Kids bringing fast food into restaurants: What do you think?

Perhaps a "plate charge' to bring a meal in from outside.

I had a child that had stomach problems when he was little (colicky). He could break into screaming criying at any time. If he cried in the restaurant, we left immediately, whether we were done or not. Paid the bill and got everything boxed up. Eventually, he grew out of it, and now, at 15, he goes to every restaurant with us, of course.

My point is that the kids will grow up. If your kid won't eat the restaurant food, then don't go to that one until the kid is mature enough to eat the food, or stay home by himself. There are other restaurants to go to that he or she will eat.

It is not cool to bring in outside food.

:idea: Perhaps a "plate charge' to bring a meal in from outside.

For me, it's not about the money, it's just an issue of manners. I think Kirk nailed it too.

I don't have a problem with parents bringing in outside food, but a line has to be drawn. It would bother me much more to see someone with a Happy Meal vs. something made at home. I just see it being disrespectful to the restaurant to bring in a meal made at another restaurant. Would you go into Burger King with a Happy Meal? Most places will make something special for children, on the menu or not. And when is this practice totally unacceptable, age 5, 10, 15?

Yes, harsh. Why visit a "forum" and then tell people to shut up about an issue they have expressed an opinion on?

Also, the smell of fast food is disturbing to many, and revolting to others. I understand bringing in food when a child has special needs vs. just being picky, but the smell of McDonald's would very much bother me in trying to enjoy my meal, the same as cigarette smoke would bother others.

Absent special needs, I don't think it's necessary to bring your own food to a restaurant, but it wouldn't really bother me unless the smell was a distraction.

Frankly I just feel lucky that this was never an issue for my family. Our 15 y/o grew up eatting with us everywhere we went from ethnic to white table cloth; as a result, he finds fast food disgusting by and large and finds as much joy in exploring food options as my wife or myself - he's now 15 and loves sweet breads, sushi, tofu, you name it. I credit this acceptance with early exposure to good food - we never pacified him with McDonalds or the like.

Personally I just would never have the nerve to walk in a restaurant with a "Happy Meal" in tow.

Yes, harsh. Why visit a "forum" and then tell people to shut up about an issue they have expressed an opinion on?

Hmmmm...I guess I musta missed something. I didn't take it to mean that he was telling anyone to personally "shut up"...more the restaurant industry in general. It's all cool.

I credit this acceptance with early exposure to good food - we never pacified him with McDonalds or the like.

Good for you Mark !!! I tried the same thing, unfortunately I had a (now former) spouse who wouldn't get with the program.

It ended up costing me three or four hundred thousand "large" but at least I got part of the problem solved

Edited for numerous typos...anyone seen my da** glasses.

I think that Chris's reply is unduly harsh. "Just shut up about this issue"

Harsh ?...I dunno. Perhaps.

Personally, when it comes to dining out, there's not a lot that irks me more than having to listen to someone's misbehaving child at the next table over...So I'm for anything that will shut the little curtain climbers the hell up and let me enjoy my meal.

Heelarious!



To me, restaurants are in the real-estate business. Fill the seats. Your child will make me $5, but you will spend much, much more. Bring it. Long as they are content, you are content and that makes me content...

I think that Chris's reply is unduly harsh. "Just shut up about this issue" seems to oppose the spirit of the forum. No one would advocate for parents to give up eating out unless they wanted to pay the additional money for a babysitter, but I think it's OK for restaurants and patrons to have and express opinions about how they would like to deal with the issue of picky kids. Bringing in bags of fast food for picky kids seems a bit much to me.

Sorry if it sounded harsh. It looks a little harsher in writing that I meant it in my head.

That is MY opinion though. I do think they should shut up about it, or else stop pretending to be "family friendly". Cause they're not.

I didn't think we were talking about fine dining here... the original quote was about a mexican place (one of the things I love that my daughter wouldn't eat for most of her young life).

We're not talking Corbett's. I wouldn't bring McDonalds into Corbett's. I wouldn't bring my daughter into Corbett's.

And in regards to the smell... if something smelling offensive to someone is the current standard for what I can or can't eat in public, then I know a few items on a few menus that I should demand be taken off, cause they smelled pretty damned offensive to me when the people at the table next to me ordered it.

Should the owner now be required to disclose to me that the person a table over is ordering something with a strong odor so I can decide if I want to move or not?

Please. Be serious. It's part of the experience of sharing a dining room with others. Get over yourselves.

Also, is it rude to wear a shirt you bought at Macy's into Dillard's? Is it rude to drive your Honda into a Ford dealership? Is it rude to wear my Lee's into a Levi store? Is it rude to use my Palm phone in the Apple store? Is it rude to wear my UofL shirt into the UK store?

Please. People bring things bought other places into other businesses all the time. Again. Get over yourselves....

I've only seen this one once, and in that particular instance, I was glad she was eating her own food.

Let me start at the beginning. This was at a Japanese hibachi grill where they cook in front of you. We were seated and waiting for others to come in before they started cooking. A father comes in with two older children and says two more are coming...that the youngest daughter "didn't feel good" so she was coming later with her mother. As this conversation progressed with the hostess (whom they apparently knew), he said they had taken her to the doctor earlier that day and that she had the FLU. So by now I'm thinking "What is she doing coming to the restaurant at all if she has the flu?"

A few minutes later, she comes in with her mom, obviously feeling absolutely miserable, and the mom was carrying a DQ kids meal for her. I was relieved to see that, because with the way they cook in front of you, I don't want the cooking utensils coming anywhere NEAR her plate if she has the flu. She shouldn't be there at all! She ate a few french fries and nothing more, and spent most of the meal in the bathroom (by herself! and she was about 9 or 10). She came out once crying, and still no one offered to take her home. It was obvious that she felt terrible...I felt really bad for her because she should have been at home, resting, not out at a restaurant, no matter where it was.

Anyway, as for my opinion on the issue, most places have kids meals with hamburgers and french fries and chicken nuggets and the usual fast food fare, so it doesn't make sense to bring in a meal to a place that has a kids menu like that, if that's all your kids will eat. Of course, I think parents need to encourage their kids to be more adventurous with their tastes -- this highlights the main problem Jamie Oliver had in Food Revolution...the kids have ONLY eaten this processed food, because it's seen as "kid food" and they haven't been encouraged to try anything else. Kids don't pop out saying "I want chicken nuggets"...they are taught what they should eat and what they should like. Catering to super picky tastes only makes them not want to try anything, IMO.

The only time this would be acceptable would be a child with a medical condition that would neccesitate bringing food from home. Our friends have a son with celiac sprue and he must have a gluten free diet. They take their son with them when they dine out and are discrete about it. When questioned by staff the explanation has always been accepted with grace and everyone went about their business.

Our son has dined out with us since he was 2 months old. He has been taught manners, respect for others and has ordered off the menu since he could read it himself. Food is adventure to him and he has readily accepted the choices offered to him on the menu. He would agree with me that bringing in outside food to a restaurant because children are "picky" would be in extremely poor taste.

I credit this acceptance with early exposure to good food - we never pacified him with McDonalds or the like.

Good for you Mark !!! I tried the same thing, unfortunately I had a (now former) spouse who wouldn't get with the program.

It ended up cost me three or four hundred thousand "large" but at least I got part of the problem solved

You're both completely wrong. Repeated studies have shown that taste buds change over time. Children have a much strong sense of taste than adults, and different children experience this strength in different ways. Kids have several times the number of taste buds that adults do. Your taste buds die off as you age... rapidly as a child and then more slowly as an adult. Things adults do can actually increase the rate at which they die (smoking, heavy drinking, burning your tongue).

Trying something has no effect on how it tastes to you, the ongoing death of your taste buds does.

See... beer isn't an "acquired taste". Beer is kind of bitter (some more than others). Bitter is one of the taste sensations that is strongest when you are young and diminishes as you age. So really... you didn't acquire a taste for beer, your taste buds just died off to the point that the bitterness no longer over powered you and you could enjoy the other flavors. Some people never "acquire" this taste.

When I was a kid I hated seafood. The taste of all of it bothered me. Now I can enjoy it because my taste buds have diminished to the point that the "fishy" flavor no longer over powers me.

That's why you see so man elderly people at buffets. For many people, it literally all tastes the same to them anyway.

Forcing your kids to eat something they didn't like had no impact on them. What tastes good is all about science and heredity and nothing about being force fed.

Though, I do make my daughter TRY new things, because you don't know what you do or don't like until you actually taste it.

I do think children's menus are often a cop out with nuggets, grilled cheese, hot dogs.....I've been to a few places that essentially offer a child's portion off the regular menu and that's a great idea. The rise of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease just might have something to do with the indoctrination of horrible dining habits upon many of todays children. Is McDonalds the "comfort" food of the next generation?

I do you one even better....we've had several patients over the years bring a sack of s$@t from some fast food drive through into the doctors office....smells up the entire place.