Cane Rosso Lakewood Has To Fill In Fountain Due to Poor Parenting (Houston: house, restaurant)

[globe9]

After reading all of these comments it does appear that the Lakewood area has a preponderance of undisciplined children in the many local restaurants. As a person who enjoys eating out a lot, I've got to say I'm almost glad I couldn't afford anything decent in Lakewood b/c I dont think I could take having kids ruin my meals. Its not like we're talking about Applebee's, Chili's, CiCi's etc where obnoxious kids are the norm.
I think the owner should have banned children from the patio, but from reading comments on this topic somewhere else, that may not have worked. Seems the a-hole parents would have taken offense, talked bad about the restaurant and boycotted it. While I think them boycotting any restaurant with their crappy kids would be awesome, some think they have enough power and followers to actually damage the restaurants rep and income.
I guess filling in the fountain was easiest.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by GreyDay

I was thinking of a girl I saw through a window a few streets down from l'arc de triomphe and her parents poured her a glass of the deepest red wine. The girl was maybe 8 or so. That accounts for the gender change. I assume boys in France are also served wine. My french is decent, used to be better. Hard to keep it up in Dallas.

Yes, it's hard to find people to speak it with in Dallas. One of my grandparents was French and I've been speaking it practically since birth. Actually all four of my grandparents were Jewish refugees from the war and came from France, Germany, and Poland so I grew up speaking all of those languages plus English. When I visit my parents, English stays outside the front door and it's a constant din of three or four different languages; my dad will start a sentence in one language and finish it in another. But we don't do that in public; out and about, it's strictly English only.

But when I lived in France, I rarely saw children drinking wine at the dinner table in public. If they had any, it was out of a very small cup or sips from their parents' glasses. I really don't know how French parents raise such well-behaved children but they really do. The French pay a lot more attention to their manners and appearance than Americans do. Some people here mistake that for snobbery. It isn't.

[loves2read]

But we don't do that in public; out and about, it's strictly English only

Sort of my policy when raising children--out and about, a more strict behavior policy...
at home, they were allowed more freedom/flexibility in doing things like arguing with a sibling or (quelle horreur) a parent, being messy, whatever...
and that was not so much about being hypocritical as it was about imposing bad behavior on others who might have different sensibilities...it was about teaching respect for others in a weird way...
As Tolstoy wrote: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
My interp: all happy families have children who respect themselves as well as others by not acting like rules don't matter...

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by loves2read

But we don't do that in public; out and about, it's strictly English only

Sort of my policy when raising children--out and about, a more strict behavior policy...
at home, they were allowed more freedom/flexibility in doing things like arguing with a sibling or (quelle horreur) a parent, being messy, whatever...
and that was not so much about being hypocritical as it was about imposing bad behavior on others who might have different sensibilities...it was about teaching respect for others in a weird way...
As Tolstoy wrote: "All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."
My interp: all happy families have children who respect themselves as well as others by not acting like rules don't matter...

We were taught that manners were not only about presenting ourselves in the best possible way, but also about making others feel at ease with US. It's a two-way street....it boils down to common courtesy. If we made a mess in public, we were expected to clean it up. To this day if I dribble water or food on a table in a restaurant, I'll wipe it up immediately. If we acted up in public, we got one warning. If we did it again, one parent would settle the bill and box up the leftovers and the other would take us out to the car where we'd get yelled at and/or a pop or two on the butt. I can't even imagine what would have happened if we'd behaved like some kids nowadays behave. I probably wouldn't have been able to sit for a week.

Behind closed doors, we would regularly scream across the house in various languages, jump on the furniture, make messes, track dirt into the house, bring lizards and snakes in and scare the crap out of my mother, etc. And it was OK, because we were at home and we could be ourselves. But in public? No. No no no no no no no no. Indoor voices only, no cursing, clean up after yourself, etc.

It's about MANNERS. My parents were totally OK with their kids messing up the house and generally being a pain in the ass because that's what they signed up for. But other people out in public didn't necessarily sign up for that. It's not OK to be a hellion in public and it reflects on the parents.

[RJ312]

Way too many people have children that have no business having children, which leads to unfortunate incidents like what's going on at Cane Rosso. For many people who don't have children, particularly males, the idea of being around children is not palatable.

Discipline is usually a good thing with children. The idea that they need to learn how to properly behave is a good idea. Most children do not get enough discipline. Of course, too much discipline has consequences. The healthy balance is what is needed.

[loves2read]

"Discipline" has just become a shifting code word for borderline abuse--

@BigDGeek--we speak the same language even if I can't do your "mother tongues"...
same thing about going to the movies--
we took our kids when I was breastfeeding and definitely had them behave in movies from that time on...
There are just so many adults today who don't know how to behave in a movie theater--not to mention children...

It never fails to amaze me how people love to watch the reality shows where there are videos of people behaving badly...there is nothing funny about that to me...I just don't see the humor in that...

[Big G]

I dunno about the Lakewood "piling on".

As far as parents whose kids become invisible to them when misbehaving, but who turn into enraged mama bears when someone dares interfere with the urchins' actions - Lakewood has no monopoly on that. You can see that up here in CoCo all the time. (Particularly in Frisco. )

And those self-congratulatory postings that HP or Preston Hollow kids/parents don't ever act like that - call me skeptical.

---

And the car leasing slam on Plano upthread? If you're going to insult us, get it right! BMW Series 3 is the SMU frat boy grads in Uptown. Plano is the leased Lexus RX or Lincoln Navigator.

[Souleiado]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

"Parisienne" refers only to females or female nouns. The word you're looking for is "Parisien" but when referring to children (plural) you'd say "les enfants Parisiens." And the "-ns" is silent. The N is only pronounced when it's followed by a vowel. So you'd hear the N in "Parisienne," but not in "Parisien." (Free French lesson! I'm here to help!)

And while the French definitely take a more liberal approach to children and alcohol than we do, French people tend to get leathered a lot less than Americans do.

But back on topic...these Lakewood parents are a real piece of...erm...WORK. That's a more polite four-letter word for them.

No French don't drink less than American We just learn how to drink at a very young age and we don't get drunk as fast , we learn how to eat while drinking and to take the time to drink, but at the end the consummation is the same.
And sure French kids are better behave, but the reason behind is corporal punishment , kids are scared of their parents . Some of the punishments would be totally consider as abuse here in the US.
But this is going away , young parents don't want this anymore . I give it 10 more years and you will see no difference with Americans kids, I can already see it with my niece and young cousins.

[MckinneyOwnr]

That's too bad, looked like a nice outdoor feature to have.

As far as the parenting thing goes... bad parents are everywhere. Kids will be kids, but if your kids can't behave themselves, then they shouldn't be out in public being a nuisance. Something tells me that these obnoxious parents who allow their children to act like this also have friends with kids that are not disciplined. I see no reason why they can't just gather at each others houses to drink and let their kids destroy their own property!

I have a friend of mine with two kids. Long time friend, since 6th grade or so. He brought his son over to our new home a few years back, when he was about 3. We had just bought a very expensive leather sectional. We invited them over for dinner and to see the house, I thought it was clear that it was an adult's only night, but I guess they didn't get the message. They let their kid run back and forth across our sectional with his shoes on and didn't say anything. I had to tell my friend to get his son down.

Our neighbors across the street, have 3 children. They are VERY well behaved when they come over and we don't mind having them at all. While my friend is a good father in most things, he's failed when it comes to setting boundaries for his kids and teaching them how to act in certain places.

[TheOverdog]

I think the owner should have just talked to some people who build damage-proof fountains, some rocks and a diaper don't seem like that much to handle in my opinion. I in no way think it's acceptable for kids to be throwing things into a fountain, and they and their parents should be kicked out, but ranchers make fountains all the time that are cow-proof called 'water troughs', and cows are much more destructive than little kids. I mean seriously, a fountain also has to deal with birds and other nocturnal wild animals that aren't exactly gentle, especially one that close to White Rock Lake.

Something just seems off about this explanation to me...seems like an easy group to blame that is covering up other issues.