Letters to the Editor
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urban vs. rural
Though I grew up in a big city, I've spent most of my adulthood in small towns and rural areas. Reading some of these letters, it strikes me that much of this pro-child/anti-child debate is a strictly urban issue. In the small towns I know, the idea of a child-free restaurant would be foreign. For various reasons, there just isn't the age segregation that you find in urban centers. Newborns, elderly people and everyone in between are accustomed to mingling everywhere, except maybe some dim-lit bars. To me, this is one of the positive aspects of small-town and rural life. I felt this way when I was single and child-free, and I feel this way now as a mother. I guess business owners and individuals have every right to exclude children from their presence. But I think that in the long run, that's their loss.
As for kids today being more spoiled and ill-behaved than kids yesterday, I doubt it. All through recorded history there have been complaints about "these kids today." There's a tendency to romanticize the past, including one own's childhood.