Out of Control Kids: Your Reaction?

How do you react to out of control kids?

ByABC News
December 4, 2006, 5:43 PM

Dec. 5, 2006— -- What do you do when faced with certain sticky situations?

What would you do if you witnessed someone committing adultery? Or heard someone making homophobic remarks?

Would you approach an obnoxious person talking loudly on a cell phone?

It's a quiet Saturday afternoon at a diner in Brooklyn, N.Y., but the tranquility is about to be shattered.

Suddenly from across the room, a paper airplane zooms through the air and lands on an unsuspecting diner's plate. At a nearby table, a pair of kids -- a boy and a girl -- are out of control, their oblivious father paying little attention, his ear glued to a cell phone.

As the minutes tick by, the kids get noisier. First, it's just clattering and whining, then the piercing sound of a toy flute.

Soon they are running around the tables, throwing shredded paper in the air, banging utensils on glasses, bickering and blowing kazoos.

The father continues to ignore them, and diners exchange glances, getting more and more annoyed and astonished by the minute.

Will anyone step up and say something? Does anyone object to the chaos?

Nearly everyone has a story about kids who misbehave in a restaurant, but these cherubic-looking youngsters seem especially out of control. That's because they're actors, hired by "Primetime."

We've supplied the kids with noise-making instruments, asked the father to appear distracted, and instructed the children to behave badly.

Our goal is to see what these diners will do, and look at what might motivate them to either speak up, or stay seated even when they're annoyed.

What do you do when confronted with a situation such as this in a restaurant? Do you say something to the children or the parents? We were surprised by how many diners looked the other way as the children wreaked havoc around them.