Little Delinquents Ruin Diner’s Meals

May 13, 2013

in Kid Stories

My wife and I frequented a family restaurant that had decent food, fast friendly wait staff, and good prices. One Tuesday night while mid way through our entrees, two fairly large women walked in dragging 5 children along behind them. The women promptly proceeded to ignore the children and started talking among themselves while the kids ran amok. The manager repeatedly told the women to bring the kids to heel but he was pointedly ignored.

At this point the kids were playing hide and seek under the tables regardless of whether they were occupied or not. One urchin crawled under our table and slammed into my wife’s shin. She gave a yelp, shoved our table aside, dragged the little delinquent out, and presented him to the two women asking if this was one of theirs. The child was screeching at the indignity of being remonstrated and the women demanded that the child be unhanded. I stated that these children were in the process of destroying everyone’s meals and what did they intend to do about it. I was promptly told to go F___ myself after which I walked back to my table, grabbed my wife’s and my meals, took them over to the two women’s table and deposited the plates in front of them along with the check. I said they were now responsible for the check and our ruined meal, grabbed our coats and walked to the front door.

The women meanwhile were yelling at the top of their voices that they were calling the cops. I invited them to feel free to do so since child welfare services were being called as well. The manager apologized and comped our meals but did not tell the two screeching women about that; he said it was entertaining to watch them splutter. He also said he was banning them from the restaurant since he didn’t want to lose good customers. I thanked him, told him it wasn’t his fault, and that we would be back. I gave him 2 twenties to split amongst the wait staff and departed. We never saw the police. Nor the two mothers from hell. And we still dine at the same restaurant regularly.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

mrsjamiecbaker May 14, 2013 at 7:42 am

I find that it's very difficult to find a polite way for restaurant staff to deal with these types of parents. When I worked at a popular breakfast joint, we had a grandmother that would bring her two grandkids in every Wednesday and drive all the servers batty. We used to joke that whoever was assigned her section on Wednesday's must have ticked the manager off (they always chose the same seats). It was near impossible to reason with her and keep the kids in check.
I'm glad the two mothers were not seen again, but it's such a shame that they behaved in this way. They are going to raise children who are going to become adults with the same type of bad manners, the same lack of care for others, and the same terrible behavior. People like this are the reason some establishments have rules about children now (I read about one recently that doesn't allow kids under 6).

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daisy May 14, 2013 at 10:00 am

What difference does the size of the women make?

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mrsjamiecbaker May 17, 2013 at 8:58 am

Seems purely descriptive to allow readers to get a better picture of the scene. It's not like she said "two fat and sloppy women" so I don't think any disrespect was meant.

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Jack May 25, 2013 at 6:00 pm

The size of the women was unnecessary, and was meant as a dig. Let's face it we all look down on fat people.

The way the two "large" women reacted to their children's bad behavior is inexcusable. If they were making that much of a scene the manager should have spoken to them, if they ignored him he should have asked them to leave. He put his good customers in a bad spot. When you grab another persons child, warranted or not, you put yourself in jeopardy. It would have been far better to go to the manager and ask him to intercede.

We raised four children, took them to nice restaurants from babies up. They new we expected them to behave, three of them were great. The youngest, not so much. One time we went to lunch at a very nice restaurant on Cape Cod. There were four of us, my youngest son, my wife, myself and the three year old terror. She upset her milk, got under the table, and quickly crawled under the neighboring table and climbed up into a strangers lap, put her hand in the woman's soup upsetting the bowl then running behind the drapes. This all happened in about a minute. My son was so embarrassed he left, my wife and I were mortified. I apologized, my wife apologized, we offered to pay for any damages (the woman's dress was covered in clam chowder) apologized again, got our bill, paid it and left a large tip. That little girl is 25 today and is still a real "trip" to take to a restaurant. While she doesn't crawl under the table or climb in strangers laps, she's extremely critical of food, presentation and service, be it a diner or a fine dining establishment. If someones child misbehaves she's vocal about it.

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Sickayou October 12, 2013 at 8:02 pm

Stop taking her out to eat. She needs therapy, maybe, not food so much.

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Bridget May 15, 2018 at 11:51 pm

It's too bad that 22 years later this girl hasn't learned a thing about eating out and proper manners! She's an adult now and not that rotten little kid anymore!

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