Midchuck, MY today Dave Barry column was about the Human Genome project...

Also, we have always taken our children to restaurants, and always insisted they behave. They are not to run around, use loud voices, whang with silverware, demand things of the waitstaff, or in any other way be rude or annoying to other patrons. We have had to leave a restaurant for failure to obey these rules exactly once. As a result, they are takable to restaurants, aren't loud, ask for things with please, receive them with thank you, and sit in their seats till the adults are finished. They are now 5, but we insisted on civilized behavior from the start (we also started in kid-friendly restaurants, as a result of which we aren't limited to them now). It isn't thoughtless to TAKE kids to restaurants. It's thoughtless not to expect, and demand, civilized behavior of those children.
We have actually had people come up to us after their meal, exclaiming how surprising it is that our children behave. We instantly squash such admiration, as we consider it (the behavior, not the admiration) normal, with things like Yes, they are well-behaved, aren't they, said in a kind of bored voice. However, we have also had people bothered by the FACT that we had children with us, despite the near-perfect behavior of those children. I consider people like that to be bigots, since they base their annoyance not on actual behavior, but on expectations stemming from, well, bigotry. And there is nothing I can do for people like that other than to keep bringing my kids to restaurants and other public places, and keep demonstrating that it is possible to have manners and be juvenile at the same time.

Midchuck, Im not saying you're a bigot. I'm saying you probably haven't met kids whose parents taught them manners.