NOISY children have been banned from a Sydney shopping centre in a move that one parenting expert says reflects society's growing intolerance.

The Dee Why Grand on Sydney's northern beaches, which claims to cater for young families, has introduced its new policy following complaints about out-of-control children.

The notice from centre management reads: "Stop. Parents please be considerate of other customers using the food court. Screaming children will not be tolerated in the centre."

Centre manager Brenda Mulcahy said staff and customers complained about children "running amok" and "screaming" in the food court, near the centre's playground for children aged under five.

She said children were sometimes so loud she could hear their screams in her office, which was "miles away".

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"People deserve the quiet enjoyment of their cup of tea," Ms Mulcahy told The Manly Dailyyesterday.

"Mothers have to be more responsible. We have had so many complaints."

She said some staff avoided the food court because they found the noise "unbearable".

A sign asking children not to scream was put up before Christmas but, after more complaints, the strongly worded sign went up last week.

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Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson said it was a reflection on society becoming increasingly intolerant of young children and parents.

"Anyone who has kids knows it's far more uncomfortable hearing your own child scream than hearing someone else's child scream," he said.

"When our own child is crying we do anything we can to help them. This is a sad indictment on the shopping centre."

Dr Coulson said rejecting young children who made noises or were distressed was wrong.

"There is a such a lack of empathy for parents - there is so much judgment around parents who are, for the most part, doing their best," he said.

Dee Why father-of-four Tomiki Halai said he had seen children "run wild" in the centre but most parents did not allow it: "Parents need to try to control their children but at the end of the day, children are just children."

Banning noisy children from shopping centres has drawn an a large amount of support from readers, with many pointing the finger at parents.

“Finally something is being done for the people who don't want their lives ruined by crying, screaming kids running around in public places,” Sarah Coldwell wrote on the Herald Sun website.

“Take these kids to a park and let them run around or better still, take them home and let them scream there.”

“Maybe it's not about intolerance of the children but rather the parents who allow their children to run riot, don't provide adequate supervision and don't control bad behaviour,” Michael Cruise of Melbourne wrote.

“Go home if you're kids are acting up,” Rebekah Isaacs said on the Herald Sun Facebook page. “Just because you can't control them, doesn't mean the rest of us want to hear it.”

However some pointed out that there may be no other option for parents, and put the blame back on the shopping centre.

“I have a 4 year old and while she is pretty well behaved when we go shopping she has had a few melt downs,” Carla Regan said on the Herald Sun Facebook page.

“If shops didn't position all the toys, lollies, junk at a toddlers head height us parents wouldn't have such a hard time controlling them.”

“So where would that leave single mums with no-one to babysit while they shop?” Melissa Budnik said.

“I would never, ever have been able to go shopping. I can' see any store trying to enforce this losing a LOT of customers. Its kids being kids find me one that doesn't play up when they have to go shopping.”

Originally published as Crackdown on screaming children