Kids Not Welcome

Forget the phony 'War on Women' that left wing nuts cry about. There is a real war going on in some restaurants in the U.S. It might be called a 'War on Kids' because in some restaurants they are unwelcome. Two examples of the War on Kids can illustrate why some like the war and others are not enthused. In the first case it is a "no kids allowed" policy that has heads turned.

An upscale Italian restaurant in Mooresville, N.C. is receiving plenty of criticism and even more praise on social media after banning children under the age of five. Yoshi Nunez, the manager of Caruso’s restaurant, decided to implement the policy after a little girl was reportedly using an iPad with the volume on high in the dining room. Her parents refused to turn it down after wait staff requested them to lower the volume on the device. Hmmmm That may be a case of spoiled, clue less parents, not bad kids.

The restaurant finally asked the parents to leave (with their brat), to the pleasure of the other diners in the restaurant. That motivated the place to start the no kids under the age of five allowed policy, and since implementing the ban, the restaurant says they have seen a dramatic increase in reservations, and a spike in diners from about 50 to 80 per day. Many diners have thanked the owners and said there were many others who wanted a place that was kid free. The restaurant has no children's menu available and that proper attire is required of all guests in the dining. Wow! Maybe public civility is trying to make a comeback. Restaurants in Houston, Pennsylvania and California have all implemented similar bans and there is a new trend that started in Italy is of rewarding the parents of kids who behave well at restaurant dining tables with meal discounts on their kid's meals.

Another example of restaurant "kids must behave" policies is that of  giving parents dining at the eatery with kids a rule card about proper table manners when they get seated. Cuchara, a Mexican restaurant located in the suburbs of Houston, has been handing out illustrated cards to families that come in to dine. The colorful card shows a happy family eating with text below that reads: "Children at Cuchara don't run or wander around the restaurant. They stay seated and ask their parents to take them to the rest room. They don't scream, throw tantrums or touch the walls, murals, windows or other patrons. They are respectful!" The restaurant  said "enough with unsupervised kids" after it suffered $1500 in damage when a child scratched one of its walls which feature hand painted murals by Mexico City artist Cecilia Beaven.

So far, the restaurant says the reaction to the cards has been overwhelmingly positive. The owner estimates that only 3 of more than 200 diner responses to the card policy have been negative. The other 197 applauded and said it was way overdue. I suspect kids behave so badly in public these days because of poor parenting or lack of attention by parents to guiding their children's' behavior. It used to be that parents took pride when their children behaved well. Now many seem not to care how they behave as long as it doesn't bring inconvenience to the parents themselves.