What is the "middle ground" of which you speak?
I'd pay extra to eat at a restaurant that doesn't allow kids in it.
I'd tip well just to sit near the entrance and listen to parents whine about discrimination as they are refused entry.

I'd pay double to dine happily as I watch them struggle through the door with their gigantic off-road buggy, unpack the sprog, stumble and curse and drop all their bags, changing mats and medical kits, as they valiantly declare their dying wish for a table- only to watch their faces fall in disbelief as they are turned away.

I also be a lot more tolerant if more people TOOK THE BABY AWAY when they couldn't calm it, but this is an event as rare as a pound of Baby Tartare on a bed of leafy greens.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Mon 5 Mar 2012, 22:55, 1 reply)

Restaurants are another matter.
I was thinking more public transport, airliners, etc.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Mon 5 Mar 2012, 23:34, closed)

Oh yeah, public transport...
fair enough then, as you were.
Even I wouldn't insist on a parent taking their baby out onto the wing while I was eating my cardboard in flight chicken.
( Infidel , shit and wrong, Tue 6 Mar 2012, 0:45, closed)

Heh heh!
A baby screaming would make airline food better by its sheer distractive power.
I remember sitting next to this poor woman who was clearly at her wits' end with a small baby (as in too young to communicate with in any way other than 'HERE'S YOUR FUCKING BOTTLE YOU SCREAMING SOD' and the comments she was getting made me want to smack the old fuck behind us right in the face.
Mrs Boris is till grateful to this day that when her and the kids came out to Australia, they were perfectly behaved on the flight. Yet to see if they do the same when we move back...
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Tue 6 Mar 2012, 6:31, closed)

Only yesterday
My flight was only 3/4 full, and just before takeoff a couple let their 10-year-old-ish son move from the other side of the plane to empty seats just behind me.

As the flight attendent came round to check seatbelts, she noticed he was alone and asked who his parent were as he needed to be near them at takeoff.

The parent's response?

"He snores when he's asleep, so we didn't want him near us".
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Tue 6 Mar 2012, 7:37, closed)

I'd pay extra to see that.

( scarpe We Stole Bikes, Tue 6 Mar 2012, 8:47, closed)