Happy meals for everyone

Shelly Strahan isn't buying the excuses.

Strahan is a special-education teacher at Ogden's Mound Fort Middle School, so she's seen her share of bad behavior. But none of it has made her believe there's any reason to tolerate what she has witnessed at Utah restaurants.

Kids throwing food. Kids screaming. Kids running around and bothering servers. Kids out of control — and, worse, parents who barely seem to notice.

"There is no excuse for allowing your children to behave like animals," Strahan said. "I do think that we have a huge problem in Utah with teaching our children to act like human beings when they are not in the privacy of their own homes."

Many parents, however, paint a different picture: that of intolerant and impatient diners who seem to see only the few children who behave badly, ignoring the many well-mannered pint-size patrons.

"I find it silly to think that people want restaurants to have family sections," said mother-of-two Amanda Charlesworth. "If you don't want to be around children, go to a bar! That's a truly adult space."

Wherever you fall in this spectrum, one thing is almost certain — you've got an opinion on the issue.

When the Deseret Morning News asked readers for their thoughts on kids in restaurants, responses ran the gamut from those (mostly anonymous) who could truly be called child-haters, to those who feel kids belong almost anywhere, restaurants included.

One thing was common among all responses, however: Bad behavior in restaurants, whether by kids, parents, childless diners or even servers, needs to stop.

"I equate it very much to flying on an airplane; you're going to have a divided group there," said Casey Bulkley, father of three and managing partner at Biaggi's at The Gateway. "You're going to have mothers and fathers and young children, and you can't control that child's mood."

Bulkley said he has seen a variety of family diners at Biaggi's, a "casual, white-tablecloth" Italian restaurant that has both a bar and a children's menu. "I've seen the spectrum, from people coming in with children and not really having any anticipation of how they're received either way; they're just happy to be eating out and bringing their kids in. And I've witnessed other people come in and literally lay almost a disposable tablecloth under the chair of the child and clean it up afterward."

By the same token, he said, since Biaggi's opened "numerous" diners have asked to be reseated at a "quieter" table, and at least a few of those diners were likely bothered by children. "If someone were to state that they want a quiet corner, we would accommodate whatever they wished."