Some parents in a Chicago neighborhood are up in arms because a cafe owner put a sign up on his door asking children to use their “indoor voices” and behave while in his establishment.
One mother of two, a psychologist no less, said of the cafe owner: “I love people who don’t have children who tell you how to parent. I’d love for him to be responsible for three children for the next year and see if he can control the volume of their voices every minute of the day.”
Now, I don’t claim to be a psychologist but my wife and I DID raise three kids who knew, absolutely knew, how to behave in a public place. Somehow we taught them how to behave appropriately in a restaurant, church, concert, or whatever. I’m sure a lot of it had to do with the fact that my wife and I are both military brats. All our dads had to do was look at us, too, and we would, as my dad used to put it, “straighten up and fly right.”
Apparently this new breed of parent (at least in Chicago) is clueless. Even the cafe owner understands what’s needed: “Part of parenting skills is teaching kids they behave differently in a restaurant than they do on the playground.”
(Hat tip: James Lileks)