(and before you say "We've covered this", I did do a search of all articles and turned up very little).
You're out having a nice meal in a place expensive enough that people should know better than to bring kids, especially kids they can't control. You're about halfway through your bottle of wine, when here they come, behind the hostess and the waiter with the high chair in hand. You sigh and groan "Oh, no.. Here we go again.". Yet another meal trounced by Bratley, Snotleigh and their utterly inconsiderate parents.
You try to bite your tongue, hoping beyond hope that this family will be different - that they'll be the family who actually repsects others and will keep their kids under control or leave the restaurant if things go downhill. You hope.
Your entrees arrive and right about the time you reach to pour that second glass of wine, you find out just how wrong you are. Bratley plays his latest percussion rendition on the china, while snotleigh proceeds to try and attract her mother's attention by shouting "Mama! Mama! Mama!" over and over until the mother sighs, puts down her drink and asks "Yes, dear?". The wait staff will do nothing; they are "kid friendly", so you're on your own and the Kiddersons know that. They depend on everyone within earshot being too nice to confront them. You realize that if you don't confront these people, you will have to eat and flee, just to get away from the noise.
So, what do you do? Confront, risk a verbal altercation and ruin the evening? Eat and flee the scene? Complain to the manager?
I'd like to see some coping strategies, other than "suffer in silence". I'm just way too sick of doing that.
Thanks -- mike