I agree that children have the same human rights as adults. But where do you draw the line when it comes to overstepping other people's boundaries? Again, I agree that being responsible and following or holding the hand of a child in a non-traffic area while they roam is fine. I couldn't care less about the kid being near my table or waving.....my concern is strictly with safety. And for many people, especially people who have never waited tables, it is hard to understand what is safe and what is not. Just because you are 5 feet behind toddler and making sure they are not bothering someone does not mean that a waiter will know that toddler is on the floor five feet away. I have seen it many times and as I posted earlier, I tripped and could have seriously hurt a supervised child. The mother was maybe 10 feet behind following the toddler. She was doing "everything right" according to some people on this thread. I would have the same problem if all or most adults felt that wandering around the restaurant randomly was an OK thing to do. It is not safe, it makes waitstaff less efficient, and yes, it does bother some people. You say you would not take your child to a shmancy restaurant but many many people do. Myself included.... We have just recently been forced to take dd to a fancy place as part of a family obligation. We set her up as well as we could in advance, packed as many distractions as we could, got ice, olives, and pickles from the bar, took her to see the fish when she started talking too loud, and was 100% ready to leave if it came down to that or letting her wander. Imagine paying $100 for your meal and having an adult wandering around the tables, waving at you, maybe asking a question, looking at your shoes, trying to get a cracker that dropped under your table. Of course everyone should give kids more leeway and of course I feel for those parents that are stuck in a restaurant with a kid that does not want to follow the social rules of our society during that meal. But if you know your kid is going to do it each and every single time, why subject your child, yourslef, and the other patrons to it? Take toddler to family freindly places to practice for a while until he figures it out.<br><br>
And it cracks me up that I am even arguing this side. Just a couple months ago we went on vacation and were pretty much forced to eat in the schmany restaurant in the bottom level of out hotel for breakfast every morning. We were time zones away from home and dd was ready to eat WAY before normal restaurants opened so we had to use the very very fancy breakfast that wa sinlcuded in our room (they started serving at 6am their time). She was really great every morning and on our last day a couple was lead into the same eating area as us. The woman very loudly proclaimed that she did not want to be seated near "that baby". We were the only people with any sort of children in the hotel so it was very clear who she was talking about. I was really offended that she did not even give dd a chance. Dd stayed in her chair for the entire meal, used low voices, and did not make a mess. But to be frank, enough people DO let thier kids annoy other patrons (and by annoy I do not mean waving, making small messes, or talking loudly) that it gives us all a bad rep.