Fellow Diners Deliver Nasty Note, Accuse Family of ‘Ruining Their Dinner’

What do you do if you're at a restaurant and you happen to be seated near a family with a loud child? Do you just grin and bear it, ask to be seated somewhere else, or do you leave that family a tersely-worded note?

If you're like these two women in Idaho, you go ahead and leave the note, which accused Katie Leach's family of "ruining their dinner." According to the KARE-11 story, Leach, whose son is 10 months old, was dining with her family at a Texas Roadhouse near Boise.  "About halfway through her dinner, two customers, 'Caucasian women in their late 50's or early 60's,' slammed a disapproving note down on Leach's table. The women then sat back down at their table behind Leach's. 'Thank you for ruining our dinner with your screaming kid. Sincerely, the table behind you,' the note read."

The problem stemmed from the fact that, according to Katie, her son now likes to yell. Earlier in the story, she admitted that "her son's 'new thing' is yelling. 'He will yell when I tell him no, when he's super excited and happy or just for no reason at all,' Leach wrote on a Facebook post. 'I'm doing my best to teach him indoor voice and to not yell back at me when telling him no etc, But he is only 10 (almost 11 months) and LEARNING.'"

Ah, so there's the rub. He was making noise-- yelling, in fact-- which apparently irritated the women seated next to Katie and her family. The story goes on to say that the manager was contacted, who then spoke to the women. He was sympathetic to Katie and her son, and told the complaining women that his restaurant is "'...proud to be loud. If you want to hear clinking wine glasses and clinking forks, then this probably isn't the place for you.'"

So what to make of all this? Well, not having heard just how loudly Katie's son was yelling, it's hard to say. Were the complaining women being unreasonable? Could be. And, yes, Texas Roadhouse is loud-- it's not like, say, a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse or other upscale steak place.

But, while their manner might have been a bit curt, I don't necessarily disagree with the complaining women. I'm sorry, Katie, but if your son is being so loud (and, again, we don't know if he was or if the complaining women were overreacting) that it is affecting other diners' experience at the restaurant, then it doesn't really matter if he's "only 10 months and learning," it's your responsibility to take care of it-- whether that means getting him to be quiet, or perhaps even leaving the restaurant altogether.

I understand young children can be unpredictable, but to my way of thinking, other patrons of the restaurant shouldn't have to be subjected to your child's behavior-- if it really was that loud and distracting-- no matter what the circumstance. If that means you might have to leave, or perhaps not go out to the restaurant with your family until he's older, well, that's the choice you make when you have kids. It's not other people's responsibility to have to endure loud and distracting behavior simply because your child is too young to understand that behavior isn't acceptable in a public place.

At least, that's how the whole things strikes me. But what say you?