Is that any way to curb the enthusiastic kid?

Re “Parents, wake up! Your kid is annoying,” Opinion, Jan. 3

Kudos to Karin Klein for her insightful article about the growing problem of out-of-control kids and their clueless parents in public places.

It seems that kids are given free rein these days to scream, cry and run around to their hearts’ content with nary a word of reproach from mommy or daddy -- not wanting to impair their children’s self-esteem, no doubt. It seems like no place is safe from them -- movie theaters, airplanes, restaurants -- especially restaurants!

My wife and I have had many a restaurant experience destroyed by loud, annoying kids who apparently have never been taught anything about how to behave in public.

I hope the A Taste of Heaven restaurant policy is the beginning of a trend. I would go out of my way to patronize a restaurant that prohibits kids who don’t know how to behave. Whatever happened to the lost art of parenting?

PAUL DEROUIN

El Segundo

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If controlling the whims of a spirited preschooler were only as easy as simply telling him to stop. Having read multiple books, tried every tactic known and talked with the grandparents over and over (and over) again, I have a child I love more than all the world -- but whose energetic behavior does not magically stop in public.

So I have three choices: never take him out anywhere, medicate him into complacency or take him out, set limits and address any consequences. I’m sure Klein would prefer one of the first two for her own ease of mind, but I’ll take the third. His development is my priority; Klein can address her officiousness herself.

BRADLEY KENNEDY

Middleton, Wis.

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My child has never spoken on his cellphone in the middle of a movie theater, never cut someone off in traffic and then given them the finger, never cursed a member of the U.S. Senate with foul language.

My child has never parked where it says no parking, berated a waitress at full volume over an incorrect coffee order or lied to a police officer to get out of a ticket.

My child hasn’t even written a myopic, ill-informed, hateful diatribe insulting parents and children everywhere.

Look around, Ms. Klein, my 7-year-old has better manners than you.

BARRY CHESS

Thousand Oaks