Natural Progression

I just read an article about places banning children.  It made it sound like this is a terrible thing to do, but I've seen it coming for a long time, and, I love children!

We've come a long way from the idea that children should be seen and not heard and that is a good thing.  However, as is usually the case, we have gone way too far over the other way.  I was in a restaurant at a party not too long ago where two young boys were so rowdy they actually threw a shoe into the cake!  Their mother and grandmother didn't seem particularly concerned at all.  I've been other places where junior hangs over the booth into the next booth and the people pretend to think it's cute, but that cuteness wears thin fast when you go out to eat and cannot escape someone else's child.

We all make the mistake of trying to be polite and understanding while unruly children scream on planes, talk during movies, run through restaurants and their parents mistakenly believe we love them so much that we all think it is cute.  Nobody else's child is that cute after a minute or two.

Now, because parents are unable to set limits for their own children and find a way to be considerate of other people who are out trying to enjoy themselves, restaurants, theaters, airplanes and even stores are stepping in and no one really minds at all - except the parents who are slowly going mad because they can never escape the children they are bringing up to be loud and rude and annoying.

It isn't necessary for children to behave this way.  Of course infants will sometimes cry, but we used to get up and walk away with ours if we were in a public place.  And older children can be entertained and taught to do more appropriate things than the ones who are driving folks to create these bans.

Let's not blame this on curmudgeonly others.  Let's put the blame where it belongs, on inconsiderate, unconscious parents.