Russell Catania: Children must behave in restaurants

Something is wrong with our upbringing lately. Nobody seems to care about others anymore.

The other night a group of six of us got together at a nice Cary restaurant from about 5:30 to almost 7 p.m. It was crowded as it was a Friday evening around mid-December (holiday season) and there was a wedding reception in the “back room.”

We were wrapping up dinner and contemplating dessert, when a young couple with two children were seated in the four-seat booth next to us. One of the children was an infant, and the other was a newborn (two to three months?). The newborn was crying and screaming, so we decided to leave without dessert.

We love children, we just wish parents would take them to an appropriate place until they can behave in public without disturbing all the other diners around them.

When a couple decides to have children, they must realize that they are expected to relinquish a few amenities until the children can behave in public without disturbing other paying customers. Also, taking a newborn to a crowded restaurant at 7 p.m. when the weather is freezing outside doesn’t sound like a wonderful idea.

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 8:10 PM with the headline "Russell Catania: Children must behave in restaurants."