Originally Posted by beachfamily
... the best way for the restaurant to handle it is to offer the parents, who usually are fairly distressed by this situation themselves, an alternative that still allows them to have some semblance of what they came for while not disturbing others....
Funny -- I had similar thoughts about what I'd do. If I were the manager on duty, I'd give the gentle request to have someone take the baby outside of the restaurant. To soften the blow to the clueless family, I'd offer a complimentary cocktail for whoever is heading out with the crying baby.
Do they deserve the free cocktail? Not one molecule of it. This isn't about big picture justice. It's about the easiest way out of a bad situation.