What to Know
Anyone who has ever attempted to eat in a sit down restaurant with small children knows that it can be a stressful experience (to say the least). Sometimes, if you want to eat your food while it’s still hot with minimal chaos, you have to bring a whole bag of tricks along with you for the kids — or an iPad loaded with their favorite shows and games.
But if Kelly Ripa is around, you might want to make sure your kids have headphones for that iPad, because she is over having to hear Bluey every time she’s in a restaurant.
The topic came up on Live With Kelly & Mark.
The couple was talking about the trend of restaurants introducing “adults-only policies as part of their brand identity” on their talk show, which prompted them to talk about the way kids behave in public — including their own. All three of their children are all grown up and in their twenties now, and Kelly and Mark acknowledged that they took them everywhere with them, even if it was past their bedtime.
“When we traveled, we always had our kids,” Mark said. “When you’re in Italy, they bring their kids everywhere. They’re out until midnight walking around. We had our kids out late, I liked the family environment.”
Raising kids is different than it was when Mark and Kelly’s children were small.
Not only did Lola, Joaquin, and Michael grow up in a different time, but they also grew up as the children of two celebrities, which is naturally going to mean they’ll have a different kind of upbringing than most kids you’re going to run into in public.
Now that he’s on the other side of it, Mark said that he understands that “the volume of screaming kids” can become a lot in areas where adults might have some expectation of kicking back and relaxing.
But for Kelly, it’s not the volume of the kids that’s a problem — it’s the volume of their iPads.
“Kids now at restaurants are different,” she said. “They’re in the iPad screen. You don’t even know they’re there. They don’t even know they’re there.”
Kelly is simply tired of hearing Bluey.
“Now, kids just have iPads and they watch movies. It’s like they’re not even there,” Kelly continued. “I haven’t heard a noisy kid in a restaurant. I mean, I hear the movie. We could turn Bluey down a notch. I shouldn’t know what Bluey is — my kids are adults!”
On one hand, there are definitely parents who let their kids listen to what they’re watching on their iPads way too loudly in public. On the other hand, as beautiful as it would be to have children who need zero distractions to behave themselves in a restaurant, it’s also unrealistic.
As parents, we can turn down the volume a little (or bring headphones). And if Kelly wanted to send a drink or dessert to a table where parents are clearly duking it out with their little kids, it would probably be much appreciated.
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