Okay, I went ot the Cheesecake Factory tonight for a Herb Encrusted Salmon...

[WCGreen]

Salad with asparagus and garden greens twirled in a balsamic vinegeratte...

Got there after BArnes and Noble closed, somewhere close to 11:00 PM...

I go in there, going to eat my salad, have a non-alcoholic BEck's and read a coupe stories in the new literary magazine I picked up at B&N...

Well, they took me over to one of the open stations because they were winding down...

It was after 11:00 PM by then...

I'm in this little off the beaten path room with about ten tables and booths...

About half are filled...

So I sit down, ready t enjoy a little adult alone time when all of a sudden, I hear a screeching child...

A child...

In a restaurant after 11:00 on a Saturday night...

The child could not have been more vocal even if I was over there pinching the little rapscallion...

Oh the two adults were just letting the child, Spencer was his name, climb all over the booth, screech whenever the little boy felt the need to screech and just be an obnoxious little human...

Now I am all for children, I actually like being around them...

But just because I am sentenced to spend the rest of my life in suburbia does that mean I have to put up with children no matter when I venture out of my humble home...

To top it off, another couple came in just a few moments after I was settled in with, you guessed it, a child...

They seemed to sense each other and the call of the wild came over them...

It was like a pre-school Lord of the Flies...

Folks, if you can't get a sitter and you feel like a slab of cheesecake at 11:00 on a Saturday night, get it to go...

Just because you have no boundaries on yourself or your child doesn't mean you have to inflict the little darlings on those of us who expect the 11:00 hour on a Saturday night to be for adults...

silly me...

The server was gracious when I said with nary a touch of anger or even a hint of sarcasm that I wished to change tables...

She understood and I was sat in a room with what I expect on a Saturday night; a couple of marrieds going on about the old days in a loud and obnoxious way...

That I can deal with because it is expected...

But screeching children, no thank you...

Am I wrong...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. No way are you wrong!

Small children should not be out at that time of night, esp. in a restaurant!

They should be home in bed, for crying out loud ...(no pun intended)

Your dinner sounded wonderful...

What a shame, to have your evening messed up like that...

And after you've been working so damn hard...

:hi:

[seaglass]

2. The only excuse I can see for having a child out that late at night

for dinner is if the parents just got off a flight from another time zone.

I'm VERY tolerant of kids, even screaming ones (I wasn't so much before I had my own) but I don't think it's fair to have little kids out that late.