ANSWERS: 34
  • I accept that they might have no other options and only get annoyed when the child is really fussing and they don't take them outside. And, in terms of a church service, I believe children should be exposed to this as early as possible. Sometimes, it's a matter of testing the waters to see how much a child can handle.
  • Neither. I think it's fun and a loud child often spices these places up a bit. Is a parent really not supposed to take thier child to church?! Fussing and getting upset about things is an important part of cognitive and social behavioural learning, without doing these things, they don't learn how to properly interact.
  • I think if you are annoyed, just watch the parents faces... that will cheer you up and amuse + entertain you to the highest extent.
  • I don't think it's about the parents having another option or not. I believe children have every right to be in a church service as adults do. Faith should be all welcoming, and I think the people in the congregation should be pleased there are young people there who perhaps share their faith. The same goes for restaurants. Children need to eat, just because they're at a stage in their life where they don't usually behave like adults it doesn't make their behaviour ''worse'' or ''bad''. I expect the quietness of adults irritates them. So to answer your question, I don't get annoyed and I don't accept their parents may have had no other option. I accept the fact they're human beings whose behaviour is as valid as an adults.
  • I was a young yahoo once and so were my kids. Now it's someone else's turn to annoy the gerneral public. My point is, we were all children once and need to deal with it as those before us did. If people don't want to hear noisy children they should stay home.
  • It's EXTREMELY annoying! If I wanted to listen to a child scream during my date, I'd take my date to a maternity ward! It's BS because people get this selfish hair up their butts that makes them think that just because they have kids, everyone wants to hear them scream and throw food down your brand new dress. UH UH. Nope. No thanks. People always thing their little Jr. won't cry during the big scary movie, but when he does, they do nothing about it. "He's just a baby" they say. WELL THEN DON'T BRING HIM TO A 1 HOUR MOVIE, STUPID!" For the rest of us who DON'T have kids, or just want to get away from ours for an hour, it's a REALLY selfish thing for people to bring their kids to a nice restaurant, to ruin everyone else's evening. If you can't get a babysitter- reschedule. Take the selfish hair out of your butt and move on. Oh, and there's always another option. Stay home. Don't get me wrong, I love kids. But when I'm on my date and trying to hear what he's saying, I don't care to listen to little JR. cry because he wants out of his high chair. Take them to McDonalds where it's expected, not some fancy ass restaurant.
  • Doesn't bother me at all. What DOES bother me are groups of loud, obnoxious, roving teenagers with NO parental supervision whatsoever.
  • I usually feel sorry for the parents.
  • I generally don't have a problem with children being somewhere, even if they are noisy. ESPECIALLY church. I DO draw the line at things like movies, where the child is too young to understand/follow the movie. I remember going to see Jurassic Park, and had a person in the movie theater with a crying baby. They ended up being ejected. Things like a movie, where it is NOT something you NEED to go to, there is no excuse. And add to that that I do not feel that children should be allowed to run around uncontrolled ANYWHERE. I have seen this, as well. When I go to a resturant, even a family one, I detest it when some adult has a young child that is allowed to run around, yelling and such. Often this is done while the adult either ignores it, smiles at them, or does the ineffective 'Joey, stop that. You know you are not supposed to do that, stop that. Now come on, act right....' If you cannot control the child, and no, I do not mean the normal, boisterous voices and such, then you should not take them where they can bother others.
  • 1) I am a parent and our small daughter (3 1/2) *can* be noisy. Sometimes we do not have the choice, we must stay there (e.g. waiting for some official date or at the doctor). Sometimes it is also possible to talk with the people to find a solution. 2) If I have the choice, the best thing would eventually be to leave if it does not get better. I do not like annoying everybody else. 3) I would wish that all other parents would also check that they are disturbing, or react when people are complaining, but some do not. Of course, it is easier to see the errors of others than one's own errors. 4) I think also that if children were excluded from most of public life, the world would be very sad.
  • I think it is how parents raise there kids, Some parent get so fustraited that they yell and stuff that is not good that is how they act up they thing that is a way to get noticed to show there ass and I know you have to act like a little kid and act silly but you also have to mean business instead of say no you say you can not have that right now, I am sorry but if you misbehave you will not go off any more. I think it is gay when people take a buch of kids to see and r rated movie or mel gipson movie,appoclipto.
  • I have a young child who is, at times, "rambunctious". When she was a baby I took her with us to movies and restaurants. Usually I tried to plan it at a time she would be asleep. If she woke up and started crying, I ALWAYS took her out. I can't enjoy a movie or eating with a screaming child any more than anyone else can, so why mess it up for everyone else as well as myself. Now, I only take her to movies she can handle - kid movies, generally, though if we go see Simpsons, she'll probably come. I still take her to restaurants, but she is NOT allowed to get down and run around in any area with anyone else in it, unless they have specifically said it was okay with them. We often go off-hours and there aren't many people there. It makes it easier on the wait staff and on us too. The entire time she has joined us in church, except for a short stint in the nursery when she wasn't sleeping, but wasn't old enough to know what "no" meant, and definitely couldn't sit still for an hour. At this point, she "takes notes" by writing dot-to-dot letters of words we make for her, and we line out the singing for her, so she can sing along. I once missed most of a movie for her, and she's been taken out of a restaurant only once for bad behavior, and given a "time out" on a bench outside where she could yell with impunity. I don't understand parents who have badly-behaved children. It's not the kid (if it were, mine has that tendency herself) but the parenting that is at fault, and even small children can be trained to behave properly.
  • my kids are well mannered ,polite and usually no trouble at all. but they are children and this means that unless your discipline methods can be compared to Hitler or Robert Mugabe occasionally kids will play up. i like to eat in nice restaurants and do so as i see fit whether kids are there or not. unfortunately due to human rights and child protection you can't lock your kids in the basement so that they don't offend people with Victorian outlooks. kids will be kids
  • Ok here is the thing with this in my opinion. We all at one point in time were kids, we all were loud and obnixous. Perhaps our parents swatted us when we acted up who really remembers, I dont. But with 8 of us I am sure there were on more then one occasion and at some point in time my parents popped for not sitting still or being to lowd in places where it might not be so readily accepted. Now if you have ever had the chance to go to a restaurant during an early bird hour or three, you sit and listen to those seniors screaming to one another because their hearing aides are not turned up or the lack of one to begin with. These seniors with whom I give the utmost respect to, make far more noise then any yound child/tot that I have ever heard! Its true, we are born yelling, grow up yelling, and when we hit the elder years we are still yelling! lol
  • Annoyed. I can deal with it at the market, doctors sugery and most places to be honest, but not in a nice restaurant where I'm paying money to have a peaceful evening or at the cinema. I don't understand parents who take their kids to smart restaurants where the kid obviously doesn't appreciate the place in the same way as an adult or older child would. Its fine when the parents try to pacify him or her, but I hate it when they just sit there ignoring the kid and expecting you to aswell. It seems these days if you complain about a child screaming you're labelled some kind of 'kid hater' and 'spoilsport', and it obv. isn't the kids fault if he cries, its the parent responsibility. Therefore it is there repsonsibility to ensure the child behaves himself properly and doesnt bother other people. The excuse 'he's just a child' is the oldest and most useless in the book.
  • The places you mention don't bother me - you can always leave and not go there again. What does annoy me is noisy kids on long flights, I don't see why the airlines don't have a soundproofed area where they all be seated together.
  • I have a belt that i will gladly loan to anyone with a child that screams in church, in a restaurant or in a grocery store. If there is no other choice, the child should be taken to the car and let the other people continue to live peacefully. There is no other option. Please control your screaming child.
  • If you child is not old enough to understand the concept of "inside voice" and "manners", then it is not old enough to be in public places where decorum is expected. It is SIMPLE POLITENESS that you don't impose the antics of your rambunctious toddler upon others. Naturally, if I go to a Chuck E Cheese, I expect it to be full of screaming kids, and I have no right to complain about that. However, if I go to Chez Snooty for a quiet romantic dinner, or to a church to reverently and quietly pray to my Deity, I expect other people's children to BEHAVE THEMSELVES...and if they can't, it is incumbent upon the parents to take those children elsewhere until they can.
  • Noisy children in public places bother me, but they are a part of life. Their parents (I hope) are teaching their children to be respectful of others and not make unnecessary noise. They can't teach them this in a vacuum. So they have their children with them as they go through life and use all experiences as opportunities to teach. Yes, it can be rude, and there are certainly places where the parents shouldn't bring the kids. But I try to make allowances for children and the processes of growing up and learning. If someone complains to management, then the parents should take their children out of the area.
  • I get annoyed but accept it as no other option. Airplanes are the worst. Church doesn't bother me, but the one I go to (once in a while)has a room with a closed circuit monitor where a lot of parents take the kids.
  • As far as I'm concerned, the children are members of that family, and I applaud that family for doing things together. It's something we can do with a LOT more these days, as opposed to dumping your kids off on friends, family, and oftentimes paid total strangers. I have *never* had a meal "ruined" by a child acting up. Either the kid is doing something we all find genuinely hilarious, and it's dinner and a show, or I try to sympathise with the parents who are attempting to have a nice family outing that happened to fall over naptime. I *HAVE* had meals ruined by grown adults who picked a few too many selections off the wine list. There are some people who laugh like cackling witches, at the top of their lungs, at NOTHING, for an hour and a half. THAT is not something I would choose to listen to.
  • I have 3 boys who are very wild and crazy kids. Maybe not a fancy restaurant...I can agree with that one for the most part, but church? What? All are welcome except for the screaming, crying, bad behaving children? What does that say about this all loving God that people build these churches to worship? Wonder if he would agree...hummm....
  • For this reason I am so glad I live in a country where it is completely normal to take your kids out, breastfeed them where ever, and nobody thinks anything bad about it. The public transport, cafe's and resteurants in the daytime have lots of kids and nobody gives disapproving looks and nobody complains. People smile and talk to kids here.
  • If it's a baby, it annoys me but I understand the baby doesn't know any better, so it's not that bad. Once the child is old enough to realize they're being loud and disruptive it starts to make me mad and wonder what the parent's problem is.
  • Depends on the place and what kind of noise they're making. I smile when I hear laughing happy children. Not so much when they're throwing tantrums to get what they want and have no regard for others around them. McDonalds is fine, that's to be expected. A fancy sophisticated and/or romantic restaurant, NO! Some places are not kid friendly. It's like some parents are snobby and think their child(ren) are better than others, so it's 'fine' for their 'angels who can't do any wrong' to do what they want in public. Don't get me wrong, I don't agree with the 'sit down and shut up' kind of parenting, but I don't agree with the opposite side either: letting your kids run rampant because they're 'kids, and they're learning, and if you repress them, they'll be screwed up' blah blah. As for church? It's great for kids to go to church, I was taken to church for as long as I can remember; but my parents made sure I knew how to conduct myself when I was there. It's a place of worship and respect. You don't scream or throw tantrums, bother others, run up and down the aisles, etc. (I understand if there's a colicly baby, but not a 7 year old). I remember once in church when I was about 13, there was this little 2 or 3 year old tyke who was running up and down the aisles, yelling, poking at people in their pews, and at one point, even went up on the altar where the priest was administering the church service; he actually had to stop and ask over the mic for the parents to come up and take the child back to his seat because of the disruption. I can't imagine sitting in church and letting my child run rampant like that! It's church! It's SO disrespectful. It's not a playroom in McDonalds for God's sake. I think the bottom line here is respect and being aware of other people around you and 'putting yourself in their shoes'.
  • Oh damn do I get annoyed!!!!! Even on the subway which is not a quiet place, I get so annoyed at those noisy kids making all that racket.....no matter what!
  • I only get annoyed when the parents do not realise that their children are being noisy and disruptive, and the parents are clearly not training them to respect their enviroment. For example, in church, they can bring a selection of toys or quiet activities, and keep them with them in the pew, or, they can allow them to run around the church screaming and disrupting the procedings. Same in a restaurant - they can ensure the children sit and eat their meal, or they can concentrate on their own meal and leave the other diners to babysit while their children run amok. I do not mind children being in public, but it does annoy me when the parents insist on concentrating on their own needs rather than their children.
  • I accept that the parent wanted to explore the option of taking out their child. Every child should have the chance to show how well s/he behaves. But when s/he has a meltdown and the parent decides to give the child an on the spot "time out", it infuriates the shit out of me. They should have the common decency to recover the child and have him or her cool off outside. in the car if it's inclimate weather, or at least in the rest room if the car's a good distance away, although the urinal trip will be extra long, I'll understand. I didn't go to the restaurant to take a piss.
  • I think that parents and their children are just as entitled to go to any social function as anyone else.
  • I usually get up and go help the lady with the handful and it helps settle them down so other can enjoy the services or movie or what the function may be. sometimes just a little helping hand settles the kids down.
  • In this whole world of human beings what else a child (below 5) is expected to do. In a civilized world we should be able to tolerate and make them a part of everything we have.
  • I wouldn't care. It's child nature to be noisy.
  • After raising two children of our own and two grandchildren, i think i am qualified to give this question an answer. Its annoying and the parents should make a move to quieten their child. Many times we have left church because of this. for a parent to just sit there and do nothing is rude. You always have choices in this situation. We all love our children.
  • its not that annoying or anything if the kids are little...like 3 and under because maybe they're still too young to know any better or w/e but once they get past like 3 or 4 then its just obnoxious. they are old enough then to know simple things like using inside voices in respect to other people, and if they dont maybe the parents arent teaching them how to do that properly. ive seen that happen, people come in where i work with kids that are way older than 4 and they run up and down the aisles knocking things over and run around and scream while the parents dont do or say anything and thats just disrespectful[even though it is our job to keep the aisles straight, but STILL!! lol] its rude. then again, some kids can probably never be straightened out, maybe they're just "like that". but who knows.

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