One very recent example of what I find annoying: 2 children having a roller-skating race round and round my table last weekend and - after half an hour - when I asked if they could do this somewhere else (there was space away from occupied tables), the mother got aggressive. It is the parent's behaviour that I object to in this, not the kids.
I've spent time living in other countries where children accompany their parent when out late.. sometimes very late, though when I lived in Crete there were plenty of city bars where parents would not take kids. I think the reasons why children's behaviour is different and also why we react differently here/'sur le continent' is quite complicated.