Hub and I had supper at the Pizzaria tonight. We hadn’t been there for a long time, and it’s one of our favorite places, and we were really looking forward to it. We tried to have a conversation but the family across the room pretty much drowned out anything else. Thanks a lot, loud people. We finally just gave up trying to talk.

P.S. Your grandson was so cute climbing all over the booth behind you, and dancing in the middle of the room. And wasn’t it nice of him to yell like that about the cheese for almost an hour; I was afraid the people in the next county over might not realize how funky pizza cheese is when it stretches like that. And when your pre-teen granddaughter joined in, and was equally loud, well, everyone in the restaurant was glad when they decided to WAIT FOR YOU OUTSIDE.

Don’t you think maybe ten and thirteen are a little old to be doing that in public, though? At least, that loudly?

The funny thing was, you were all even louder after the kids went out. Laughing like hyenas, you all were. How nice that you were having such a good time. at the expense of everyone else in the restaurant

I thought at first that some of you might have been deaf hearing impaired.

No matter what the reason for your grandson’s behavior, when it started disturbing everyone else, you should have packed him up and finished your pizza at home.

And no, as a matter of fact, you DON’T have a right to a night out if your child is going to ruin the night out for a lot of other people. Keep your children contained within your area, and don’t allow them to climb all over things that do not belong to you or to them, especially when the restaurant is smallish and crowded. What if your kids had bumped a waiter and spilled something hot on him or on themselves? I bet you would have paid attention then, and probably sued the place. Litigious people tend to be unreasonable like that.

Yes, I’m really, really mean about this sort of thing. It’s entirely out of hand these days.

There are standards of public behavior that everyone has an obligation to rise up to. Babies and toddlers who are too young to be accountable are one thing, but ten and thirteen-year-olds?

I think not.