Babies are Customers Too

Meeting up with other mums, with your babies and toddlers, in cafes and restaurants is a fun part of raising kids. Don't be embarrassed if your babies make a bit of noise, if the restaurant has high chairs and serves children's food then they expect to cater for young children, and noise is part and parcel of what they are! There will be instances where a child is too unsettled in a restaurant and you may feel you need to abandon the outing, but generally a stressed baby can be calmed and you can enjoy the visit without causing too much of a problem to other customers. Attitudes to babies varies greatly across cultures - in much of Mediterrenean Europe, babies can be found accompanying families in restaurants into the middle of the night, and they are doted on by waiting staff and made very welcome. Unfortunately this attitude is only slowly coming round in other countries where a more traditional attitude of 'babies should be seen and not heard' has sometimes prevailed.