I’m a mother and I love kids. I really do. And I’m good with kids–I’ve only known a few who weren’t taken with me like I was with them. I say this because I know this topic is likely to be a touchy one and I want you to know from the get-go that I’m not against kids.
But there’s a time for children and a time for adults. I’ve never understood people who take their children with them everywhere. (I’ve had people bring them to parties without asking, and on occasion people have even brought their animals to my house without asking, so I suppose a credible argument could be made that I know some rude folks). I realize it’s not always easy to get a babysitter, and I’m shocked when people tell me what they pay for a babysitter these days, but here’s the bottom line: If your kids are going to be in restaurants, you need to be sure they behave. They need to use inside voices, they need to stay in their seats, they don’t need to stand over the back of the booth and talk to other diners (yes, I know this is cute sometimes, but it should stop after a minute or two). But I’m sure we all agree on those basics, and I’m certain that most people here also agree that of course children have to go to restaurants because after all, if they don’t dine out, how will they learn to appreciate the experience? And we want that for everyone.
Here’s where it gets weird for me. When children are around, I feel that adults should behave in a certain way. I’m obviously not talking about using foul language or otherwise behaving boorishly. I don’t think that you necessarily want your children listening to people talking about politics or religion, as my friends and I often do, spiritedly sometimes, when we dine. I’m dead certain you don’t want them to hear me gossiping with my girlfriends–we tell it like it is when we get going. You might also not want them to overhear personal family conversations, about my grandfather in a nursing home, about how age has been cruel to him. Or to see me moved to tears talking to a friend about the dog I’d recently lost. Tears, I said, not blubbering.
I bring up these specific topics because these are ones I’ve been aware of having when I’ve become aware that children are listening. I try to be careful and will modify conversation if I feel it’s necessary, but really, it’s up to you, not me, to monitor what your children hear, just like you monitor what they watch on television. But I don’t want to feel inhibited from having comfortable dialogue with my friends or family.
That said, when it comes right down to it, I’ll side with a mother in a restaurant–as long as she’s trying to control her kids–before I will someone who confronts her. One of the rudest encounters I’ve witnessed was at a Japanese restaurant last year. A family with several young children occupied the largest table in the place and while the kids were making noticeable noise, they weren’t being rude and it was a restaurant perfectly suitable for young children. While her husband was paying, the mother was trying to soothe a fussy baby–not a screaming baby, just a fussy one–and get the other kids ready to leave.
Two women at a nearby table were intolerable. They started off by loudly complaining about how she couldn’t control her children, then they tried to stare her down, then–and oh! they were waiting for this–when she apologized and said they were leaving as soon as they paid, they tore into her. She didn’t take the bait, but that didn’t stop them from saying over and over how rude she was, asking questions like “Don’t you see how rude you are?”After they left, these women STILL didn’t shut up. They complained about the mother (but not the father; hmmm), then about management. I doubt they were, but they should be truly embarrassed and I’ve written about this before, hoping that these women see it and recognize how foolish and boorish they looked.
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Responses to “Kids”
October 29th, 2007 at 9:39 pm
If children can’t behave in a restaurant, then they should be kept at home and fed take-out. Many, if not most, parents don’t really care if their children disturb other diners. I try to avoid Germantown and Collierville restaurants because of it. Taking children to restaurants is a good thing if they can behave, but many can’t. I’d never confront parents about disturbing children (even the recent baby that screamed the entire dinner), but I hope the restaurant management would. They don’t have to be critical, just hint that their children are disturbing the other diners and suggest they be taken outside.
October 29th, 2007 at 9:51 pm
I miss the old days when children were not expected to go to restaurants until they were old enough to behave in restaurants. When I was growing up, in the 70’s, it was understood that a “family” restaurant meant your five-year-old was welcome, and a “fine dining” restaurant meant no children at all, ever, except maybe as a special treat for a 12-year-old who was wearing grown-up clothes because she was going to the theater after dinner. The 12-year-old behaved perfectly because she knew if she didn’t she would never be treated as a grown-up again.
In those days, everyone knew that babies do not belong in restaurants. There was a simple guideline: if the baby was not old enough to eat what was on the menu, the baby had no business being there.
It was also understood that children do not stand on furniture. Not even for one moment. Children too small to reach the table sat on booster seats. Restaurants without booster seats were restaurants where children were not welcome.
Parents understood that having children meant that it wasn’t possible to eat out without first hiring a babysitter for several years. That was part of what they accepted when they decided to have children. Families ate meals at home. They sat together at an actual dining room table and ate dinner for five years before taking junior to a restaurant for the first time. Junior learned manners at home before testing them on strangers.
The funny thing is, today’s parents with the screaming brats, dad on a cell phone in the parking lot, and mom about to pull her hair out while the baby and the two-year-old take turns smashing potatoes into the upholstery and banging spoons on the table, aren’t any happier than the more responsible parents of yesterday. The kids aren’t happier either.
October 29th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
Todd, Allie…you guys are spot on with me. I don’t ever remember a time when so many ill-behaved children have been in restaurants. When I was a child I rarely saw a bratty kid in a restaurant. Now it seems to be the norm. On a recent trip, we ate at a casual dining joint near our hotel. There was a child, maybe 4 years old, who was tearing up and down the aisles. When his mother finally snatched him and dragged him back to their table, he decided it would be a really good idea to blow spitty raspberries at EVERY table he passed. My meal ended there as I didn’t know what type of incurable disease this rugrat may have had!! Mom did nothing and he was back up acting a fool in minutes. When I was young, that was an automatic trip home(not back to the table)that would be followed by swift punishment! Needless to say, we were on our best behavior whenever we were in public.
Another thing is kids in bars. Even if the place serves a limited menu, are small children really supposed to tag along while Mom and Dad throw back a few with their friends? Granted the new 21+ law has eliminated some of that(Saucer, Fox and Hound, etc.)but really, when did it become OK for little kids to come out drinking with parents?
And on the topic of adult converstation at restaurants when kids are around: I’m not one to make special consession to watch the topic of conversation at a bar/restaurant for the sake of the toddler peering at me over the booth. I feel that if a parent wants to shelter their child from the harsher topics and language of the adult world, keep them at home. If one doesn’t want their preschooler (running around the end of my table) to pick up that dirty joke we as adults tell over drinks, leave them at home. In bar-oriented places especially, you know what to expect. If you bring them into that environment, you deem it OK for their little eyes and ears by doing it.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:19 am
Children have to be trained from an early age how to behave in public under all circumstances, not just in restaurants. My first wife and I started taking our children to casual restaurants when they were quite young. As they grew older, they were told how to act in restaurants, not just in terms of polite behavior but how to use different utensils and so on. They knew from a few experiences — whisked away and taken home — that a restaurant experience is supposed to be fun and enjoyable for everyone in the restaurant. By the time they were in their early teens, they could go to special occasion dinners at fine dining restaurants and were perfectly capable of eating anything put before them (we did that at home too) and with no self-consciousness. If only LL and I could do that with the dogs.
October 30th, 2007 at 10:36 am
This subject is one I feel quite strongly about.
I live in an affluent region of the SF Bay Area. I’ve lived many other places. Never have I seen more poorly behaved children in restaurants - and parents who turn a blind eye - than where I live now. I’ve found there’s a sense of a entitlement that these families have. Their children are special and unique and should be permitted to run around a restaurant disturbing other diners.
I do not like to confront people, but at one meal in my favorite Mexican restaurant, there was a group of about 12 people - 3 couples and their kids - having dinner in a little alcove. The the little darlings were running around the entire restaurant, opening drawers and pulling out clean silverware, playing hide and seek behind other diners, and even hovering over other people’s food. I even saw one of them reach for chips from a complete stranger’s table.
The wait staff apparently were too busy to say anything. My meal was no longer enjoyable, so I finally spoke up. I - as politely as I possibly could - asked the adults if they could please keep their kids from disturbing us. One of the fathers had the audacity to claim that they were in a private room (there were no doors) and this excused their children’s behavior (even though the children were not staying in the “private room”). He lambasted me for daring to tell him how his kids should behave and declared that he was a paying customer too. One of the couples, however, did gather up their children, paid their bill, and left out of embarrassment.
When the other two couples and their screaming kids finally left, the restaurant applauded.
I told the management afterwards - since they had done nothing to stop this whole situation - that if that sort of behavior was going to be ignored in the restaurant, that I would not be returning. They assured me that it was not acceptable and apologized. They acknowledged that I was a regular and that they did not want to lose my business. They comped our drinks.
The next time I visited the restaurant, there was a sign on the door reading that children should be attended by an adult at all times and were expected to behave in an appropriate manner. Since then, I have seen the management ask parents to keep their kids from running amok in the restaurant and I’ve even seen them ask patrons to leave if they had a problem with this.
This does not keep the kids from enjoying the restaurant experience. They still act like kids and laugh and make noise, but the difference is that they are not doing it at the expense of other paying customers.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Being totally in agreement with the previous posters, and being a new grandmother, I’m going to forward this topic to my kids. And Jenn, like you, I know quite a few rude folks as well, ’cause they’re always showing up with their kids/dogs in tow at my place, too. What do you do … what can you say?
October 30th, 2007 at 12:37 pm
Brenda, I’ve asked people who show up with their dogs to take them home, because the dogs I had before my current duo hated other dogs. The ones I have now are a bit more disposed to company, although my male dog can get aggressive with other males.
Kids are a different story–how can you politely tell someone their child isn’t welcome unless the invitation includes children?
Kristie! The situation you describe is intolerable and one where I simply wouldn’t be able to keep my mouth shut. How could anyone??
October 30th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Usually the simplest way to keep dogs and children from coming over is to have one exceptionally mean cat.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Frederic did with his kids what my parents did with my brother, sister and me. It was a rare occasion that my parents took us to a nice (not an adult place mind you but someplace other than our local pizzeria) restaurant, and it was an event, good outfits, a stern discussion before hand, and under very tight supervision. LAst time my husband and I were in NY the couple at the table next to us, at Union Square Cafe, had a toddler who cried for 20 minutes. The staff looked disgusted and kindly asked parents to get situation under control. We asked for another table - but Friday night at 7:30 nothing else is open. Shortly there after the people left and we could enjoy our meal. But really a toddler does not belong at a Union Square Cafe type of place. I felt sorry for those parents who left their children at home that night to enjoy a night out without children. Let’s face it people are just selfish these days with little concern for those around them.
October 30th, 2007 at 3:55 pm
jennifer, i’m confused by this post. ultimately i can only see this as a forum for people to bash today’s parents. i’m sure we all have horror stories, but i’d like to think that we have numerous non-stories because i’m sure we have all eaten in restaurants where children were acting perfectly acceptable, but we didn’t notice, because there was frankly nothing to notice.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I’m also confused by this post. Are we discussing whether or not children belong in restaurants, or whether or not bad behavior belongs in restaurants? I’m as offended sitting next to someone who is speaking loudly on their cell phone as I am sitting next to a toddler who is throwing food at me. This seems more about common courtesy than it does about children. Sadly, there is not a lot of it out there any more, among parents or non-parents.
October 30th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
Hmm. Not sure why this confuses anyone. The point came up in the post about in restaurants that allow smoking and I think it’s a valid discussion.
I do agree that more children are well-behaved in public than not, and I have to say that loud cell phone conversations are obnoxious. But I’d feel comfortable asking someone to tone down the volume on a conversation, at least more than I would asking a parent to control their children. People are touchy about that.
Let’s just open this up to dining manners in general. Unruly children are unacceptable. Foul language, too. Sloppy drunks. Public displays of affection. I saw a couple about ready to take their clothes off at a restaurant where I often take my nieces and nephews. Not cool, not there, not anywhere.
Have at it.
October 30th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
I think the confusion arises because it seems there is a good deal of hostility and generalization on this topic. As a parent of young ones, is the message from some of these posters that I am never to take the kids out to eat, or is it just that I should control them? If my children are behaving, then shouldn’t Kristin also watch what she says in the presence of children? That would seem to be common courtesy, wouldn’t it?
Frederic suggests a point that I want to make as well. When parents are trying to teach their children how to behave when eating out, there are bound to be a few “learning experiences.” As long as we handle those situations quickly and firmly and don’t bring the kids to bars at happy hour or to fine dining establishments, will our fellow whiners and diners cut us a little slack?
October 30th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Just so you can see that I do understand where parents are coming from, I’ve posted a picture of one of my favorite kids, my niece Lily. Can you imagine how much fun she was at dinner that night??? I’m glad I wasn’t there!
October 30th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
I have been in a restaurant where a child sitting in the booth in back of me sat & KICKED IT the entire time. I guess the oblivious parents thought he was entertaining himself & staying quiet, & they apparently tolerated the kicking themselves. I’ll say on the front end that I do not have children & don’t tolerate them well unless they are models of good behavior. So shoot me. What I might think is unreasonable might just be kids being kids. But I don’t think a child throwing up at the table or emptying the sugar packets onto the table or crumbling crackers & scattering them on the floor around a highchair at the table should be considered acceptable behavior. In the case of the child throwing up, I realize that was spontaneous & not done purposely. But he needed to be removed IMMEDIATELY, & not after he had finished throwing up & spoiling everyone else’s appetites. I was just grateful not to be seated next to him. If I had done any of the aforementioned things when my parents took me to a restaurant, I would’ve been snatched up so fast I wouldn’t know what had happened, taken home immediately & disciplined. We ate at a lot of cafeterias, not only for the reason that they are considered family places, but also for the reason that my parents didn’t have a lot of disposable income. I feel really bad for the servers at tables where children are making messes & disturbing others too, because management probably doesn’t take up for them too much unless others insist. No matter if you are comped or otherwise given satisfaction for a spoiled dining experience, it’s still spoiled. I would not be happy about going back to a place that let such behavior go uncorrected for fear it would happen again each time I went. It all goes back to the old saying, “Children should be seen & not heard.” If they can behave, then I’m all for them being allowed to join their parents in a nice place. Some restaurants give them crayons & white paper covers on the tables, & others give them balloons or other things to keep them busy when they get bored & whiny. It’s not fair to them either to drag them somewhere & expect them to sit for several hours while adults drink or take their time finishing dinner. So it becomes a matter of common sense on the part of the parents to be aware of how their children are acting & not subject others to their misbehaving. On the other hand, I don’t think it was fair for disgruntled diners to continue haranguing the mother of the children who were acting up when she was clearing trying to leave with them at the time. That’s just somebody taking hostility out on someone who can’t do any better in a given situation.
October 30th, 2007 at 8:19 pm
Whoa, Michael, you just said that other people should change their behavior to cater to your children. I think you just made my point.
If your children behave as well as any other diner, they are as welcome as any other diner. There’s a certain amount of extra tolerance that’s appropriate for children at clearly “family” restaurants, but otherwise, if your kid starts screaming, take him out. Not ten minutes from now, now.
And try not dragging the kid everywhere. There’s nothing sadder than an exhausted 2 year old in a restaurant at 10 pm. The child deserves to go to bed on time.
Behaving responsibly as a parent isn’t hard. Thirty years ago, all parents did it routinely. (Although it looks like our parents’ generation somehow failed to teach their children how to be responsible parents themselves!)
October 30th, 2007 at 9:35 pm
I have a 4 year old daughter. My wife and I have been taking her out to eat since she was a few months old. We only take her what we consider casual kid friendly places. Places like Huey’s, Garibaldi’s, Pete & Sam’s, Memphis Pizza Cafe, Bayou, Molly’s, etc. We would NEVER consider taking her to a fine dining establishment such as Ronnie Grisanti’s, McEwan’s, Tsunami, cafe Society, etc. At least not until she’s much older.
We have left restaurants before when she wasn’t acting properly. As someone else said, it’s a privilege for them to eat out and if they can’t act properly then they shouldn’t be able to enjoy the privilege.
That being said, I’m much more tolerant in places that I consider kid friendly places. And I’ve many more unpleasant dining experiences resulting from unruly adults than from unruly kids.
October 31st, 2007 at 12:27 pm
Hummm . . . lots of interesting views and I don’t understand the confusion. Why do people with kids become instantly offended when this post was about children that behave inappropriately in a public place (in this case it happens to be a restaurant, but could easily be ANY public venue) and the parents that ignore it, or allow it to continue. The blame should be placed on the parents of the offending children because the children haven’t been taught or told how to properly behave. It’s about having courtesy for other people around you and understanding that your actions or lack thereof do have an effect on others around you. People these days seem to be too into themselves. It is up to the restaurant management to do something about any inappropriate behavior whether it is a child running around, an overly intoxicated adult, someone talking loud on a cell phone, a loud group using offensive language, or whatever - and how the management handles the disturbance in consideration of the other diners trying to enjoy their meal.
October 31st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I’m not about to make concessions in my conversations with friends or relatives for other people’s children who have no business listening in on the conversation in the first place. And in fact I think those unsupervised kids returning to ask some uncomfortable questions is an excellent way for the neglectful parents to learn they should make other arrangements.
That said, I did crack up a few weeks ago upon seeing a family of five navigate the crowded dance floor at Dish to get seated for a meal in the restaurant section. All three kids were very well behaved, so I say more power to ‘em if the parents want to take their children out for an evening of clubbing.
October 31st, 2007 at 8:20 pm
WOW. A couple of these posts goes to prove the point that many parents will not take responsibility for their children’s behavior nor their neglect in controlling them. Perhaps they get defensive because their lack of parental control was exposed? Or they think their precious darlings can do no wrong. They might be paying customers just like everyone else there, but their rights do not take precedence over others. By the way, what is the confusion? This post is about kids in restaurants?
October 31st, 2007 at 8:57 pm
I often find that those who are offended are also usually guilty.
I’ve encountered screamers, brats running wild, the kicking of the booth, etc but one of my more memorable experiences involved an adorable youngster who turned around in her booth and stared at me the ENTIRE time I was there…from when I was seated, through the ordering of the entree and straight to paying the check. I smiled at first, gave a little wave but received nothing but a stare. Her mother was sitting across from her, in my line of vision, and told the girl to turn around a few times but the she never did…and the mother NEVER made her do as she was told. I never realized how unsettling it is to be stared at for 30 minutes.
October 31st, 2007 at 10:32 pm
Cynthia, I feel the same way you do about kids who stare. I encounter that every time I am in a handicapped cart in a store. If it’s not staring, it’s running out in front of the cart without regard to the fact that I might not be able to stop in time to avoid running them down (which I have to admit is tempting sometimes!) I have never seen or heard a parent correct their child for staring or explain that it is rude. What you described is how parents unconsciously allow children to misbehave. They constantly fuss at them but never follow it up. The kids learn that nothing is going to be done to them if they don’t stop the offending behavior so they tune the parents out. And they continue to terrorize other people, quietly or otherwise. Can we add trick or treaters to this list? An older boy rode his bicycle straight into the path of my car this evening in a suburban area. He didn’t even stop to think that he might be endangering himself. Fortunately, I was driving slowly & saw him in plenty of time to stop. Some of what we are describing here is parents just not teaching children much of ANYTHING…manners, safety, or common courtesy.
November 1st, 2007 at 12:25 pm
I don’t have a problem with children in restaurants until they are allowed to have the run of the place by their parents. A couple of weeks ago at Molly’s this one little girl - and her adult friend who was sipping a margarita the whole time - played “hide and seek” and “catch me if you can” in the aisle of Molly’s. Servers had to dodge them - with sizzling platters of fajitas at times - and so did customers and it was not until the manager said something to the “adult” did they stop. The people sitting in my section were quite tolerant of this shrieking child and her aunt but I can tell you that if the manager had not stepped in then I would have. I understand the crying baby from time to time and even the whiney child but this was beyond the pale in regards to proper behavior in a restaurant. While this was going on the girl’s parents and friends sat in another area of the place enjoying their drinks and meal while the rest of us got to “enjoy” the high jinxs of these two. I grew up in a family that ate out on a regular basis - sometimes every night since my mom was a horrible cook - but we were NEVER allowed to run willy nilly around a restaurant and just let one of us not use our inside voice and it was curtains! Or worse - my mom would cook the next night since we could not behave! Talk about punishment.
November 2nd, 2007 at 12:52 pm
I only said I was confused because the post talked about people who take their pets and kids everywhere, then finished with the rude ladies, then the comments were about bad restaurant experiences with kids. As long as that’s the main topic, I want to hear from more restaurant people about what it takes to get management to ask people to control their kids. When parents fail to control their kids, does management have a resposibility to the other patrons? Or is the responsibility on the other diners to police the situation? The obvious answer is that parents should control their own kids, but what do we do when that fails? If a restaurant has no problem throwing out someone who is obnoxiously drunk, they should be just as willing to throw out a kid who is obnoxiously out of control. It’s a shame that so many seem reluctant to do that, but I can see where it could be a touchy situation. What is the standard policy out there?
November 2nd, 2007 at 1:15 pm
My wife and I take our kids out to eat all the time. However, there are places we don’t take the kids (you would never see us waltz into Encore with our 9 and 4 year old in tow - more on an Encore experience later). When we had our first child we made the decision that we were going to expose her to all kinds of food/cultures (her favorite food is now Indian), and the best way to expose your children to varying cuisines is to introduce them to a variety of restaurants. At the same time, we balanced that with the fact that one of our favorite pastimes as a couple is to go out to eat sans children so that we can drink (not sloppy drunk), eat and generally enjoy ourselves - sometimes for hours…my point is, there’s a time and a place for kids and we’ve always respected the fact that some restaurants are more “adult.”
Kids being a little loud in an otherwise loud restaurant does not bother me so much, but because I am so self conscious about it, I am very sensitive about my own kids getting too loud (even though you probably can’t hear them over the table of 8 ladies who are on their 3rd after work margarita).
However, there are a few things that are absolutely intolerable:
1. Leaving your seat and roaming around the restaurant. If you have a reason to get out of your seat, I’m coming with you.
2. Standing on the furniture. We don’t allow you to stand on our furniture at home, so sit your little butt down.
3. Pitching temper tantrums…it never gets you your way, so why do you keep trying that? I apologize to other diners if this occurs, but the biggest disturbance will be me dragging my child to the car. If the situation doesn’t get under control we leave. I am very tolerant of a parent who is dealing with a difficult child because I know how quickly their little moods can change, but the operative phrase is that they are dealing with the problem, not just ignoring it.
4. Staring down other diners - this has been a problem we have had to deal with with our kids, especially our 4 year old. He is very cute and very outgoing and sometimes gets the attention of another patron, especially the grandmotherly types. The problem is that he usually doesn’t initiate the eye contact, but once someone speaks to him or asks him a question, he feels it is license to tell his life story. Usually with gentle nudging he will move on to focus on the meal.
Rudeness is pandemic in our culture…adults and children alike. I am amazed at what I see people wearing into a nice restaurant - to me restaurants that have a certain aesthetic deserve a certain aesthetic from their diners. I’m not the fashion police, by any means, but if the word truffle is on the menu, you shouldn’t be in shorts and a t-shirt. I know our society is much more casual, but at least put on a pair of jeans (without holes in them) and a shirt with buttons on it.
Our Encore experience - let me first say, the wait staff handled them well, but they were clearly frustrated. We were there back in June celebrating our anniversary. We had a room downtown and were enjoying a nice meal and bottle of wine. In walks a group of young teenage girls (I would say around 14). First of all, what parents allow their 14 year old girls to roam around downtown Memphis at 9:00 on a Friday night? They were split into a couple of tables. One girl ordered the NY Strip with Pommes Frites ($22), and I have never heard anyone “smack” their food so loudly and speak so loudly. It was astonishing how loudly she ate. She proceeded to yell across the room as the poor waitress was walking away “ma’am…ma’am! Do you have any A1 (yes the steak sauce)?” I couldn’t help but be amused. When the waitress kindly informed her they did not, she proceeded to ask for ketchup, which she ate with the NY Strip. Clearly, these girls were from families that had not taught their children how to behave in restaurants.
November 4th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
Since I have said several negative things on this subject, I am now prompted by Jamie’s post to say something positive. I think it is wonderful that you & your wife are exposing your children to different kinds of food. Even if your four year old is still learning, your nine year old is definitely old enough to know how to behave in a restaurant. It’s so refreshing to hear that her favorite food right now is Indian. I wish my parents had been more openminded about introducing my sister & me to different kinds of food other than “home cooked.” I didn’t taste broccoli for the first time until I was in high school because my dad didn’t like it & we never ate it at home. I think part of my eating problem now is that I wasn’t exposed to a wider range of foods as a child & I’m making up for lost time. One of my friends has applauded her daughter’s introduction of organic & locally produced foods into her 15 month old twins’ diets. They live in San Francisco, & the girl twin’s favorite foods at the moment are crabcakes & green peas. I think I was in high school before I ate crabcakes & the green peas we had at home were mostly the overcooked canned English pea variety. I remember turning down shrimp the first time it was offered to me. But fortunately I overcame that distaste & it’s now one of my favorite foods. As my friends can attest, I’m usually the first one at the table to try something different. But how much better if I had found out about broccoli sooner & eaten more of it than I did potato chips or mac & cheese. Maybe your daughter could give me some pointers about Indian food, Jamie!
November 7th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
Jamie - you hit the nail on the head “Rudeness is pandemic in our culture”. People tend to have no regard for anyone around them or how their actions impact others. This goes for service employed people as well. I can’t ell you how many times I’ve conducted a transaction where I am the customer and the person “helping” me does not speak a single word to me.
People just are lacking in manners and common courtesy anymore - enough said.
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