By David G. Firestone
So I meant to post last Friday, and while I got around to writing, I got sidetracked, so I never actually posted it. I’m going to post both this week and last week’s columns this week. First, how I spent my summer vacation.
So every year I take two content breaks. One in July, and one in December. My July break is spent enjoying Chicago in the summer. I did a lot. While I didn’t produce content, I did get a number of things ready for YouTube. I also hung out with my buddies, one of whom comes in from California. We ate, played video games, and hung out. It was great.
My big project is something I’ve actually worked on for almost all of 2025. I’ll have more to say at a later date, but I’m still working on it as of this writing. Hopefully I will get it done by the end of 2025.
And, of course, I watched racing. I always watch racing.
With that, let’s discuss the column I planned for this week.
I don’t watch tennis that much. I’ll watch if it’s playing somewhere, but I really don’t have a vested interest. But when I saw this story, I had to talk about it. The title sums it up. This is from The Daily Mail:
“Emma Raducanu calls for crying child to be EJECTED from stadium, sparking tense row with umpire in narrow defeat by Aryna Sabalenka.”
Here is the first part of the article:
“Emma Raducanu called for a crying child to be ejected from the stadium as she came within inches of the biggest win since her 2021 US Open triumph, losing narrowly to world No 1 Aryna Sabalenka.
Sabalenka triumphed 7-6 (6-2), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5) at the Cincinnati Open but there was a flashpoint while Raducanu was serving at a crucial stage in the deciding set.
Cries from a child in the stands took her focus away, causing her to stop the service action and tell the umpire: ‘It’s been, like, 10 minutes.
The official replied: ‘It’s a child. Do you want me to kick the child out of the stadium?
Raducanu shrugged but some fans shouted up ‘yes’ on her behalf before the Brit indicated her agreement.
‘I can call in, but we need to continue for the moment,’ the umpire explained during a break in play.
Raducanu went on to hold serve for 4-4 but ended up narrowly losing the match’s conclusive set.”
That whole debacle brought to mind an advice column from a few years ago. This is from Care and Feeding by Nicole Cliffe on Slate.com. The article is entitled “Was I Wrong to Let My 4-Year-Old Explore the Restaurant While We Ate?”
“Dear Care and Feeding,
My wife and I and our 4-year-old son were out to dinner last week. It was a medium-nice restaurant, not fast food, but not super fancy either. My son is a normal, active little boy, and it’s hard for him to sit through a whole dinner, so we let him explore the restaurant a little. I noticed our waitress giving him the hairy eyeball, so we asked him to stop running. He was pretty good about it after that, but he did get underfoot when she was carrying a tray, and she spoke to him pretty sharply to go back to our table and sit down. I felt it was completely uncalled for, and she should have come and spoken to us personally instead of disciplining someone else’s child.
I tipped 5 percent and spoke briefly to her manager, who gave noncommittal replies. My wife agrees with me, but when we posted about it on Facebook, we got a lot of judgy responses.
—It’s Hard for a 4-Year-Old to Sit Still”
So before I get to the official response, let me say my part. I’ve been seeing this as a trend. Parents will let their children do whatever they want, regardless of how much it bothers anyone else. I’ve seen this in movie theaters, restaurants, stores, and many other public places.
As a childless adult, I can say that this is never not annoying. I just want a nice meal or to go see a movie without kids running around and screaming. I’ve even seen whole families kicked out of places for just this reason.
The parents in this article are really enraging, because they honestly see nothing wrong with allowing a 4-year-old to run around a restaurant unsupervised. I guarantee that they will NOT be welcomed back. The aggravation you brought wasn’t worth the money you spent. Oh, and the “manager, who gave noncommittal replies,” I promise you that he was very much committed, she didn’t get in trouble, she wasn’t the one at fault.
Now to the official response:
“Dear Sit Still,
Yeah, this is your fault. It’s hugely your fault. Of course it’s hard for a 4-year-old to sit still, which is why people usually stick to fast-dining establishments while working on restaurant manners. It’s why one parent usually responds to a fidgety kid who wants to “explore” by taking him outside the restaurant, where he can get his wiggles out while not taking laps around servers precariously carrying trays of (often extremely hot) food and drink.
A kid “exploring” a restaurant is not a thing. When you did intervene, it wasn’t to get him back in his seat. It was just to instruct him to “stop running.” You weren’t parenting, so a server did it for you. She was right. You were wrong.
Your son is not ready to eat at a “medium-nice” restaurant again until he is capable of behaving a little better. You can practice at home. You can practice at McDonald’s. You can try a real restaurant again with the understanding that one of you may need to take him out when he starts getting the urge to run an obstacle course.
I doubt that you will do this, but I encourage you to return the restaurant, apologize to the manager for complaining about your server, and leave her a proper tip.
Mend your wicked ways.”
Perfect response. Parents like this need lessons in how to parent. Kids are dumb, they come into this world dumb, they can’t help it. You as a parent have one job: Smartening up your kids. Sometimes this might come at your own determent. No nice restaurants for some time, get used to kid-friendly restaurants. You chose this life, so live with your choices.
Sources cited:
DGF2099-Main Page 