Bad Kids? .... or Bad Parents?

The other night, while enjoying a quiet dinner with my wife (sans children), a family came into the restaurant with their three children - (I would guess ages 5-9 ). I had a feeling they were going to be trouble when the kids came in with sticks in their hands and immediately started drumming on empty tables while the family waited for the hostess to seat them. Lucky for me, they were seated in the booth immediately behind me. The mother did confiscate the drumsticks but only after I gave them a good long stare and another couple (who was seated next to them) hailed the waitress and requested to be re-seated on the other side of the restaurant.

Shortly after the sticks had been confiscated, the oldest two children apparently had some sort of disagreement because they started shrieking, screaming and SPITTING at each other. After this went on for a little while, the mother finally packed them up and hustled them out the door, much to everyone's relief. In my mind, I was commending the Mother for doing the right thing (albeit belatedly), until I looked out the window just in time to see her leading them into the ice cream shop across the street! Sure enough, they offending children came out a few minutes later holding large ice cream cones. About 20 minutes later, they entered our restaurant again, so that their parents could take them to the restrooms. Apparently, causing a huge commotion earlier made them "customers" and gave them the right to use the restrooms for the rest of the day.