I work in a 'family' restaurant. Apparently,
since we have a multitude of high chairs, people assume that our nice,
sit down restaurant doubles as a play place McDonald's. Very
often, I can be heard musing to myself, "Why isn't anyone beating that
kid?"
Did I mention that we're a SIT DOWN restaurant? With carpet on the
floor and trendy alcoholic beverages that cost over $7? You would
think that our customers would come in and realize that this is not an
appropriate place to let your spawn crawl around on the floor under
the booths grinding macaroni and cheese into the carpet and howling.
You would think that the baby factories that come in would worry about
their toddlers playing tag in isles where servers are carrying
heavy, steaming hot plates.
They don't. And furthermore, if one of those hot plates were to
fall and bash in the brains of their precious little spawn, they would
sue us despite the fact that we are a restaurant, not a
daycare.
One night, I was waiting on a table with 2 parents and 2 children
who were actually sitting in their seats. I was considering
myself awfully lucky until a 2-year-old from another table
toddled over to my table, snatched some chocolate milk from one
of the semi well behaved kids, and then proceeded to lurch on back to
his parents.
The parents didn't even notice.
Obviously perturbed, I walked over to them and said in a sickly
sweet voice, "While you were busy with your conversation, your child
just stole chocolate milk off the table of one of my customers."
The woman doubled over laughing, "Oh my goodness! Isn't that
funny?
No, it's not funny. It's not cute. It's incredibly rude and
disrespectful. Furthermore, it could have been completely prevented
had you been watching your child like you were supposed too. I looked
pointedly over to my table hoping that she would notice that my
customers were not in the least amused. This woman STILL didn't get
it. I wanted to dip her head into a bowl of battery acid.
This big group of Spanish people came into our restaurant another
night with about 8 little animals. Oblivious, they got drunk while
their kids sprinted though the restaurant, jumped onto random booths,
and even ran into the kitchen and came VERY close to dipping their
pudgy little fingers into the fryer. Repeatedly, my manager intervened
and told the kids that they MUST stay in their seats. No dice. I spent
the night wondering how I could push one over and hurt them badly
while making it look like an accident. By the time the little monsters
had finally left the restaurant, the other paying customers were so
annoyed, that my manager had to buy them ALL free dessert to make them
happy again.
I guess the point I'm trying to make is: If your little animal
is so wild that he can't sit quietly in his seat while in a
restaurant, then you need to leave him at home. My husband has two
kids that are too wild to sit and eat for an hour straight, so we
don't take them with us when we go out to eat. It really is a
very simple concept.
I don't find your kids or their behavior particularly cute.
In fact, I think your kids are hideously ugly. Your children are
whining, crying, rude, nasty, deformed looking little brats that smell
like shit and are in serious need of a good, sound beating. I would
brutally murder your children and tack their dried skins on my wall as
a trophy if I could get away with it. Trust me.
Do you really want someone like me bringing your kids
chocolate milk? No?
Then leave them at home.