Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Children: We Just Don't Like Them

     As some of you may know, I recently went back to work.  I'm a hostess at the very same restaurant that I worked at 9 years ago.  This is also the same restaurant that I continued to have stress dreams about as recently as three weeks ago.  Anyway, today I was at work, and I had an encounter that left me positively baffled.  A party of four came in, and requested a table (not a booth.)  Yadda, yadda, yadda, restaurant logistics, blah, blah, blah.  I took them to the only table that I had available at that time.  It was a perfectly lovely table, centered in the middle of section D and all.  I gave them their menus, plus the spill about our specials, and left them to their delicious seafood.  As I was walking away, I heard one of the men mutter, "Oh, great.  There's two of them."  The "them" he was referring to?  Children.


     Now, I will be the first in line to duct tape the mouth of a child that is screaming in public.  But these two kids were seated at separate tables, and they were just chilling.  Not screaming, not banging things on the table, not flinging scrumptious cheesy biscuits through the air (also known as everything my kids would have been doing had they been there.)  None of the party asked to be moved, so I really didn't think anything else about it, other than having a nasty little inner chuckle when I sat another table with two kids in that same section.  What?  I'm supposed to make them wait for a table because you don't want kids near you?  Not likely.
     As they were finishing up their meal, one of the women in the party came past the host stand on the way to the restroom.  She stopped when my manager asked her how her meal was.  And you know what her complaint was?  That we didn't have an adults only section.  She said, "Why don't you make an effort when you see a group of people without kids to seat them where there aren't any kids near them?  Because, children?"  She literally paused and shuddered here.  "We just don't like them."  Um...what?!
     There's a reason that my manager makes the big bucks, because all I could do was look down at the ground and bite my lip.  (I've been told that I make faces that convey exactly what I'm thinking, so I have to avoid eye contact quite a bit.)  He kind of chuckled with the woman, and was all, "Yeah, that would be nice."  It got quiet, and I guess she could tell that we thought she was a monster, because she made a hasty retreat.  They left a few minutes later, and that was that.
     Except it wasn't, because all I could think about was the audacity of those people.  As if they were in any way deserving of special treatment.  As if families with small children should all be tucked away in a hidey hole in the back of the restaurant.  I just don't get it.  Seriously, the freaking balls on some of these people!  Am I the only one who finds this so irritating?  Because it certainly would not be the first time I got all bent out of shape over an imagined transgression.  Let me know in the comments, would you?  Thanks.  You're a peach.

27 comments:

  1. I think sometimes it would be nice to go to a restaurant where you knew there wouldn't be kids.... but I'm not going to make a special complaint about it.. or talk to the manager.. especially if the kids were behaving.

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    1. See, that's what I'm saying. You have your preferences, but you are absolutely aware that other people, you know, EXIST. If the kids had been screaming and acting a damn fool, then I could have understood a little more.

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  2. I read this and thought of those old people who said children should be seen and not heard. And then I think of my children who are heard by everyone all the time (in spite of me). Then I wonder if those old people were onto something.
    I think it's OK for people who don't have kids to not want to spend their time around them and I think it's OK for kids to be in public around people who might not want to hang with them. We all just have to be in the world together. It's not like kids cause cancer like cigarette smoke. (Ok, feeling like I'm rambling a bit, sorry.)

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    1. You're not rambling! That's exactly what I'm saying!

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  3. You are not alone. I encounter this sort of thing too and it always ticks me off. Did these people forget that they were once children? It is not as if kids are some separate species that causes cooties. In my experience it is usually the adults who are worse behaved than the children - this is especially true on airplanes as children are usually not the ones with the miniature bottles of booze.

    by the way - love that you labeled this "baby haters". nice.

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    1. See, I personally like kids...as long as they're not all scream-y and such. But I know everyone doesn't feel the same way. And that's cool. But to demand to have a seperate section because you don't like someone? Ridonkulous!

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  4. If that group comes back, you should TOTALLY slip crayons and kids' menus onto their table. Not that I'm the mean vindictive sort... just sayin' is all ;-)

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    1. Right? I have to fight my inner mean-ness all the time!

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  5. So HARD for me to understand... that's why I have 7, and LOVE THEM ALL.
    They teach me daily what no adult ever could.
    I feel sad for those people.

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    1. Me, too. I just wanted to scream, "If you just hate babies, I guess that's your druthers. But it don't make you special!"

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  6. I think some people are probably sick about hearing about kids, making accommodations for the kids ... especially if they grew up with being told that kids are seen and not heard and to suck it up and be quiet.

    And there are some kids out there whose behaviours can make really bad experiences for some people who might have been on the fence about children in general and/or faint of heart.

    But to go up to a manager and practically demand their own exclusive section? Wow. They must be perpetually cranky in public. And it's probably not really about the kids themselves.

    My hat's off to you. Dealing with the public is a tricky proposition. I've worked in retail ... childrens' department in a big store over the holidays = *shudder*

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    1. On a possibly related topic, had to come back and post a link to an article that caught my eye: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/ukrainian-commission-wants-ban-gay-spongebob-teletubbie-losers-204737552.html

      So now I am curious - what do they promote for their kids on TV -- or do they think all TV is a bad idea for their youth?

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    2. I almost went to work at Toys R' Us, but then I remembered that Christmas existed, and I changed my mind. Also, Holy crap, Ukranian fringe group! Why you gotta be messing with Spongebob?

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  7. Hey, not that I've ever been known to get my panties in a bunch about an imagined transgression either ( ;) ), but this is no such case! It's simple, people--if you don't want to see kids at a restaurant, go to one where there are no kids!

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    1. Right? Go eat at your fancy schmancy grown-ups restaurant!

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  8. You know, what in the heck (I really wanna cuss here) is wrong with people??? They were lucky we weren't sitting next to them...I would have been less mature than my kids.

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    1. I try to always be less mature than my kids. It's working out for us pretty well so far. ;)

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  9. I'm sure the other patrons didn't want to sit near a snotty little uppity whiner, either, but you don't see them asking you to move her table to the b--ch section. Amiright? But seriously, there are times I wish there were kid sections too, just so I, as a parent, didn't have to spend my entire meal stressing that my insane brood of crazies might be ticking off the people without kids. I guess it would be nice if we could all cut each other some slack.

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    1. If only people could do that, I would have so much less to gripe about!

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  10. Man, that bugs me. A lot. I have three children and they are very loud. I know this. So, when we do go out to eat, we go to family-friendly restaurants. We don't bring them to loud places or overly-swank places that adults would appreciate. If Husband and I go out together for a date-night thing, we avoid family-friendly eateries (usually) and have grown-up food. Even then, if there were *gasp* children there (the horror!), we still wouldn't act like buttholes and would just enjoy our time together. What is up with people?!

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  11. Oh I am totally on your side. I completely understand why people don't like being around kids (even more so now that I actually have my own) but they need to deal with the fact that kids are just a part of life whether you have your own or not.

    For God's sake people, without kids the human race would cease to exist. Is that what that crabby lady would prefer? She needs to decide between being able to dine w/o little ones around or the continuation of our species.

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    1. She had some pretty strong opinions. I'm pretty sure that she's going to vote her comfort over any future generations that may come to be.

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  12. Once at Epcot at the Biergarten restaurant there was this older couple that refused to be seated at the same table as us because of the kids. I had my boys and my sister was there with her daughter.

    Anyway, that restaurant has these long communal tables, that's just the way it works. They were told if they switched tables it might be an hour or more before a new one became available, if they could get them another table (it was crazy busy) and there might be kids at that table too.

    They still didn't want to be seated with us! And the kids were being so good, it was crazy.

    Disney World seems like an odd place to go if you hate kids anyway. I don't know...

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    1. That's like going to an ER and then complaining about all the sick people. Does not compute.

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  13. Should families be put in a hidey hole in the back? Well, I think it matters on the establishment;D It all comes down to cloth IMO. If there are cloth napkins/table clothes etc. Children should be banished to the back. If you are paying for that nice of a place you shouldn't even have to deal with the possibility of a kid going wacko;D

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    1. That's similar to something one of my son's teachers said, "If the place has crayons and kids' menus, then you don't get to complain about children." I agree with you and with her! (Bt dubs, we absolutely have crayons at my restaurant.)

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