Is Hooters a Family Restaurant?

Hi Rachel! I am a huge fan of yours and I greatly appreciate your writing and work. As an at-home mom myself, you are a "mommy hero" of mine, in fact. That said, I think you were WAY too easy on Hooters in this article! You said "To be clear, I do not begrudge the Hooters chain or it's owl innuendo. If frat boys and sports fans want tasty wings served by girls in tank tops and orange shorts over weird, flesh-colored tights, I have no objection." Really!? No objection?? What if your husband was one of those sports fans being served wings by those (in my opinion) less-than-appropriately dressed waitresses? I am Catholic and I know that you are too...this restaurant and their practices does not align with our faith. My husband and I do not support establishments like this for children or anyone for that matter. I am a fiscal conservative and I believe in capitalism so I understand that if the market demands it, it will be available. But that still does not make it right! The demand may go down if those in positions to influence SPEAK UP BOLDLY! I really am surprised you didn't take a stronger stand here. While most of the article was spot on -- taking kids to Hooters is exactly what you said...STUPID parenting -- you should have used this opportunity to make the adults who read your blog realize how stupid they are themselves if they patronize Hooters. Or if they pretend it doesn't bother them when their husbands do. Keep up the great work with your writing, but please don't be afraid to ruffle some feathers! We have to or things in this country will NEVER change!

Amy A.

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My husband and I have been to Hooters several times in Atlantic city--it was lunchtime, it was in our hotel, and we were hungry! I see absolutely no difference between this establishment and a regular sports bar. The girls are way more covered than what kids would see in the street and on TV, they were not flirty at all, and the food was standard chain food. There were sporting events playing on the tvs. I personally don't have a problem with waitresses wearing shorts, especially , as you said, over those weird tights. Our children were not with us at the time, but I would have had no problem taking them--it's just not a sexy place!
And I would have no problem with my husband going there with friends because I TRUST him, and I really believe that the girls who waitress at Hooters are doing just that--waitressing.
If there were a restaurant with sexy waiters for women, would I go there? You bet! And I bet that a majority of women that complain about Hooters would be right there with me. It's all harmless fun, let's all lighten up a bit.

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Amy A: "Really!? No objection?? What if your husband was one of those sports fans being served wings by those (in my opinion) less-than-appropriately dressed waitresses?"

Do you not trust your husband? I have been to nice restaurants in which a very attractive woman is our waitress. Sometimes they are in tight low cut tops. I could care less if my husband went to Hooters because I know he is not going to cheat on me. Who cares if there is a woman wearing a tight tank top and shorts? Do you not let your husband go to the beach?

Although I would never take kids to Hooters, there is nothing wrong with the business and I am sick of people whining about this. No one is making you go to Hooters. You should stop being so judgmental about people who go to Hooters. How would you like it if you were judged for your actions or beliefs? Not everyone has the same beliefs and there is nothing wrong with that. Your comment was very rude towards people who have been to Hooters and I sincerely hope that you are not this judgmental in real life!!

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When my now 17 yo daughter was 10, my in-laws wanted to take her to lunch and out to the mall to shop for a birthday present. Imagine my surprise when she returned home to tell me they had lunch at Hooters! I was livid. That is most definately NOT a place for children. My daughter was so upset that she couldn't even eat her lunch there. My in-laws excuse was that the food was good and that my brother in law takes his kids there and its "fun." Needless to say my daughter and my son have not been allowed to eat out with their grandparents unsupervised since then, and my kids don't mind. They understand that certain places are NOT kid friendly, and Hooters is close to the top of that list.

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I have no problem with either. My husband had gone there many times and my children have also eaten there. I personally do not like the wings there I prefer them from one of our local pubs (Steppy's) regardless I would NEVER allow my children to wear the clothes you are speaking of but I am strict on most of the clothes my children attempt to wear. My son will always have a belt on and it will be correctly LOL

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Hooters is a terrible name for a restaurant and NO it is not a family restaurant, which is Rachel's question.

There are better places to get good wings than Hooters. Their food is forgettable and their name is suggestive so, we don't go there.

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Are you people living on the same planet that the rest of us are? Hooters isn't a strip club. The girls are at least as covered up as any high school girls volleyball or soccer team (minus, possibly, knee pads). That said, I agree with Rachel that CULTURE - not 18th Century puritanical morality - is the biggest issue here. I would not hesitate to take my kids into a Hooters, but I also would not encourage them to "get" the double entendre at their ages. To be honest, I suspect my 10-year old son already "gets" it without any help from me. I would never have put a "Future Hooters Girl" onesie on my daughter, but I really wouldn't be upset if she worked at a Hooters to pay her way through school. I know a very good mother and wonderful woman who did just that. Met her at church, by the way. I'm guessing those of you who think taking kids to Hooters is virtually a sex crime also think it's great when a school suspends a student for carrying a pocket knife into a school or leaving a hunting rifle in their car in the school parking lot. You show the very same lack of judgment.

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“Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” Pope John Paul II

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To all of you,
Take your meds, get off your holier than thou better than the rest of the world high horse, and buy larger underwear. Yours are entirely to tight and do the world a favor: Shut up till you do. My husband worked in Hooters for several years, some of my closest friends worked there and my 14 year old son, who is an A student and volunteers at a wild life rescue center, learned to walk in a Hooters and had Hooter Girls as babysitters. There is nothing wrong with any of us.
Sincerely,
A Hooter Wife and Mother

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No it is not a family place....Would I take my grandbabies to Hooters???....Are you out of your mind???...Grow up..It is a guy place and hooters are tits last I heard...You must really must be trailor trash to bring kids in there............

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Sorry--but I just don't think this is an important issue at all.

What is important to Catholics everywhere is the issue of immigration. It's great that you defend raising a family, Rachel. However, I think that us Catholics need to take a critical look at your stances on immigration on how that impacts families. Your husband bragged over the summer to the Wausau Daily Herald about how he wants to force all illegal immigrants in this country to leave, and "get into the back of the line" which would obviously have devastating impacts on families in America (with kids staying in the US, likely, because they are citizens, while parents would be deported). You seemed to advocate a similar position in an article you wrote this summer. Do you support these families, too? Do you and your husband support the Catholic Church's stance that immigration reform that keeps families together needs to be a top priority?

Considering how pro-family you seem to be, with your praise of the breast feeding room at the capital and defending having six kids, it seems that surely you would also not go against the bishops mandate that immigration reform needs to happen that keeps families together. Will you be willing to think about immigration reform as it relates to keeping families together? Even though you your ancestors were privileged enough to go through legal channels to be here in the United States, if you pray about it I'm sure you can see how good parents (like yourself) would risk illegally immigrating to the United States if they felt that their kids had no opportunities in their home countries and legal means were impossible to move through to get the United States. And while these families have a smudge for breaking the law, they are still families just trying to make it like all of ours are and still worthy of our protection and not condemnation. So, please pray about immigration as it relates to the family, become familiar with the Catholic Church's strong pro-immigration reform stances, and share any thoughts you have on this on this blog and with your husband in the near future.

Thanks kindly,

Frank

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OMG - I had no idea they had kids parties! As much as my 8 year old son *thinks* he'd love that (he guiltily stares extra long at the Cosmopolitan magazine covers at the grocery store checkout and I've assured him this is normal) we aren't going there for his next bday - no matter how good my husband claims the wings are! (what's w/these wings, enough already!). "Future Hooter Girl" tshirts?!?!? How utterly awful. Look, the human body is a beautiful thing, I have nude art in my house (to which my son pays no attention) and I'm definitely no prude, but this is NOT an atmosphere suitable for children. It is titillating (no pun intended) and simply too much for children to process. And YES, culture absolutely matters!

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Wow! Now you are a Puritan if you think that kids shouldn't go to Hooters. Let's be honest. Hooters is about T&A. My car-wash and local pub is not. Stop trying to minimize it. I have my vices, but I recognize them as vices and refuse to try and normalize them for the sake of my conscious.

Let me get the illegal immigration argument correct. Because there is legitimate disagreement on both sides of the immigration issue, Rachel can't be against Hooters. I hope as Catholics we can all agree that Hooters would not be something that should not be endorsed by us on any level. I have been to Rome and I am not allowed to go anywhere I want within the Vatican. The church restricts people's access. Why can't a country do it?

As far as suspending people who bring weapons to school I think that follows the liberal/Hooters line of thinking.

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Correction.

I hope as Catholics we can all agree that Hooters is not something that should be endorsed by us on any level. There is no religious gray area here to disagree over.

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