Mike Vuick, owner of McDain's restaurant in Monroeville, PA, issued the following email to his customers, "Beginning July 16, 2011, McDain's Restaurant will no longer admit children under six years of age. We feel that McDain's is not a place for young children. Their volume can't be controlled and many, many times, they have disturbed other customers." This according to Salon.com, Vuick also issued the following to a local news crew, "There may be restaurants that prefer to cater to such things. Not here." At issue is the rights of parents and their children versus the rights of everyone else, entitlement versus intolerance, and it's been an ongoing debate for decades. However, it begs the questions that, as the U.S. becomes a less fertile, older nation, is our culture going the way of Britain? Are we a less kid-friendly now?

     Everyone's experienced it on a plane; the child that, for whatever reason, can not stop wailing throughout the cabin as every other passenger vacillates between feeling sorry for the parent/child that simply can not keep it together and wanting to throw them both out the emergency escape hatch. As we get closer to a flight to Maine that will involve my 5 month old daughter, my wife and I agonize over what strategies (and baby-friendly medications) to employ to keep our daughter sedate, calm, and agreeable throughout the 3 hours we're in the air. However, I'm aware that not all parents are as cognizant of other passenger's feelings. I remember several of my own experiences with small children running up and down the aisle, kicking my seat, screaming at the top of their lungs. So should there be an age-limit to flying?

     I sympathize with the restaurant patron that wants to maintain a peaceful dining experience for his customers. I understand other individuals' desires for peace and quiet, and the aversion to childish screaming, tantrums, and horseplay in a public space that should be relaxing, or at least tolerable. Here's the hitch; children of all ages must experience these things. No human being should be relegated to the house or Chuck E. Cheese for the first 6 years of life. Kids need to be exposed to public life so that they learn how to behave, and how not to behave. It baffles me that people will talk out of one side of their mouth about the need for quality public education for children, the need to protect kids from the inequities of the system, and generally support the understanding that, as the old maxim goes, "it takes a village to raise a child". Yet, they talk out of the other wide of their mouth when it comes to having to dine with someone else's kids in the same building. it's true that no two parents are created equal, and sometimes it isn't the child's fault for misbehavior, but a parent's lack of control. We have a social remedy for that; it's called a nasty look, even a comment, and if all else fails, fine...kick the family out. However, children need to be given the opportunity to learn how to function in social settings. This is one way in which we pass on our social and cultural values to the next generation.

     So, the next time that you're sitting, attempting to enjoy your eggplant parmesan, and a child is wailing away on the silverware and howling uncontrollably, give it a second. Let the parents do some teaching. If they don't, and they don't have the courtesy to remove the children from the restaurant until they've calmed down, then try some of those social cues. However, to dismiss children's access to certain public spaces out of hand is inappropriate. If kids don't leave the house until they're six we're not going to have children, we're going to have Morlocks.