A new restaurant in Lake Highlands near Dallas has taken the plunge: they’re not allowing children to dine at their upscale French establishment.
Intrigued?
Some people would prefer to dine in comfort without interruption from kids, so they pay a baby-sitter and leave the kids at home.
Some people don’t have kids and would rather not be bothered with other peoples.
Some people want to include their family in activities including eating out.
Some people don’t care about kids.
It’s hard enough to decide on Italian, Tex-Mex, French or American restaurants for food selection, but some people would like their dining options to also include exposure to children and would like them banned.
Diane Gottsman of the Protocol School of Texas is not among those who would send the children to the dungeon. “We can all understand going to a restaurant, spending a lot of money for a special meal, and then there is a child crying and running up and down the aisles, and that really has to do with the parents,” she points out. Good manners go a long way in social settings with strangers.
Houston’s choice of eateries that restrict patrons on age tend to do so based on liquor sales and tend to be bars, where it is expected.
Gottsman says there are considerations parents need to take into account. “It depends on which restaurant, time of day, the nature of the child. There are so many things to take into consideration.”
Barring children from the building, though, is a bit too far, she says. “Certainly I don’t think it’s appropriate to ban children from eating with their family members. Good table manners, in the broadest sense of the words, might be the best course.