Take your shitty kid and get the fuck out of here.

On the original topic, look: you need to take your kids in public because if they stay at home all the time they'll turn into ghouls and feast on the flesh of neighbourhood cats at night.

The point is, parents that tune out their kid's crying are fucktards. I honestly wouldn't give two shits if somebody sunk a fork into one of their thighs for letting Princess shriek like a banshee at that time of the month while people are trying to have a nice meal out with others. We take our daughter to restaurants. If she acts up, "cheque please!" Wife takes her outside, I wait for the doggy bags. That's not difficult. How people can just sit there with their kids harping like that with 100 people shooting daggers..shooting fucking LASERS out of their eyes at them, and they just sit there, eat, and talk about smug yuppie things like plunging v-necks and Bench. A Navy Seal couldn't tune that out, believe me. They just don't care. Fuck off and die.

 

I doubt black people boycotting a store would actually make much of a difference. It certainly doesn't seem to hurt Whole Foods, Lululemon or L.L Bean.

 

Although I'm sure their loss prevention departments sleep easy at night.

That sign is absolutely chilling. What kind of uneducated redneck puts an apostrophe in there like that? "White's" is possessive, "whites" is plural. It's not that hard, people.

 

You must not visit Texas much. People are still just as racist as always, they just got better at hiding it.

I'm not going to turn this political, but I'm just going to use this as a quick example, remember when O got elected in 2008? Every shithead was "disgusted" and "ashamed" with America. If you asked the vast majority of them, most of them couldn't or rather wouldn't tell you their reasoning behind their statements.

 

There's a much better answer to this topic. Kids are kids, you can't expect them to be anything else unless you're willing to wait, and that often doesn't make any improvement.

Instead of banning kids, ban parents who are unwilling to exercise reasonable control over their children in a public place. Inform them that they are being excluded, not the child, because of their lack of ability to live up to their parental responsibilities. Tell them you just love kids, they're wonderful. Slack parents, not so much.

Oh, and by the way, take your kid with you when you leave.

Problem solved.

 

Maybe people should put a sign up in front of their restaurant that says you must be this tall to eat here. Problem solved. Midgets might be discriminated against, but seriously, who cares.

 

On the one hand, sure, I get your point. It's kind of a sneaky and underhanded to practice discrimination. On the other hand, if you're black and not wearing any baggy jeans, medallions, stocking caps, etc., you should still be able to get in. At some point seeing it as an "anti-black" policy is itself a stereotype. I'm sure 90% of this board would enforce a "no popped collars" policy if they owned a bar, but that doesn't necessary make it an anti-fraternity policy. It's more of an anti-shithead policy, which I think everyone who runs a business has a right to enforce. Some black friends of mine don't like hanging around with people with the baggy jeans and medallions, because those things tend to be highly correlated with shithead behavior.

And I think if you ask anyone who has had to deal with racism against them, they'll tell you that this is actually the better result. Knowing that racism is stupid and meaningless doesn't stop your mind from having to deal with it, but hiding its expression at least gets it out of your face.

I agree with this here. This might be a strange thing to say on a board like this, but let's all spare a thought for the people who don't have the luxury of laughing these things off so casually. There's a difference between intellectually knowing something is stupid and racist and actually being enlightened enough to not get insulted.

 

Hey, I've been there! Nice place. I didn't get the crab cakes though and I don't remember problems with kids.

Being someone who has worked in restaurants since they were 12, I can't tell you how awesome it is that someone finally stepped up and told parents to fuck off. It's very obvious who the people are that have never worked a service job in their life, and they're the ones that let their kids dump sugar and salt all over the fucking table. The worst was one kid who dumped out an entire sugar caddy to play with, then when he ran out of packs to open, his mom gave him ANOTHER full fucking caddy to dump out AGAIN.

My life goal is to open a restaurant, and I'll be damn sure to follow this guy's lead and enforce a "No brats" policy. Realistically though, I wouldn't just not allow kids, but I wouldn't hesitate to toss someone out if they couldn't control their child.

 

...aaaaand, Disgustipated for the win.

The civil rights act of 1964 was an example of a society making a social agreement: If you're too stupid to make proper decisions on your own, we don't give a fuck if you're paying the bills. We're going to tell you, as the society that surrounds you, that we will take your shit away if you can't act like a civilized member of that society.

You want to be a douchebag in the privacy of your own home? Fine, as long as you're not hurting the other people in that home. But if you want to interact with us, the rest of society, the public, you're going to leave that shit home in your house full 'o douche or we're going to make you.

More on topic, I was in a bar recently and watched in horror as at least 20 white males in their early twenties walked in, every single one wearing some variation of the khaki shorts, blue oxford button down, adidas shower shoes, baseball cap with the brim rolled, uniform. One of them tugged at his shirt, airing himself out as he proclaimed to his buddies, "it's mad hot, yo."

All I could think was, "what jury would convict me?"

 

This one?

 

The problem is that people in favor of allowing store owners to ban a racial group are ignoring a very obvious outcome of this scenario. Store owner bans black patrons. People who are offended protest the store owner. People in favor of it start shopping there more, only now they have to cross a picket line of angry black people. Words are exchanged, and the next thing you know the police have to get involved, wasting taxpayer money on this store owner's crusade to be a bigot. It isn't worth it.

To compare it to kids, it is like allowing an older brother to antagonize and poke at his little brother, to the point where they end up fighting. That makes you a shitty parent.

Focus: My brother and I just had this argument. He has two kids, I have none. I was in favor of this law, he was against it. His argument was "so wait, if I can't get a babysitter, I'm just not allowed to go out to a nice restaurant for dinner?" I stared at him, shook my head, and said "Yes! Of course!" My argument was that he choose to have kids, and therefore he chose to take responsibility for them, and he chose to make the sacrifices that come with having kids. If that meant he choose to stay in on his Friday and Saturday nights because he can't find a babysitter, so be it.

I also reminded him that there are restaurants that cater to families. Take the kid to a Chucky Cheese or some place like that. There are plenty of them. Don't take them to an expensive, upscale restaurant during prime dinner hours on a Friday night.

I also had to explain that my wife and I are trying to have kids. We fully realize this will drastically change our lives. No more date nights every week, and no more fancy upscale restaurants at least once a month. These are sacrifices we are making because we want kids.

 

I refuse to allow myself to feel guilty for being a white male, despite numerous attempts by many to do so (which is an act of racism in and of itself). The enslavement of Africans and their subsequent generations was indeed horrific. But I'm not responsible for it and certainly not deserving of any blame for it. My family didn't immigrate to the US until 50 years after emancipation. The paternal side had been struggling with political and religious oppression in Ireland from the crown to the point where my great-grandfather was murdered by the Black & Tans. But I don't go around with a chip on my shoulder blaming every Brit I encounter.

As for the restaurant thing, when my girls were very young, we kept to "family restaurants"--at ages 2 and under, their crying isn't a result of parenting technique. But we wouldn't be bringing them with us to Morton's or Le Bernadin. By the time the youngest was 4 and the oldest 8, we could have brought them anywhere and not worried about behavior, but we weren't going to drop 4-star prices on mac and cheese palates.

 

That's because we're not having a conversation about whether it would be okay for some asshole to ban you from entry to his establishment based on the fact that you're white. We are still having conversations like that about American people of African descent, and the attitude that they're blaming you and you're not to blame is a big part of the reason we're still having that stupid conversation.

No one cares whose to blame. The problems exist. It's up to us to fix them. So shut the fuck up and be part of the solution.

Sorry. I know that has little to do with crying/drooling/misbehaving/bleeding children in your favorite romantic restaurant.

Also, for the record, I don't really think lust4life is who I'm talking to here, but his statement was a very convenient jumping-off point.

 

I once almost got blocked from entry to a bar because I was from Massachusetts. An Irish Bar. On St Patrick's Day.

...Are you fucking kidding me?

 

Exactly my point. Continuing to blame all whites today is racist in and of itself and as a result, fuels the problem rather than works to end it. Not having a conversation about it isn't much of a solution, either.

 

A "no blacks" policy is something so utterly repugnant that it's fine to make illegal.

A "no niggers" policy is just a good policy.

As for the kids, there are fewer places banning kids than places that would have a problem if you came in without kids. Chuck E Cheese doesn't like it when a single adult male comes in by himself.

 

I get so many strange looks when I go into Build-A-Bear Workshop by myself.

 

Wearing a Roman collar doesn't help.

 

For how bad wearing the Roman collar is, the parents get even more worried when I take it off!

There's just no pleasing some people.