the more genuinely surpised reactions I get to me confronting them, the more I think parents aren’t being entitled assholes. They are being oblivious assholes.
that said, I kind of relish having to ask them to take their kid outside. 80% of the time I get a 25%+tip from them….I assume out of embarrassment. Damn good thing their reparation payments still spend like normal money.
Nick-
I have kids and when they cry I deal with them in a responsible manner. Sometimes I can’t shut them up. I choose not to do anything because I know the only ones getting upset about it are jerks.
No, Matt, I’m neither kidless nor an ass (well I think not anyway), but I also would prefer eating a meal without a screaming child in the background. Having children doesn’t change that perspective. Your responsibility to the people around is to do a lot more than sit and watch if your child is out of control. Next step is take them outside until they quiet down.
Matt, I presume this is a joke because not shutting your noisy kids up is the definition of irresponsibility in your aforementioned example. To say that the “only” people who would get upset at a crying kid in a restaurant are jerks is about as idiotic as saying you are a responsible parent for allowing that to happen. It’s probably not your fault though. Maybe your own parents raised you to have such a smug sense of entitlement by allowing you to cry endlessly in restaurants.
@themick: Thank you. Couldn’t have said it better myself!
Our Facebook page (Fun Things to do in Portland with a Baby) posted a list of family-friendly restaurants last year, if anyone is interested in such a list. We hope to update it soon in the coming months!
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=191865390838219
Ah–America. You pay for it you get it. You have a crying child but paid for the seat, then let them cry, crawl, run, whine all you want!
It is a trade off: you get to do less now because you have a child, but you have someone to change your depends when you are older and recite your eulogy later. In the mean time suck it up, stay home and know you get it later. Let the rest of us bound for nursing homes live it now. Can’t have it both ways even if you pay for it.
Definitely part of it is becoming oblivious to the noise and having a higher level of tolerance as a parent, sometimes knowing that it’s only going to last for 30 seconds tops (until you get that bottle into the baby’s mouth) but it’s also being an oblivious, entitled person.
Absolutely ask them to take the crying kid outside if it lasts longer than 30 seconds (and that’s an eternity in a restaurant). This can be done politely. I think the parents for the most part will actually thank you, as it will also signal to the kid that crying in a restaurant is not acceptable.
Everybody wins!
I say this as a parent who has been on both sides of this: quickly getting my crying kid out of a restaurant and having to grit my teeth and listen to other people’s kids cry in restaurants. No one wants to hear it.
I don’t care if I am dining on the dollar menu at a McDonalds, if your brat won’t shut up, as a PARENT YOU need to deal with this and not let the rest of the people who don’t need to give a damn about your little brat a chance to enjoy the “ambiance” of their McMeals in peace…
If an adult made the same noise in a public place, they would be kicked out and potentially arrested.
Seen…not heard.
If a child is clearly having a meltdown…then yes, take them somewhere so they can calm down. However I am sick and tired of adults having meltdowns of their own if a child breaths in their direction. Talking, happy squeals (in kiddos that are not verbal yet), all that stuff should not be problem but I get the feeling that if a child makes any noise at all, people get their panties in a bunch with this seen and not heard nonsense. I hear adults all the time laughing and being louder than I might like but I don’t go and shush them.
Nobody is talking about happy squeals…..oh you must have the crying child……your panties in a knot?? Key word is ADULTS!!
Yes, parents who are so ignorantly selfish to not do it on their own should be told to do so, not asked. Wish more people would pipe up to oblivious, bad parents…fellow customers, not just management.