it's not life that matters but the journey...

Everyone's terrified of 'upsetting' children, but having to learn how to behave is part of life. Children who aren't taught this become miserable. I know kids have meltdowns sometimes, but perhaps they're not ready for restaurants if this is the case, and should go when they're older instead! If this places limitations on parents, then that's a shame, but it's part of the package.

I think kids get a lot of mixed messages these days, and are asked to reason in a way they are not developed enough to do, or given choices in everything that they aren't up to making. It's not fair on them - they need to learn boundaries and rules, and it's not fair on everyone else.

I'm not too concerned when it comes to restaurants, but there are definitely some places where I agree with the idea. I went to see Mary Poppins the live musical, and there was a 3 year old kid behind me who did not shut up/stop complaining the entire performance (mostly to ask why such-and-such from the movie hadn't happened, and was it almost over, she was bored and wanted to go home). At intermission I was hoping the Mum would just take a hint and leave (everyone at the performance had received free-tickets so it wasn't like she was losing money by leaving) but nup, she stayed and I was ready to hit her for not controlling her child.

I agree with this and would definitely go to such a restaurant rather than one that had unruly children. In Finland this is not usually a problem, though.