Jackson Jambalaya

How do you get kids under control these days?
When I was a kids I would get physical punishment.
Is it even legal to beat your kids these days?
Is it a crime to deny them their smartphones?
The closest thing I ever had to a smartphone as a kid was a gameboy back in the day.
Any misbehavior meant it was taken from me.

In this case, it is not a fine dining establishment and is at least partially dependent upon vacationers and tourists. The best you can do is seat a large party like that in a more remote section or better yet, a side room or outside. Regardless, if you try to charge the parents you're going to piss them off, they won't pay it, and it may affect the tips to your waitstaff. It's a no-win situation for the restaurant.

Straight up. I’m 70. If I’d have been disruptive in a restaurant, school, church, the grocery store, etc as a child the next disruption would be my blessed mother beating my ass there, on the way to the car, in the car and when we got home. The same with my two children when I raised them. It didn’t have to happen but once or twice. Expect respect for others. Parents don’t do that anymore hence the problem. Parents now want to be a friend not a parent.

Was in a steak restaurant last week, sitting at the bar alone eating and an obnoxious 20 something female sat across from me (who already had her to go order in hand sat there for 45 minutes FaceTiming her "baby daddy" and LOUDLY calling him the n-word repeatedly while yelling at him.

Every patron in the place was visibly pissed, rolling eyes etc and she saw it and got louder. I have no doubt she hoped someone would tell her to shut up so she could post it on FB and tell everyone she just experienced Mississippi racism.

Mgmt kept apologizing to us, and I am sure they were terrified to ask her to leave. But these uncivilized heathens ruin restaurants by driving decent tipping folks away.

Society is just broken. No matter if they are toddlers or adults...Selfish attention seeking idiots that face no consequences ruin it all.

I don't think a fee, but someone of the restaurant should approach the offender and give them a warning or a list of common manners.
I was dining in a restaurant at the bar, and a young lady had her large designer bag on top of the bar in my space and had a loud Facetime call the whole time I was there. And yes, children are left completely out of control, running, screeching, knocking things over, even throwing balls!

I’d love my grandkids to visit anytime as long as their parents don’t come with them!

The only thing more stupid than the thread is the question.

What if the MSU Athletic Department starts charging fans for wearing white when maroon was clearly announced on fakebook for the Saturday game?

What if a concert venue starts charging fans extra who accidentally sit in the wrong seats and have to be asked to move.

What if the courthouse restroom attendant hands me a violation notice when I miss the porcelain and there's a sign that clearly says, "Please aim!"

When we visit our daughter in Atlanta and go out to eat it’s embarrassing to see kids running around the restaurants. Please train your children the restaurant is not an extension of your house. Society has rules! I will be visiting that restaurant on my next visit. To the owner of that restaurant good job!

Y’all kids ain’t cute when they act like little heathens. Stay at home!

This is a generational epidemic - not an isolated instance. It's all about ME and MY right to enjoy myself at the expense of others. The restaurant is correct: the parents should be penalized - not the kids. My grandparents taught my parents that children should be seen but not heard. My kids were far from perfect but they sure as hell knew how to sit still at a restaurant...

I go out to eat often, I always tell the waitperson please do not seat me by any kids! I want to enjoy my meal!

Now all kids are not untrained however there are some sorry ass parents that don’t have a clue or just don’t respect others.

Here's my solution - "No Kids Allowed" except in fast food establishments.

P.S. And to you 4:16 - lighten up, Francis.

Maybe society needs to mind is own business and let the parent start spanking their little hell spawns like they used to. It reminds me of the El Ranchito in Madison on US 51 at night where all the kids are running around.

These are parents who lack the word "no" in their vocabulary.

Duct tape...

#1, Charge everyone a significant upfront deposit to get in. They get it back when they leave if everyone behaves.

#2, Call the cops and file a complaint for disturbing the peace, etc. Follow through in court.

Problem solved.

I'm sorry. What was it these children did? Burn the place down? Murder someone? Or act like children?

Please bring out the good ole time travel machine and let's look at how "well behaved" you old geezers and the harrumphing Gen X and Y younger folks and this restaurant twit actually were. Or, interview your parents among their peers and a few drinks.

That'd be good for a laugh. Or a million.

If you are actually a human being, you were without a doubt a pants pooping crying whining hyperactive hellion at some or all of the time in your youth. And parents did not actually just snap their fingers or give side eye to children like you and I to fix it, either. Perfect 20/20 hindsight. You don't actually remember crapping your pants, but your parents do. And you did that and acted a damn fool in public too. You were a kid, and folks used to let kids be kids.

But they cleaned up after you and bit their tongue when you asked later in life if you were "a good little boy." That's a white lie. That's what we do. And restaurant owners did not throw your parents out; they laughed and said "He's just like his father!"

There should be a fee attached, and not just at restaurants either. At Walmart in Richland yesterday was what appeared to be a mother, a doughy-looking grandmother type, and a kid with his face stuck in a phone, looked to be playing a game. The females tried to get phoneboy to walk with them, but, no, phoneboy wanted to lean against a gondola of bell peppers and keep his face glued to the phone. When they would talk to him, try to catch him up and move him along, he would squeal and scream and run away. I think they ended up the younger female filled the shopping basket, the grandmother stayed near phoneboy, watching over him (as though anyone would want to kidnap his worthless little squealing ass), and phoneboy kept playing his game. I could hear the brat all over the store, and you all know how large an area that is.

I prayed to God to send a sign to someone to righteously yank the child up by one arm and whup a new hole in his ass. “And, please, FatherGod,” I prayed, “if You do send that sign, please, FatherGod, send it to me.”

If you parents can’t or won’t discipline your little snowflakes, you ought to be forced to pay an aggravation fee.

I got my ass torn up 3-4 times a day for acting bad. Like 3:49 said, if my mamma was whoopin my ass it was exactly like 3:49s mamma. When Daddy got home my ass got tore up again.

My son was holy terror as a small kid in a restaurant, we always tried to seated in a corner so we could corral him . By the time he was 7 or 8 he was placing his own order, even picking appetizers. He is teaching his kids the same.

Back in my day something something something up hill both ways in the snow, bootstraps, etc.

A lot of old farts in here.

Damn, 6:56 you got to be one of my siblings. Thats exactly the way it was at our house when I was a kid back in the mid 60s. We got our asses torn up in school too and again at home for doing whatever garnered the whoopin at school.

We were only butt whipped at home, belts and switches, but were taught to look down on people who misbehaved in public, that they were low rent, ill begotten juvenile delinquent savages who couldn't help their shortcomings. My parents thought little of any mother or father who would head-slap a child or tell them "shut-up", regardless of the transgression.

Society is rapidly approaching a retrenchment of the "good ole' days" with public ass whoopins and roundhouse slaps no matter who's watching. When society collapses everybody will be thirsting for justice, and "kids" of all ages won't escape the wrath their idiot boomer parents wrought on a nation.

Until about 1974, every neighbor on my street had permission to switch any kid's hind legs bloody if they were out of line, and yes - you got it again when you got home for bringing shame and embarrassment on the family. Neighbors were never questioned. Society policed itself.

Few alive today remember it, but there was a time when this was NEVER a problem. Kids simply did not act up in public while accompanied by their parents. When I had friends as a child growing up, none of them had parents that spared the rod.
But over the past 30 years, the pinheads who think they know more than everyone else about raising kids, have succeeded in getting corporal punishment banned in schools and even shamed it out of the home. Today, a lot of people actually think spanking is child abuse.
So nobody should be surprised that restaurants are struggling with this. Patrons who pay good money for a decent dining experience have every right to be spared the screams, tantrums and wanderings of poorly supervised kids. So restaurants are having to make the difficult decision that parents have bailed on - someone has to keep the kids under control, especially in public.

6:14, God bless you, but you sound too young to know. Back when us “geezers” were young, the expectation of proper decorum in public was much higher. You must remember this was in the days when people dressed up for airline flights. Kids behaved or paid the price, unlike today where society dictates you must coddle your kids and never tell them no. If I got in trouble at school, I’d get a whipping and then another when I got home. If my wife (a teacher) sends a disciplinary note home with a kid, 90% of the time she will get a call from some helicopter/bulldozer parent explaining their kid actually did nothing wrong. Parents used to reinforce school discipline, now they fight it. Like I said, you sound too young to realize it was a different world back then.

Anonymous said...
At Walmart in Richland yesterday was what appeared to be a mother, a doughy-looking grandmother type, and a kid with his face stuck in a phone, looked to be playing a game. The females tried to get phoneboy to walk with them, but, no, phoneboy wanted to lean against a gondola of bell peppers and keep his face glued to the phone. When they would talk to him, try to catch him up and move him along, he would squeal and scream and run away. I think they ended up the younger female filled the shopping basket, the grandmother stayed near phoneboy, watching over him (as though anyone would want to kidnap his worthless little squealing ass), and phoneboy kept playing his game. I could hear the brat all over the store, and you all know how large an area that is.

December 13, 2023 at 6:47 PM

You were at Richland Walmarks, what did you expect?

DINGDINGDING!!

We have found the source of the problem at 6:14.

I suppose I should start with 6:47, who twice takes in vain, the precious name of the Creator, before positing violence as a solution to childhood misbehavior.

Then, I'll address the rest of the sick fucks crowing about their having been the recipients of continual physical violence, when they were children. I have to wonder, first, why their parents procreated. Was it not obvious to them, that they were incapable of rearing offspring? Why did they HAVE children?

And why, after the first few "wuppins", did those children not get the message, and learn to behave? Or was something wrong with the parents? Did those feckless parents fail to articulate and/or demonstrate what behavior was expected? Perhaps, they WANTED their children to misbehave, since that would provide EXCUSES for continual physical violence against them? That would explain why those parents didn't bother to take the time to teach their children how TO act.

Narcissists/Sociopaths/Psychopaths like it, when others "disappoint" them. They love having excuses for what they enjoy doing to others. If necessary, they set traps for others, to ensure a supply of "disappointments". Not taking the time to properly show children how TO behave, would seem to be an example of trap-setting. I have to wonder whether the bad parenting described by other posters, is not an example of common, garden-variety, low-level psychopathy, as it occurs in daily life.

Sorry, families with young children have a right to participate in society. Take a good long hard look in the mirror if you find yourself angry towards children.

Children are problematic. They're noisy, nosey and snotty. Leave their asses at home, like the family dog, chained to a tree out front with an upturned water bowl. Problem solved.

Don’t apologize 11:10 just maintain control of your children’s behavior. I raised four and never experienced any wild behavior in a restaurant or other public settting. Of course children can be difficult but that doesn’t mean you should allow them to interfere with other people’s enjoyment. When I was young I was fortunate to go out with my parents every saturday night. Angelo’s on Terry Rd was one of my favorites. Mr. Jimmy would come by our table and always had a story to tell. The Mayflower, the Elite, and many great places to eat back then were full of families with children. Even as a child I don’t remember other children behaving badly in restaurants. It wasn’t accepted and didn’t happen. I miss the classic restaurants, and the parenting that went with the the dining experience. So many great places and so many good times gone.

Looks like about 90% of commenters get it. The others who are horrified by corporal punishment and think the example given is just “kids being kids” are the problem. We spanked our children when they were small and didn’t understand anything else. If you don’t get them under control when they start being little rebellious toddlers you have probably lost the battle. I don’t think it takes whipping kids al the time but that option has to be on the table. It worked for us. People always commented on our well behaved children. Running around in public being little hellions was not allowed. An important thing we taught our kids was, “we love you and may think you are cute but nobody else does”.

People need to learn that humans are born little savages and have to be trained to be good people. The prisons are full of people with high self esteem who weren’t disciplined as children. Lots of folks in there who got the hell beat out of them too, but they were not properly disciplined. Just beating on kids is not the answer. But you do have to teach them that they have to respect authority, starting with YOU.

Wow, I didn’t know there was a Karen convention in town, and they all apparently decided to stop by to chime in on this thread…

I bet y’all are the same people who don’t leave tips and who leave your shopping carts out in the middle of parking spots.

We were in Blue Ridge last year and dined at that very restaurant. It’s right on the Toccoa River. Very classy place. The food was fantastic.

The answer to the question is NO - an establishment has no legal authority to tax, materially sanction or otherwise penalize a customer for any reason, including behavior.

Let something like that appear on a customer's bill or as an addition to a credit card charge and see how fast some white-aproned clown with a neck beard, smelling of onions, gets either clocked or sued.

There are hungry lawyers on every park bench just waiting to represent you if you're the victim of this nonsense.

The people who should be fined (including most of YOU) are those who rock back smugly in their chairs, pass a little gas and say, "Lemme tell you how it was back in MY day when my daddy whupped my ass up one aisle and down the other..."

@11:10pm

"Sorry, families with young children have a right to participate in society. Take a good long hard look in the mirror if you find yourself angry towards children."

Where on earth is that written? Families with young children find out very quickly how much work it is to raise a person that won't end up in prison or worse - and they think you can "love" a child into success. Structure and discipline are things pets (and children and adults alike) love. When there isn't any, nothing works correctly because it's just the law of the jungle.

One could make the case that today's worldwide crisis and turn toward pervasive corruption at all levels is a manifestation of a generation that decided to say "yes" to every thing because they didn't have the emotional maturity to say "no" ten times more often.

11:10, you are right, families with children certainly have a right to participate in society. However, the parents must strike a balance between their rights and the people around them. No one is angry at children, they’re angry at oblivious parents who let their kids misbehave.

@11:10 oh you can participate... but there is a segment of our society that feel that rules don't apply to them and polite decorum is a thing of the past.

I occasionally encounter feral children in restaurants and stores. I figure that their "parents" will ultimately pay the price for their nonchalant and narcissistic lack of parenting when their kids are older. It's more common in cheap, fast-food restaurants than fine dining restaurants.

My gripe about fine dining restaurants is people who dip themselves in a vat of perfume or cologne. Many of us have acute reactions to perfumes. That's why medical staff is prohibited from wearing it at work. I'd rather smell secondhand smoke than the stench of someone's perfume when I am trying to enjoy a meal. Husband and I recently had to request a table change in the middle of our meal at BR Prime in Biloxi when a reeking young woman was seated at the adjacent table. Her stench destroyed our ability to taste our food, but bless her heart, she didn't know any better. The restaurant staff was very apologetic, said we were hardly the first customers to complain about the perfume problem, and comp'd us free desserts.

Sympathy to the restaurants and diners whose meals are ruined by ignoramuses.

A very simple yet entirely relatable example in comparison is families in church. There are those who reprimand their children or take them to the "cry room"; and, then there are others who simply ignore that their child is disrupting a whole section of the congregation's concentration and meditation and allow it to continue yapping-away without recourse.

10:55pm, "Narcissists/Sociopaths/Psychopaths like it, when others "disappoint" them.

Which are you? Sounds like you align with all three.

I'm a BOOMER, born in the 50s and proud of it. My children are grown, college educated, employed with children of their own. No student loans either.

I get compliments to this day on how polite my children are and how well behaved their children are.

I followed the example of my parents, god rest them, in raising my siblings and me and would not change a thing.

To all the Boomer Bashers here.....KISS MY ASS.

I have many of acquaintances whose children are well raised and respectful of those around them. They and we attempted to maintain control of our kids in public. We were not always successful but we made sure that we apologized and took appropriate action. Sometimes that meant leaving early or taking the kids out to the car to explain in no uncertain terms that they will not be able to sit down for a bit when we got home. Those parents, I have no problem with. I do have a problem with the several parents I know that never attempted to enforce discipline in public. They and their kids are self centered and expect to be catered to or to be the center of attention. Some are wealthy, some are not. Comes in all kinds. These narcissists have passed down the trait to their kids and they can be a terror to those around them and you better not ask them to control their kids. Not in favor of a tax, but a quiet word that if they do not calm the kids down, to never come back.

7:40 it's a steak house, in a casino, in Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast. Lots of people thinking that a niiiccee & fan-cee place to dine. What did you expect?

My father simply told me , “If you do that again I’ll put something on you that Ajax won’t take off” and he followed through.
BTW Ajax us soap for you youngins.

Fatherless homes birth this untoward activity

I was in Cazuela a few years ago dining on the patio.

Woman was there with her two small kids for an hour. She literally spent the entire time on the phone. All of it. Did not supervise her kids at all. The patio became a playpen as they ran around, went up and bothered other patrons, climbed on tables and chairs. She never got on to them but let them run a mock while she gabbed away. Gabbed gabbed gabbed.

I’m very sorry that most of y’all appear to have had abusive drunks for parents. Despite y’all’s message on here, that’s not the ideal.

8:57 - I'm 7:40 and I've eaten in 5-star restaurants all over the US and many foreign countries. BR Prime is a good steakhouse and charges high dollars for the food. I certainly consider it to be "fine dining" even through, gasp!, it's located in a casino. The food there is better than at that old tourist trap, Mary Mahoney's, which I suspect you think is the epitome of fine dining in Mississippi.

Take it easy on them, 8:10, the coddled little snowflakes are just jealous of us

Agree 8:34. I understand kids are not perfect and that is understandable. But as KF noted...lazy parents create these little monsters.

The failure of low expectations and excusing abhorrent behavior is passed down from selfish parent to self absorbed child. So many entitled adults care little for the people around them, yet they think they have the moral high ground...because they don't hit their kids.

I don't care how you get Junior to stop wrecking the restaurant.
By force, or removal...but as a parent it's your job to figure it out.
Parenting is not easy. If you can't do the hard work, don't become a parent.

"7:40 it's a steak house, in a casino, in Mississippi, on the Gulf Coast. Lots of people thinking that a niiiccee & fan-cee place to dine. What did you expect?"
December 14, 2023 at 8:57 AM

8:57, I LOVE you! That's precisely what I was thinking.

(And, beyond the redneckiness of steakhouses - especially on the Coast - particularly in casinos, there's the MSG and sugar to be considered. A casino steak house is exactly the sort of place where "three parts sugar and one part salt" is likely to be sprinkled on your steak, before it's grilled.)

Alright 5:47 from which law school did you graduate?

That's what I thought. You were running around being a pest instead.

I have giggled at so many of the comments. For our family, Dad's "look" was all it took. When we screwed up, and we did, Dad took off his belt and popped us. We deserved it. We never did it again. Mom told us to go cut our switch. hahahaha. Most lessons only needed learning once. Great childhood and wouldn't trade it for anything in this world.

"I don't care how you get Junior to stop wrecking the restaurant.
By force, or removal...but as a parent it's your job to figure it out."

This made me burst out laughing. Thanks. And I agree.

Spare the rod...

Good Lord, though, none of you snowflake makers tell us the children y’all raised with timeouts and not tanning their bratty little asses grew up to be paragons of good breeding and etiquette, only what knuckle-dragging Neanderthals the rest of us are.

3:08. Okay, you've gotta be between 65-70...? (screw you little jerks) Yep, that's what our mamas did.

HAHAHA I just watched the video and that's awesome!

The fact that the guy and his friends were so terribly offended at just being called out for letting their kids run wild pretty much says it all (the reporter clearly said the restaurant has never actually charged the "parenting fee").

So, what did they do? They ran to the Internet to attack the business by leaving poor reviews, which had nothing to do with the actual food and service.

Of course self-centered, spoiled, entitled adults are going to let their kids run wild. They are way too into themselves to supervise children. These people need to be called out, perhaps for the first time in their lives.

4:18, therein lies the problem, the little shits are allowed to run wild at home with no obvious restraints. So, they will behave the same in restaurants, stores, office, etc. Most of us boomers would have done that ONCE. When we arrived back home the ass whooping would commence!!!

The Ramones have a song on this subject.

Had to be 15 years or so ago at the McDonald’s drive through on Hwy 51 in Ridgeland.

It was a busy, hot day and the drive through lane was stalled for some reason. It seemed like it took a long time for each order to be filled and the car to move along. There was an SUV in front of me with a mom, dad, and at least one kid who looked to be nine or ten years of age. The male child was in the rear seat. When they finally got to the serving window the kid rolled down the driver’s side rear window. The kid said something ugly to the order filler about the long wait. The order filler reacted by kind of throwing the big gulp (or whatever) at the kid. Nothing was spilled. The next thing I knew the car had pulled into a parking space and the dad marched into the McDonald’s. Now it was my turn at the serving window and I observed the manager and the throwing employee laughing and cackling, I assume about the dad’s complaint.

I know that when I was a kid if I had said something rude to an order filler or wait person my parents would have made me march myself up to the person and apologize to their face. This actually happened me when I engaged in some vandalism (raw eggs were involved) against the property of a kid in school with whom I did not get along. My dad went with me to the house of the other kid and made me apologize to other father in person. You know what? I never engaged in vandalism again.

I was wrestling with my siblings. My dad was called from work, he stood in front of me like a giant and asked what’s the problem while urine ran down my legs. The next thing I knew I was laying on top of the Christmas tree, that was in 1968. My dad then went back to work.
Man I love my dad, he was a great father! All five of us kids grew up to be responsible, loving, giving and caring adults!

It just took that look from my mom or dad! Those were the good ole days!

@ December 14, 2023 at 8:59 PM
Actually, just turned 60.