Kids, iPads and restaurants ....

Wren

Wren

Well-known Member
Location
Europe
Out for lunch today, the food was beautifully cooked, waiters attentive and restaurant atmosphere relaxing until a couple came in, carrying a baby, no more than 9/10 months old in a baby seat, and sat at the next table which happened to be behind an openwork screen so the child was right beside me, halfway through our meal I heard all this whirring, squealing and music, couldn’t believe my eyes the kid was actually holding a small iPad playing games ! it was driving me nuts so we moved to quiet corner table for our desert and coffees, next thing a family with two kids came and sat nex to us, out came their iPads and the whole thing started up again, twice as bad !

We finished our coffee and left a lot sooner than we had planned, and I would think twice before returning

Would this situation annoy you, or would you just take it in your stride ?
 

Only kids are bothersome?? Ever sit and have some blowhard at the next table, half in the bag, talking politics or his life experiences loud enough for half the restaurant to hear? I'd rather listen to the video games if I had the choice. In a public place, we all have to listen to obnoxious people at times, kids, babies, and the aforementioned drunks. I guess we just try to choose the places here it least happens.
 

DaveA said:
Only kids are bothersome?? Ever sit and have some blowhard at the next table, half in the bag, talking politics or his life experiences loud enough for half the restaurant to hear? I'd rather listen to the video games if I had the choice. In a public place, we all have to listen to obnoxious people at times, kids, babies, and the aforementioned drunks. I guess we just try to choose the places here it least happens.
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Great point Dave! I have experienced more loud and obnoxious adults than children, now that I think of it.
 
I've seen it many times in restaurants now. The parents prop the toddler into a high chair and set the ipad up in front of them. I've never been close enough to get irritated by any noise... but I do get inwardly furious that the parents are not talking to the child throughout the meal... but I'm also torn between that and the parents feeling that to prevent their children upsetting other diners..especially little ones who might be bored and in tears, they give them something to keep them occupied..... At least I hope thats' the reason they do it and don't prop up an ipad in front of the toddlers at home.. while they eat!!

It's a hard one to call... I think I'd rather they were on an Ipad than running around screaming ..
 
For me, it depends on the restaurant.

If it is an upscale restaurant I expect it to be quiet and if it is a chain or family style restaurant I take whatever comes my way

I agree with others that I would rather listen to a happy child with an Ipad than listen to an adult in broadcast mode.
 
What bothers me a lot more is the parents who think it's perfectly okay for their kids to go tearing around a restaurant as if they were in a playground!
 
Aunt Bea said:
For me, it depends on the restaurant.

If it is an upscale restaurant I expect it to be quiet and if it is a chain or family style restaurant I take whatever comes my way

I agree with others that I would rather listen to a happy child with an Ipad than listen to an adult in broadcast mode.
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Ditto. Or running, squealing, crying kids.
 
Aunt Bea said:
For me, it depends on the restaurant.

If it is an upscale restaurant I expect it to be quiet and if it is a chain or family style restaurant I take whatever comes my way

I agree with others that I would rather listen to a happy child with an Ipad than listen to an adult in broadcast mode.
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It is an upscale restaurant and bar, I havn’t eaten there for quite a while and had never seen children there before
 
Not a restaurant, but when I took my sister to the coumadin clinic yesterday, the place, which shares the waiting area with the pediatric clinic, was full of kids on ipads and telephones. They were completely oblivious to the world around them. In one instance a mom, who was also engrossed in her ipad, blithely ignored her little kid, who was tearing moss and plants from the central planter in there. A bomb could have gone on in that room and no one would have paid any attention.

Sometimes I feel like I've entered some kind of alien world where everybody just keeps their nose in their devices, making all kinds of beeps and electronic "music." How are those kids going to learn to interact with the real world?
 
Butterfly said:
Not a restaurant, but when I took my sister to the coumadin clinic yesterday, the place, which shares the waiting area with the pediatric clinic, was full of kids on ipads and telephones. They were completely oblivious to the world around them. In one instance a mom, who was also engrossed in her ipad, blithely ignored her little kid, who was tearing moss and plants from the central planter in there. A bomb could have gone on in that room and no one would have paid any attention.

Sometimes I feel like I've entered some kind of alien world where everybody just keeps their nose in their devices, making all kinds of beeps and electronic "music." How are those kids going to learn to interact with the real world?
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Oh I so agree with you, I say this all the time. I have real concerns about how these children are going to be able to interact with the real world.. it's a very real and genuine concern for me, and should be for all of us.
 
I wouldn't dream of taking my iPad to a restaurant but it I would suggest the parents were using it to keep their child quiet.Wonder if they ever talk to he/she?Don't hold much hope for its language development.
 

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