This next bit of news, as reported by Jeremy Schneider for NJ.com (see the original article here) falls well into that ‘Well, I kinda see the point, if you want to be honest’ category. At Nettie’s House of Spaghetti, a popular spot in Tinton Falls (named 28th Best Italian restaurant in N.J., no small distinction) an age limit on patrons was declared, as of last week; starting 3/8/2023, children under ten will no longer be allowed in the establishment.
As Mr. Schneider revealed Nettie’s social media quote on the subject:
“We love kids. We really, truly, do. But lately, it’s been extremely challenging to accommodate children at Nettie’s, the social media post read. “Between noise levels, lack of space for high chairs, cleaning up crazy messes, and the liability of kids running around the restaurant, we have decided that it’s time to take control of the situation. This wasn’t a decision that was made lightly, but some recent events have pushed us to implement this new policy. We know that this is going to make some of you very upset, especially those of you with very well-behaved kids, but we believe this is the right decision for our business moving forward.”
On their Facebook account, the restaurant explained their position further to someone commenting on the policy.
“It’s become a liability to us — kids running around the restaurant in circles when we’re trying to carry trays of food and drinks has made doing our jobs extremely difficult.”
And although many customers/commentators have been supportive of the policy, as you can expect, there are those that are not.
The simple fact of the matter, though, is (and you didn’t hear this from me, ok?) lots of parents do not know how to handle/wrangle their kids in public. We all see it all the time, children of all ages out of control in a store, spinning Tasmanian devil-like in a supermarket, wailing away in a Starbucks, causing so much mayhem and just noise in a restaurant it makes eating out very difficult.
And I’d dare say, these days, no restaurant can afford having patrons avoid them, no matter the reason.
And lastly, Netti’s can pick whomever they do or do not want to come into their establishment.
Yeah yeah, hate me all you want. But I love kids, just like the Netti’s folks say they do. I used to be a kid myself, in fact. But the reality is plenty of parents spend more time looking into their cell phones than they ever do trying to control their little one.
Netti’s House of Spaghetti can be found here.
Thank you to Jeremy Schneider. Again, you can find his original article on this subject (which he so kindly let me reference) here.
