Eating at "Children Friendly" Places

I recently went out to eat at a "Family" Restaurant.

You know the kind- it's usually a sticky-tabled, sticky floor, greasy spoon with lots of noisy children running out of control in between the tables and color crayons on every table.  It's wasn't my choice, really, but the grandparents wanted to go, so we went.

Now, they have a "children's menu" which was composed of macaroni and cheese, breaded meat by-part nuggets, canned fruit cocktail, and a ton of french fries as the "vegetable".  I honestly think that there is just one kid's meal on the planet and every restaurant orders the box of pre-fab kid's meal parts and sticks it on the menu.

But, I digress.

Now, our daughter is just learning to eat with utensils and non-mashed solids.  But you'd think that a restaurant that caters to "families" as much as having a bunch of crayons on the table and booster seats would have the following:

• Bibs (you know, like those disposable bibs at lobster places!?)
• Children-sized flatware (perhaps that would not be so sharp as the adult versions?)
• The food would have the option of being cut for LITTLE kids.  
• Wet wipes at the table.  (let's face it- kids are messy eaters)

As it was, the restaurant supplied none of these items.  Even the fruit cocktail, which is pre-cut anyway, came is 1" size, choke-able-chunks.

And, of course, there were other forms of entertainment for children, too:  Gameboys, hosting such age-appropriate games as Grand Theft Auto.

Now, you can call me old fashioned, but isn't it slighly unethical to provide games that are not age-appropriate?  Aren't you promoting poor judgement by parents and children alike?

I just don't know what the world is coming to, but I'm afraid of what the streets will be like when the children of today grow up because we can't give them a clear message about what is ok to eat, what is ok to play, and how it is ok to behave.