Disney bans children...

[tommygirl79]

I think this is a great idea. Frankly, V&A is WAY too gourmet for my tastes, anyhow, but I totally understand this idea.

[m 'n c]

So I ventured to the CB on the DIS and read their version of this thread which of course was starting to get nasty but one point brought up was people on the dining board hoped other restaurants (siggy restaurants) would follow suit.
I'm not totally for that but I would be for a child vs. child free section of the restaurant to take place of the old smoking vs. nonsmoking. Has that ever crossed anyone else's mind? I first thought of it during a horrid dining experience at Macaroni Grill with the kiddos crawling all over, yelling, and running into the servers.

[ligrumpygirl]

I know that in a lot of restaurants they have an unofficial child free area. H has been working in restaurants for years and this is from him. They will seat children/families in one area to keep noise to one area. Not to say every place does this but a lot of our NY diners do!

[SunshineGirl]

The sad thing is that if restaurants tried to do that, people with kids would start freaking out. But for me, I would RATHER be seated with a bunch of other families when I have my kids with me because I feel guilty having my kids with me in a restaurant when it is a bunch of other adults only. I always hope that they will put us with other kids. And when we don't have our kids with us, I cringe when we have to sit with other people's kids. LOL!

[DisneyMa]

I think it comes down to how you raise and disipline your kids. I have 3 and they have NEVER crawled around under the table or made a scene by throwing a fit. If they couldn't handle going to a restaurant then we found a sitter.

I don't know how I feel about the kid vs. no-kid sections. I wouldn't want to be bothered by unruly children when my kiddos were behaving.

[m 'n c]

I think it comes down to how you raise and disipline your kids. I have 3 and they have NEVER crawled around under the table or made a scene by throwing a fit. If they couldn't handle going to a restaurant then we found a sitter.

I don't know how I feel about the kid vs. no-kid sections. I wouldn't want to be bothered by unruly children when my kiddos were behaving.

Yeah its just a hard place to be in now a days with parents refusing to parent. I don't know what the answer is but I don't think banning kids from all restaurants is the answer either. I think the real problem is that management won't enforce any rules. Mike and I just dined at Fogo de Chao here in houston (really nice & expensive place) and it was so not the type of place you would wear jeans to but they wouldn't enforce a dress code so of course people were wearing them while others were in cocktail attire as you would expect.

That one time where it really bugged us (as noted above) the parents were on bottle #2 of wine while the kiddos ran all over and ran into waiters. I felt bad for the table with the girl that was about 8 that had sat there and behaved the whole time while having to look at the kids acting like animals nearby.

[~Kathie]

As the owner of a FAMILY restaurant we get people who complain about families with kids. Most of the time the kids are being kids. The complainers often ask for a separate section for adults only. We are a family restaurant and children are just as welcome as any of our guests in all dining sections of the restaurant.

There aren't many of them but they are persistent.

The way our building is set up we couldn't possibly segregate nor would we want to. We had a very difficult time separating when we had smoking and non smoking. BTW....we went non-smoking 10 years before our state made it mandatory. We would have a line at the door, with non-smoking section full and smoking section empty and no one wanted to sit there.

I think it's a good thing Disney did that at V&A. It's one restaurant.

[m 'n c]

As the owner of a FAMILY restaurant we get people who complain about families with kids. Most of the time the kids are being kids. The complainers often ask for a separate section for adults only. We are a family restaurant and children are just as welcome as any of our guests in all dining sections of the restaurant.

There aren't many of them but they are persistent.

The way our building is set up we couldn't possibly segregate nor would we want to. We had a very difficult time separating when we had smoking and non smoking. BTW....we went non-smoking 10 years before our state made it mandatory. We would have a line at the door, with non-smoking section full and smoking section empty and no one wanted to sit there.

I think it's a good thing Disney did that at V&A. It's one restaurant.

Thanks for your perspective and I can see your side of things as well.

[LuvMyBoys]

I've often wished for family/people with no kids sections too, but for completely different reasons. It really irritates me to have people ask to sit somewhere else b/c they don't want to sit by people with children. It actually makes me very sad and angry when a table is about to be seated near us and then they see the kids and ask "Is there someplace else we can sit?"

I would rather sit by other families and not have to endure the dirty looks of people who glare if a child dares to speak a little to loudly or is fidgeting in their chair.

I understand that everyone wants a nice experience when they go out to eat (including me and my family) by I can tell you several times that we have been forced to sit by groups of "young adults" talking loudly, swearing, talking about sexual activities, wearing shirts with f word on them etc., can they get a separate room too??

I also think that kids need to go to restaurants and learn how to properly behave from an early age, otherwise you can't expect them to know how to act.

Lack of parenting is the major issue though as many parents are too busy enjoying their restaurant experience to worry about keeping their kids under control!! Or maybe they let their kids act like that at mealtime at home too??

[Kycha]

Lack of parenting is the major issue though as many parents are too busy enjoying their restaurant experience to worry about keeping their kids under control!! Or maybe they let their kids act like that at mealtime at home too??

I agree. I also think some kids(and parents too) think that every restaurant at Disney is like a character meal restaurant...where it is okay for them to run wild. I have seen the same behavior at Nine Dragons(Epcot-China) that I see at Crystal Palace or 'Ohana.