Children

God love the little ones! We were all there once, try as we may to forget.....the Washington Post had an interesting article in the Sunday paper regarding the balance between people with children vs people without and the daily struggles businesses and individuals deal with the mostly unspoken conflict.

Being someone who has no children, just dogs, I feel the angst when arriving at a restaurant with small children nearby and they are running around or playing with their food. I don't blame the child, I blame the parents for allowing this behavior. I was raised by parents who believed that children didn't go out to public places, such as restaurants or church, until I could behave properly. If that meant my parents went to separate services to allow one of them to be at home, that is what they did. If it meant no restaurant dinners with me and my brother, they did it. I understand the want for parents to be out of the house and enjoying their lives with their friends, and inevitably their friends' children, but they tend to forget that everyone else is there to enjoy themselves too!

But I also see the side of the parent who needs to go out and doesn't want to give in to their life changing just because they have children. It's tough to eat at home with multiple small children and miss out on being served and not having to clean up the dishes. I get it - but I do think parents forget about the larger responsibility they have - to acknowledge when their little darlings are not prepared to be in public - be it they are a little sick, they are squirmy, prone to temper tantrums, and all the other behaviors that are disruptive to others in the room.

There must be an admission that life changes with children - not every option is as available to parents with little ones as easily as life before them. It's not a slight on parents, it's not a slight on non-parents, it is just life. Parents can choose to bring their children to restaurants but need to show the responsibilty to remove them if they begin disruptive behaviors. I've seen many a well-behaved child completely enamored with a book or crayons during an adult dinner and always make an effort to acknowledge the parents and their lovely child or children.

So, as every issue in life, it's a matter of personal responsibility.