The Jerk List thread has several people complaining about kids in restaurants and movies.
I have to say, I took my kids to nice restaurants from the time they were young. They had to act the same in all restaurants (Denny's on up to 2 or 3 star ones). They were not allowed to run around. They understood that they could be burned if a server was carrying a tray of hot food or drinks. They had to use their indoor voices. People at other tables should not have to hear them laughing too loudly or our conversation. They knew that not all restaurants would provide crayons and they had to sit and converse quietly when there were none. They were allowed to bring a book, not a toy with many pieces.
I also insisted on family dinner with everyone at the table. I didn't care if we weren't speaking to each other (older daughter a teen and getting into drugs), we were family and we ate together every single night. The only time 1 of them was allowed to eat from a tray in bed was when she'd received a serious back injury and sitting up was too painful.
They had a bed time. When my younger DD was a toddler, I'd let her stay up a bit longer so she would sleep later in the morning. That gave me time to get her sister off to school. As she became 4 & 5, she had to go to bed at 7. Boy is that hard when it's still light outside and other kids are playing. When they were in third grade, bedtime became 8. Then 9 as they got older.
Mandalinn's post in the Jerk List about young kids being at a 10PM movie makes me wonder about the mother. School nights were "at home" nights for us.
See, I must have been the meanest mom on the whole block!