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Friday, June 2, 2006
How do you respond to crying kids in public places?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
For crying out loud, why is everybody giving Wendy L. Heath and her fussing 2- year-old child the blues?
Heath, who lives in Duluth, wrote a guest opinion column, titled Restaurant proves family-unfriendly”, in the May 26 edition of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
According to the column, Heath and her husband, along with their children ages 2 and 6, decided to eat at a restaurant located in The Mall of Georgia, in Buford. While Heath was accompanying the 6-year-old to the ladies room apparently the 2-year-old who was left at the table with her husband was crying loudly.
When Heath returned to the table she began to soothe and quiet down the crying child. While she was comforting the child, a staff member at the restaurant reported that other customers had complained and asked the family to leave the restaurant.
When Heath asked to speak to the manager, she was informed that she was speaking with was the manager. Heath says that all of this occurred within a few minutes — and she is dismayed at the zero tolerance policy towards a hungry two-year-old with a temporary lapse in deportment.
What flabbergasted me are the barrage of letters; enough to appear on both May 30 and May 31, which were overwhelmingly in support of the restaurant’s decision to eject Heath’s young family from their establishment without consideration for family circumstance.
After all, the restaurant the Heath’s visited is not an upscale place, but family style, which would imply some flexibility and success strategies in dealing with families with small children.
Heath reports that she and her family have visited restaurants as formal as Ruth’s Chris Steak House and have not been asked to leave. Moreover, having small children should not make families second-class citizens and limit their enjoyment to participate in the community.
This intolerance towards babies and small children is not limited to restaurants. Ironically many places of worship that I have visited are the most offensive and chauvinistic when it comes to their tiniest parishioners. Be truthful! How many times have we seen people look askance during a sermon because a colicky baby cries or a small child is squirming in the seat?
Yes, parents of small children should use good judgment about where they should take their offspring — especially tired, sick, and overly hungry children. Furthermore, parents with small children should expect the possibility of self-ejecting themselves from public places if their child’s behavior becomes too loud or riotous.
But, we (the public) also should strive to be more patient with parents with small children in public places. After all, every adult was once a child — and children both need and deserve the right to learn how to socialize in public by being among the public.
If we really have the concern for children that we purport to have and believe that “no child should be left behind” then let’s begin by accepting that small children should be included in public places, whenever it is reasonable to do so.
Are you willing to show more tolerance towards parents struggling with fussing small children in public places?
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