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| This is what you want at the next table when you would like a quiet night of dining |
Sometimes an item comes across the news that just seems so right that you want to shout as loud as you can:
HALLELUJAH!
Hey, I like kids just like most other people. But man oh man, how many times have you been in a restaurant with a screaming kid throwing a hissy fit? I would bet that everyone has experience the unpleasantness of putting out big money for a night of fine dining only to experience someone else's selfishness in not obtaining a babysitter and bringing their children to a restaurant. The kid doesn't want to be there and the other diners don't want the kid there. Sure, everyone thinks their kid is the cutest and everyone would love to see your miracle with ten fingers and ten toes but those parents just got a reality check from Mike Vuick's restaurant, McDain's in Monroeville, PA. Mr. Vuick has banned children under the age of six from dining his restaurant.
I say to Mr. Vuick:
I say to Mr. Vuick:
YOU GO BROTHER!
Here is what the Huffington Post had to say about this common sense move:
McDain's Restaurant of Monroeville, PA has had it with noisy kids. In an email sent to customers, owner Mike Vuick wrote, "Beginning July 16, 2011, McDain's Restaurant will no longer admit children under six years of age. We feel that McDain's is not a place for young children. Their volume can't be controlled and many, many times, they have disturbed other customers."
Vuick believes that although kids may be at the center of their parents' universe, they aren't at the center of everyone else's too.
This isn't the first time that restaurants have banned children; former Top Chef contestant Dale Levitsky banned kids from brunch at his restaurant and eateries around the world have similar policies.
Worth noting: There is no law preventing restaurants from banning children. But, restaurants cannot ban senior citizens because they are in a protected class under the law.
Let's hope many other restaurants now take up this practice. And yes, I have been in a restaurant with a baby in a basket on the table next to me who had to have his/her diaper changed. The whole extended family was there: Mom and Pop, Grandmom and Grandpop and the two other children; an eight year old boy and a ten year old girl. After the baby (who had to be all of a month old) screamed for what seemed like a half an hour, grandmom finally changed the diaper...right there on the table in the basket!
Yes folks, I witnessed it. As a result of this egregious behavior I instituted a new Ron Rule: if I'm in restaurant and someone sit a basket with a baby in it near me, I cancel my meal and leave. I've done it and I'll do it again.
