The French love their tiny dogs with a blinding ferocity, and the dogs generally reciprocate by behaving politely at all times, cultivating a bemused, absent look like Jean-Paul Sartre. French restaurant dogs lie silently beneath the folds of the damask tablecloth, thinking deep thoughts, never barking. They are regularly fed little morsels under the table. Sometimes their owners pick them up, put them in their lap, and give them surreptitious kisses. Americans, on the other hand, have an unnerving tendency to show up at fancy restaurants with squalling babies in tow.
Babies behave much less civilly than dogs.
The other diners may not even notice the coddled chien . But it's hard to miss the purple-faced infant bellowing the Barney song over and over while gaily tossing cutlery hither and yon. They do love children. They just don't think they belong in grown-up restaurants. Americans, who pride themselves our their open good natures and lack of pretension, have historically tended to disagree.