Children in restaurants

[andyA700]

We have been in restaurants in France, Germany, Italy and Austria, where the children are well behaved, so is this a cultural thing in this country?

[21TonyK]

Too a degree I think do. Eating out in g try he UK seems to be more of an occasional thing and seen as something special whereas my experience on the continent is it’s more an everyday thing which always seems to involve the whole family.

[djc206]

21TonyK said:

Too a degree I think do. Eating out in g try he UK seems to be more of an occasional thing and seen as something special whereas my experience on the continent is it’s more an everyday thing which always seems to involve the whole family.

Good point despite autocorrects best effort there!

I think British parents tend to have a more passive style. Of my friends with kids as someone who sees it from the outside and is therefore best placed to notice differences I see those that involve their kids in conversation at the table to be generally have better behaved kids. The friends who have gone down the ‘we’re off to the pub grab his iPad’ route find themselves having to contend with boredom and poor socialisation which breed bad behaviour. None of my friends are bad parents some are just more involved than others and the results speak for themselves.

[Timberwolf]

Genuine question, because I don't know: in the more Mediterranean-style cultures where eating out as a family is more normalised, do they have the same sort of "catering for children's parties" style restaurants with staff in fancy dress, bells ringing and Happy Birthday being sung every 10 minutes, and some sort of Lord of the Flies style situation actively developing around the ball pond?

I do wonder if part of the issue in the UK, other than eating as a family being generally rare and unfamiliar outside the circles of People Who Brunch, is children having so much of their experience skewed toward places where bedlam is encouraged and not being able to differentiate when they go to a "proper" restaurant. Obviously if they have exactly the same type of thing in France, Spain and Portugal that theory would be undermined somewhat.