I've raised five kids to adulthood. I think I have a right to an opinion on the matter, lol! My opinion is that I didn't allow my children to misbehave in public, period. If they acted up in a restaurant, we left the restaurant whether we had eaten or not. If they acted up in a movie, we left the movie no matter how hard they sobbed that they were sorry and would be good. I'm the parent. I do not negotiate with four year olds... or teenagers, for that matter.
It wasn't long before they knew the drill. If they wanted to do something fun as a family, be it going to a park, a restaurant, Disneyland or just shopping for schoolclothes at the mall, there was a level of behavior expected of them.
I didn't allow my children's behavior to ruin the enjoyment of others in restaurants, movies, grocery shopping or even at a park. They were not allowed to run shrieking wildly, causing people nearby to wince or cover their ears. They were not allowed to run up behind someone enjoying a meal and scream at the top of their lungs for the pleasure of watching the startled person spill coffee all over himself. But I have seen all of these things done by children whose parents could not be bothered to contain them.
I applaud "child free" stores, restaurants, theatres and even "child free zones". Very few people find other people's loud, wailing, tantrum-throwing, rude, obnoxious children as cute. I sure as hell don't.
I swear, some parents deliberately use their holligan offspring as passive-aggressive weapons, gloating at the misery being inflicted on others and enjoying the fact that there isn't a damned thing those poor people can do about it without getting themselves arrested. So kudos to the gutsy manager who informs these rude parents that they'll have to take their out-of-control children and leave the establishment.