Well, being the dad of a 19 month old very high energy little boy, here are some rules in our family:
1. We do not take him to restaurants where little kids are expected to be. Fast food joints are OK..."Sit down" restaurants are not.
2. We do not let him run around like a caveman. Not only is he always in sight, but he is always within a step or two of me or more wife when we are out.
3. He does not go to movies other than something that is age appropriate.
The reality is that too many parents believe that once the kid is out of the house then their parenting responsibilities stop, i.e., the kid can do as he pleases since he is not at home, and other people are just expected to tolerate it. It's not the kid's fault (he's acting like a kid), it's the parenting (or lack thereof). My theory with parents like this is that they are the same people who:
1. Change lanes without signalling.
2. Stop at the bottom or top of escalators.
3. Walk through doors without even bothering to check to see if someone if following through behind them.
4. When walking down the street, and a person is approaching them from the other direction, they make no effort to get out of the other person's way but instead deliver a shoulder check.
In short...people who have absolutely no idea (or don't care) that other people live and work around them, and the fact that they bring their kids to places which are not appropriate for kids is merely a reflection of that.
