Eating out with children.

I recently heard people complaining about children 'ruining' their meal when eating out. This couple claimed that children being noisy interrupted their dining and that restaurants should consider offering a 'child free dining' option. It got me thinking.
To me, Lily is a part of me, my other half. The chances are if I am eating out my shadow will be beside me and I have taken Lily to restaurants from her being just a few days old, that being said I would not have Lily eating out with me if I thought she was going to be disruptive or rude to other diners and when she was a baby I made sure that she had plenty of distractions and if she became unsettled in any way which might have caused other diners to have their experience dampened I would remove her from the situation.
I think table manners are very important and raise Lily to always be polite both when dining out and eating at home, I feel that a child should be able to sit at a table with their family the way an adult should. However what happens if they can't?
When I asked friends, both with and without children their thoughts on the matter it became apparent that the consensus is as long as the children are kept sitting at their own table and not left to run about a restaurant then there is no need for child free dining to be offered. It was also suggested that if people are really that bothered about children disrupting their dining they should eat later or choose a higher end restaurant where there wouldn't be children anyway.
I can understand why it may be frustrating to sit down to a meal for it to be sound tracked to screaming children, but if that is the case surely simply asking to be moved to another table away from the noise, or choose a restaurant where there aren't going to be children is an easy way to overcome that issue, failing that just showing a bit of empathy, that parent may be at their witts end, it may be the first time they have been able to eat out, they may not have the privilege to be able to eat out without taking the children with them.
At what point does it become 'okay' to take a child to a restaurant, because if a child has no experience with how they should behave when eating out then when they're 11, 12  and it is deemed acceptable for them to join their parents for meals they will have no experience and not know how to behave.


I'd love to hear your opinions on eating out with children.

Thanks for reading

Danielle x