Your Children Should Not Be Annoying Adults In The Bar of a Restaurant

Bratophobia is not confined to New York.

 

Tuesday evening after finding my pink aura during my Yin yoga class, I went with my friends to Joe’s Steakhouse in Winchester, Virginia for our weekly girl’s night. We were also celebrating a birthday. Since we generally enjoy a selection of appetizers and an adult beverage or two, we asked to be seated in the bar.

Unfortunately, our section of the bar also included a small family of three that abdicated their parental responsibilities by allowing their toddler to wander about the room misbehaving, annoying other patrons and throwing a tantrum. The parents, by the way, ignored the actions of their spawn, and left the babysitting duties to the wait staff and other patrons.

If only the Commonwealth of Virginia adopted the rules and regulations of other states that forbid the presence of minors in the bar sections of dining establishments. There should be sections where adults can enjoy an evening without interruption by unruly children. While we are no longer amazed by the ignorance and rudeness of certain parents, it is still frustrating. This child actually invited himself (or herself – it was not clear) to sit at the table of two young men enjoying an evening out. Sorry, if you can’t afford a babysitter either go to a family restaurant, sit in the “dining area” of the restaurant or say home.

At the time I recalled another evening when my husband and I went for dinner in the bar at Piccadilly’s Pub – also in Winchester – and were subjected to a toddler running up and down the aisles in the bar area of the restaurant while the parents seemed to be oblivious to the interruptions caused by their errant offspring. We were so annoyed that we haven’t gone back.

I have no problem with well-behaved children in public. But I have no tolerance for oblivious or worse parents. And still, children don’t belong in the bar section of a dining establishment.  A bar is for adults. And few things are more annoying than having somebody’s kid plopping on a bar stool while their parents wait for a table in the restaurant section when I plan to eat and drink at the bar. Wait outside! Or in your car. Or I might just start using bad language to get you to leave.