While I agree that patrons of a fine dining restaurant shouldn't be subjected to screaming kids, I'm not sure anyone outside of a McDonald's kiddyland type place should either. If it's a $15 luncheon or $50 dinner, I don't want to hear screaming kids. But upper scale restaurants sell their ambiance as well as their food and if banning kids isn't an option, they should always be seated in the least central spot. Ideally a restaurant would have a separate dining area so that the parents of screaming children could enjoy the screams of other people's children. The very least that should be done is to ask the parent to step outside with the child or if something could be done to help - maybe the child was hungry and the parent didn't want their meals to get cold? The maitre de could offer to keep the parents plate warm). If that fails, offer to box up their meals.