20/20 Segment on Kids at Restaurants

Image from ABC News, 20/20


Thanks to the people over at Blogging Baby, who tipped us off that tonight, 20/20 will be airing a segment on rowdy children at restaurants. We confess, we are not the biggest TV people - we could literally spend 24 hours a day looking at fabulous resorts online. But this is an episode we don't want to miss.

In Chicago, restaurant owner Dan McCauley became tired of parents bringing unruly children to his restaurant and letting the youngsters do as they liked while the adults blissfully ate. One afternoon, Mr. McCauley reportedly watched as a pair of children literally scaled the walls while their parents sat nearby. We're assuming his restaurant doesn't include a rock-climbing feature because Mr. McCauley had, at this juncture, had enough. He told the adults in the group that they - and their kids - were no longer welcome, and the next day, his restaurant, A Taste of Heaven, sported a sign on its front door that read "Children of all ages have to behave and use their indoor voices when coming to A Taste of Heaven."

This set off a firestorm in the community, with dozens of phone calls from angry parents who let it be known that they would go to hell before they ever set foot in A Taste of Heaven again. But it didn't stop there. When the national media got ahold of the story, McCauley began to receive letters from across the country and overseas. But while the Chicago parents were incensed, the national and international letters overwhelmingly applauded McCauley for taking a stand against what many see as a loss of civility, manners and etiquette these days. Some letters even included donations, to make up for any lost revenue McCauley might suffer. (Check out TripAdvisor for some reviews on the restaurant, including many that mention this whole drama...)

As several people commented on Blogging Baby's post, perhaps McCauley could have found a more positive and less incendiary way to get his point across, something like "Well-Behaved Children Welcome" or something. The man was probably so annoyed that he put up the first thing that came into his head.

Well, we've gone down this road before with this whole "manners" thing so we're not going to beat a dead horse, or offer an opinion on this particular incident. We just thought that, as parents who travel with your children and presumably go out to eat with them every now and then, you'd be interested in knowing about this story, and this segment, which airs tonight at 10 p.m EST. It seems as though there's a rising anti-child sentiment. And while we know it's really against the poorly-behaved ones, the fact is, we all end up suffering the consequences. Have an opinion you'd like to share? Let us know below...