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This evening we decided to go out for dinner at CiCi's Pizza. For those who don't know of CiCi's, it's an all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, complete with salad, a dozen different kinds of pizza to choose from, and even dessert pizzas to round out the meal. It's very much a family restaurant, and on a Saturday night it's usually busy.

As expected, it was crowded when we got there. What we didn't expect was for Cordy to decide as we got to the register that she wanted to be difficult and throw herself on the floor. My husband tried to pick her up, but she thrashed and whined. We quickly paid our admission to the pizza mecca and tried to find a place to sit. There were booths and tables available, but next to each open space was a family glaring at us, as if to say, "We don't want your screeching toddler anywhere near us."

We chose a booth, and while my husband made the first trip to the counter for food, I tried to calm Cordy down. She wasn't full-out screaming - more like whining loudly. And it couldn't have been too loud, since I could hear the big sigh come from the woman on the other side of the half wall after she glanced over at us. People at other tables were also staring at us disapprovingly, as if we were some inhumane freak show, torturing our child with a pizza dinner.

I was honestly amazed at the lack of sympathy in that restaurant. Most of the other adults had children with them; are their kids so much older now that they can't remember what it was like to have a toddler? Plus, we were at a family restaurant. I could understand the ire of others if we brought a whiny toddler to an upscale establishment. But this was a pizza buffet with music blaring and two TVs showing sports...hardly an unexpected location for a young child.

Thankfully, as soon as daddy brought pizza to the table, Cordy changed her mood and was happy to sit quietly and eat. But I still felt uncomfortable around the other diners. If they were this upset at some whining, how would they have reacted to a full-out tantrum? Would someone try to pick a fight, like what happened at a Toledo, OH buffet on Mother's Day? If Cordy had been truly disruptive, one of us would have taken her outside until she calmed down. This, however, was merely grumpy.

Have you ever been made to feel uncomfortable when eating out with your children? How do you handle cranky kids while out to dinner?