‘Only adults’ holidays and restaurants where children are not welcome … and there seems to be a market for it too. What is happening nowadays, I wonder? Are children becoming more difficult to handle? Are we so stressed from work that we can’t tolerate a baby crying anymore? Or are parents not correcting their children by unacceptable behavior that this causes so much irritation? I also remember such a nice flight where a toddler behind us cried for two hours while his mother tried to sleep without batting an eye. Interference of other passengers didn’t help.
I really wonder how we came this far. I like to think back on all our holidays in Southern Europe where our children were welcomed with open arms, on camp sites, hotels and restaurants, children are very important for families there. I remember when we took our young boys to a French restaurant in a small village that turned out to be a little too chic and there was no children’s menu… Our children ate little portions, brave but reluctantly, and between the courses we allowed them to play with their Gameboy. When we left the restaurant we received a compliment that our children had behaved so well. I felt proud because don’t think they are angels normally . Our boys are full of temperament and I can write a book about the period they were little. We still having some issues now and then, but there never was outdoors screaming and whining. Probably they knew exactly how far they could go.
Perhaps we just ask too much from children nowadays. Why take a baby into a crowded cafe in the evening to meet with friends? Which child likes to go to a restaurant after a very busy day? Which child can sit quiet for hours in an airplane to go to a tropical island? I really wonder.