This is a
Victorian sentence, and I find myself occasionally in agreement with it.
Before burying me under a mudslide of downvotes and, of course,
mud,
let me elaborate.
There are situations and places where children are the centerpiece: for example, a Cub Scout activity, a child's birthday party, an outing to Coney Island fair, a trip to Disneyland. In these situations, the children are, IMHO entitled to making maximum noise, climbing climbable objects and singing silly songs one hundred times.
On the other hand, there are situations and places where the children are not the focus, like a family dinner, a trip to the MOMA, a funeral. That's is when they should be seen more than heard.
I have renounced to visiting people that insist that, since their children are so incredibly amazing and extraordinary and wonderful, they should visibile and heard at all times.
There is nothing so depressing as trying to have a conversation about anything, absolutely anything, and being interrupted every minute by a child's noises, screams and attempts to eat small household objects.
I don't claim that I am more important than the child: and that is why in those situations I choose to leave early and maybe reappear in some five years.
I guess it is all part of being a graceful loser, isn't it ?
There is a similar but different discussion about "Because I say so" is almost right.