General Chat

:-0

What do you think?

story here:

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/2013/02/20/06/13/sydney-shopping-centre-bans-screaming-children

I always thought that Australia was supposed to be a family friendly place, At least thats the impression given on the UK TV programmes promoting the country as a possible place to emigrate to for people wanting a better quality of family life

Roy

I get annoyed by badly behaved children, but no-one can predict a two year old's tantrum!!

......and what about special needs children - are they to be banned as well?

I too get annoyed at screaming children, generally when the parents are seemingly unaware of their offsprings antics! But shopping can be tiring,boring and generally uninspiring to a young child unless they are rewarded by the goodies that many shops place strategically to attract their attention.

My G daughter was an angel to shop with and would accept why she couldn't have everything she saw, unlike her father who would plague me but eventually realised he was not going to win the battle.

My mother used to say people forget what it was like having young children, well I haven't, quite honestly I feel the parents of today have a hard time with all the pressures of advertising and peer pressure.

As long as the person in charge of the child is trying to deal with the situation and not just allowing it to run amok they have my sympathies.

Did you see the story a few weeks ago? A shopping centre guard in the US tasered a woman who let her kids run amok! I think she got a bit aggro, and he'd had enough.

A couple of weeks ago there was a small boy in my local supermarket, he had one of those "kiddy" trolleys, and he was running around & screaming his head off. I kept waiting for him to crash into someone! He did run into a display, the trolley fell over and so did he, and waaiiiiiiiiiiiled like he had broken every bone in his body. I should be ashamed to admit that I thought "good, serves the little B*r right", but I'm not.

Yes, his mother was there........ looking a bit dazed...... every couple of minutes she'd say "Ollie, please behave" and he took no notice of her.

:-(

Oh I agree with you there nothing annoys me more than the "please don't do that darling" "put that down darling" brigade, they are just as bad as the parents who cuss their children !! ..... Neither the toneless condescending reprimand or the foul mouthed abuse hurled at the child works if the child has no concept of what good behaviour is :-(

Most reasonable parents don't let their children run amok in public places. If distraction didn't work with our son then I withdrew him from the situation rather than disturb people trying to enjoy a meal or whatever.

If parents do nothing to control their children other than make ineffectual comments then I would back any owner who told them to leave.

I saw a sign in a shop a while ago ~

"children who misbehave will be given a double espresso and a puppy to take home"

:-D

I feel sorry for the puppy

It is half term here and it is a nightmare.

What about shopping centre staff giving each misbehaving child a live goldfish as a present. With only enough water for goldfish to live for 10 minutes.

Not quite as effective as free puppy, but cheap and should do trick.

How do teachers cope? Can they not be issued with tazers and pepper sprays? :-0

The food court is near the play area for the c hildren...it says in the article.

How about they move the play area ......?

I am still truamatised after 20 yrs from having to take 1 child 1 toddler and 1 baby shopping it didnt happen often even though they were well behaved but I couldnt predict when one would attempt to clean the floor of the shopping centre with their belly if they couldnt have what they had seen, I found a altertive route passed McDonalds, even without them and now its get in get what I went for and get out :-|

I've left a shop with a screaming toddler under my arm more than once.

My own I hasten to add, I was mortified every time and understand how a happy toddler can suddenly morph into a banshee when told No.

As soon as they understood that No meant No despite their pleading or yelling, things improved enormously. :-D

I must live on the moon never seen any of this except on TV.

Lots of kids live near us, noisy and boisterous as one would hope but no nutty stunts ... certainly no screaming and yelling in the supermarket.

Plenty of crazy, rude OAPs though many of whom should be relieved of their driving licenses. One of our female OAPs actually managed to mow down another woman shopper ON PURPOSE in our local market with her trolley car or whatever you call them. Another was convicted of road rage in the M&S car park...

Why do children get such a bad press ?

If they are not happy there is usually a reason. Why on earth anybody could think that carting 3 year olds around Tesco I don't know, it's an irrational decision.

Let them be.

They do say they will not be tolerated not they will be banned. I can't say I blame them as it is dangerous for children to run around a cafe/restaurant when people are carrying hot drinks anyway. As well as the fact that the rest of us don't want to have to shout above their screaming. I would hope that most parents would remove a screaming child anyway, although I know some don't. So maybe it should read, 'the parents of uncontrolled children will be asked to leave.'

And,as Muffy says, why not move the play area? Or insist parents of children in the play area do not abandon them and sit the far side of the eating area so the child has to run across to them.

The cafe could always issue some leg irons or install child sized stocks.

Or maybe as in Denmark chain the kids up outside in the cold.
Or just got to M&S and buy a "great coffee morning in" package with fine Arabica coffee, rum babas and so on...
Or go to Thornbury Castle (near Gloucester) where they serve a great coffee and definitely never ever inflict screaming kids on their customers. Take your platinum card with you.

In these supposedly austere times just how many coffee shops can a town sustain ? There are a dozen in our town centre plus two pubs and that does not include restaurants. There are zero butchers, bakers and green grocers apart from a tired convenience store.

I have noticed go faster push chairs chained up to the cafe bike stands, though rarely still occupied by the kids.

There is, supposedly, a lot of unemployment. Has nobody thought of offering young ladies and gentlemen work experience as a nanny ? Apparently so long as you make the arrangement through the local Job Centre then there is no need to pay them anything and you even get £ 1000 if they land a paying job whether it is related to nannying or not.

I would have thought that it was a better option than Poundland or shoving trolleys around at Tesco. Or maybe not ...

My first thought when I hear a child having a tantrum is 'Thank god that's not mine.' :-D

Then I feel sympathy for the parent who is having to deal with it. As Maggie says what if it's a child with special needs? In this case I'd agree with Muffy, move the play area elsewhere.

As a slight aside I'm irritated by this

"Mothers have to be more responsible. We have had so many complaints."

One of the parents in the clip was a father. Don't they, who as parents are equally responsible for their child, have to be more responsible?

I took the original report to mean children charging round screaming for no particular reason and that their parents were just letting them. I've seen this lots of times in the mall in our city and in pubs.

If the child is distressed and the parents are trying to comfort him/her then I don't think anyone would want to see them out on their ears.

Most play areas say that parents are supposed to supervise their children, not go elsewhere leaving the children to get out of control. Those who do so are the parents who should be banned.

Rollo, was a bit confused there I didn't know there was a castle in Thornbury but to my surprise Is ee it is Thornbury Castle hotel. I have been to Thornbury (OH is playing golf there today), but really hadn't noticed that hotel, looks very swish.

At the prices Charged in Supermarkets I can,t see why they cannot provide playrooms for children (Properly Supervised) then the parents can get on and shop without the problem of their children annoying them and others.They had one in Aberystwyth a few years ago and it worked well.**M**.