COMMENTARY | Grant Central Pizza of Atlanta, Georgia has finally done the unforgivable — they have printed a disclaimer upon their menus asking parents to remove their unruly children from the restaurant. Why is this so unforgivable? Because in this modern age, no one is allowed to notice, let alone comment upon, children causing a disruption. Walk into a Wal-Mart at any time of the day or night and you will hear a cacophony of screams coming from children scattered around the store. Like sirens they blare unhindered by the apparently deaf parents.
When did such total lack of social consideration become our sentence? My father informs me I threw a temper tantrum once in public only once. I don’t remember it, nor do I know what happened afterward, but I grew up knowing public displays of temper, aggression, or screeching were prohibited.
In recent years I have become a practical recluse in attempt to avoid shrieks of children in restaurants and theaters. If I am having a meal with friends and I have to shout over howling children or dodge projectiles lobbed at my head I am unlikely to return to an establishment that attracts such clientele. I was in a Trader Joe’s recently and had to escape when I could no longer navigate around the toddlers with their individual carts and their middle aged mothers who didn’t think it necessary to keep traffic flowing.
I am sorry our nation has become so obtuse that the rights of the inadequate parent supersede that of everyone else. I live in a state that no longer permits smoking in any public building, yet I can tolerate cigarette smoke better than the raucous bellow of uncontrolled children. If this restaurant has decided to answer to the needs of the majority of their patrons and preserve an enjoyable dining experience I applaud them. In fact, I would applaud such a thing becoming standard in restaurants and theaters all over the nation. But why should a place of business have to publish such a request? It should be common sense, and at one time it was. Let’s go back to a time when we actually respected one another and trained our children to do the same.