Australian Restaurant Bans Children Under Seven

One Australian restaurant has boldly gone where not many have dared to go before, and banned children from entering its premises. According to Cairns Post, Flynn's Restaurant in Yungaburra — a town in Queensland — has banned children under the age of seven in reaction to a negative TripAdvisor review:

cgh57/TripAdvisor

According to the review, a family of four were kicked out by chef/owner Liam Flynn on a busy Sunday afternoon after their two-year-old began crying loudly. While the upset father attempted to talk to Flynn about the issue, he was no match for the disgruntled mother who, according to Flynn, stormed out of the bathroom and screamed at the chef, "If you think that's screaming, you haven't heard anything, and you can get f----d in front of other customers!"

The chef goes on to explain the thought process behind the his restaurant's new policy, "We realize that when we do say something to people, they are hypersensitive to the fact that they're being told off for their parenting, basically. They are basically outsourcing their misery to everyone else." Restaurant manager Sonia Tymecka echoed the owner's sentiments, "We've had some nice families coming with babies, but there has to be a line drawn, so we are no longer taking children under seven any more." There's no doubt that the decision will prove unpopular for families, but it seems the restaurant is interested in selling itself as a child-free establishment for couples and friends. So far, there has not been additional backlash.

This is certainly not the first time a restaurant has banned kids. Following a similar incident at a Pizza Brothers Express in Texas, Chipotle employees were criticized for looking "horrified" and failing to "empathize" with parents who were forced to change their child's diaper at a table due to a lack of changing tables in the restaurant's bathrooms. In a more proactive move aimed at combating poorly behaved breeders, a California restaurant not only banned strollers, high chairs, and booster seats, but boasts signage warning parents that loud children will be immediately asked to leave. And, of course, there is #babygate, that time chef Grant Achatz (Alinea, Next, Chicago) took to Twitter to ask what to do about a crying eight-month-old in the dining room at Alinea.