Al
While spouse and I don’t have kids by choice, almost all our good friends do. We don’t dislike them, just don’t want to take ’em home. The children of our friends, almost all, are a joy to be around and we make time to do things with them, even if it involves at times, a restaurant! Judiciously chosen, a time frame well established and rules followed have created kids who are cool to hang out with; similar to rules people mentioned above.
I had an interesting experience at a local coffee house this weekend with children of, sort of, the opposite bent. While talking with a friend at said coffee house, table with at least three adults and, I think 3-4 kids (I couldn’t keep track), were at the other end. It all started well and good. However, by the end of the hour three of the kids had progressed to full-out-sprinting across the place, oblivious to people carring hot drinks and other objects that could do damage. They also appropriated the entire couch area, using the couch to jump on, use as a balance beam (yes, they were walking/running across the back of it) and yelling almost the whole time. The parents were oblivious to all this. Why is that? Did they not know how obnoxious it was? It seemed incredible that one of their progeny racing across a coffee shop would not at least catch an eye…especially as customers were trying to enter in and order drinks/food. Just amazing. It didn’t ruin my morning, I was more astounded by the lack of “limits” set by the parents, even allowing for the causual nature of a coffee shop.