Article posted Thursday, August 20, 2015 12:00pm

Dear Mary Pat,

Our community sponsors weekly live music in a park during the summer. The musicians are always talented and very professional. Unfortunately, many children seem to be unsupervised and run back and forth in packs right in front of the stage. It’s not only disrespectful to the performers, but also very distracting and irritating to the audience. The parents seem not to notice or care what their children are doing. I know children need to have fun, but playing and running wildly in front of the stage and performers is not acceptable.

Signed,

Music Lover

Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

Dear Music Lover,

This is unfortunate. I see a lot of parents who are completely checked out and seem not to remember that they are responsible for their children’s behavior in public. There is a big difference between a playground and a musical performance. It might simply be a case of children being too young to appreciate what they are seeing and they are bored and restless.

Since this seems not to be an isolated occurrence, you might want to suggest to the organizer (whether by email or in person) that everyone might benefit from a brief announcement at the beginning of the concert to please limit children running around. I’m sure that the majority of the concertgoers would appreciate this greatly as would the performers themselves.

And maybe some of those parents are reading right now and have received the message loud and clear.

Good luck,

Mary Pat