Children in Public

Well, it's not like we didn't have rooms for the really young babies. I think they just used the Sunday school rooms for those, because we had that before the big... preachy event? It's been a while. Plus, a lot of people with kids just left after the early morning stuff instead of sticking around for the preacher's thing. My mom did that a lot with us; me and my brother just kind of... fidgeted all the time. We weren't loud in church. We just couldn't sit still. Ours was and still is a small building. (Though I haven't been there in a while, it's pretty close to my house.)

I think lots of public places should be child-banned. I already pay out of the ass on taxes to support America's youth, why should I have to deal with them when I go to a nice restaurant or movie theater (Okay, neither of those happen, but you get my point).

{Off-topic flame-baiting removed. —Madrugada}

edited 18th Feb '12 6:13:28 AM by Madrugada

Let's say I've been to restaurants and saw kids almost getting themselves cooked by boiling water because they bumped into a waiter when running around playing.

What

edited 17th Feb '12 10:35:50 PM by IraTheSquire

None of this has anything to do with Republicans, socialism, or politics in general. It's just a discussion about how children behave in public and what can be done to prevent annoyance to other people.

Yeah, I'm really not sure what to make of that post...

Some public places are child-banned, and I think that that's OK, but there should always be plenty of places where children are fully welcome. Families need to have somewhere to go.

Obviously, parents should keep their kids well behaved wherever they go, but children should be allowed in most places. 'No children' should never become the default. If people don't like kids generally then there are places they can go.

With Arla here.

I don't think I have ever, in my whole life, encountered a scene of a child "acting out" or anything along those lines. I've heard toddlers scream in supermarkets, but those are toddlers, you can't blame them from being young and stupid.

Whenever threads like this pop up, I can't help but feel that it has more to do with culture than anything inherently present in children.

I think people are complaining because far too often they see parents that just ignore the flailing child thinking it will stop if you ignore it long enough, aka parents being standby parents instead of doing actual parenting.

Well, the thing is that sometimes ignoring the tantrum works. Some kids will stop if you don't immediately indulge their theatrics. My sister does this to an extent when her son knocks his head or something; if she doesn't freak out he won't start crying or anything. It's something you have to do consistently though. And obviously some kids will react by being even louder.

Children have a right to be in public the same as anyone else, and I say that as a devout child-hater. If they can't behave properly, they should be dealt with. I would like to have people's sensibilities loosened to the extent that I could punch a stupid kid for the same reasons I could a stupid adult (if a kid runs up and randomly hugs me, extricating myself is a potential minefield of stupidity from their parents), but it's sadly not happening.

I also am a firm believer in private places being able to restrict children from their premises, of course. Theatres don't need young children (under 7 or so) coming in to R-rated movies (even with their parents), and there should be plenty of locales where adults can mingle without kids getting in the way.

Yeah, I mean, obviously children shouldn't be allowed into an R-rated movie showing at a theater, but on the flip side, it'd be unreasonable for a theater not to let children into G-rated movies unless the whole selling point of the theater was 'NO KIDS ALLOWED' - which is actually something I can see happening and would have no problem with. Obviously the theater wouldn't be getting the profit that would come from families, but a small theater in a large population center might be able to get by on the people who'd want a guarantee of no potentially ill-behaved children disturbing the movie.

I don't think it's at all reasonable to ban children from public places or even to expect all children to be perfect angels. To be a child is to be part of a learning process, and part of that process is learning to be patient and not make unneeded scenes in public. Very small children most likely don't even have the capacity to understand how distracting they can be to others. On the flip side, businesses certainly have the right to either ban children entirely or set aside special child-free times. While I love children, sometimes going to a place where they won't be is the best way to get some peace and quiet. And even parents need breaks!