"Thanks, you little f*****": Family horrified after restaurant bill...

Mail Online (UK) ^ | 2009-09-11 | (Daily Mail Reporter)

[dayglored]

Most parents have experienced their young children getting restless when waiting for a meal in a restaurant.

But not many get the bill at the end of it with a message describing their offspring as a 'little f*****'.

This is what happened to parents Craig and Kimberley Cartin at a Mexican restaurant in Halifax, West Yorkshire, where they received the receipt which had 'Thanky you littell f*****' written on it.

...

Fuming Craig, a 34-year-old administrator, said: 'I couldn't believe my eyes. The meal was indifferent anyway but to be abused on the bill is unbelievably offensive.

'I consider myself a fairly easy-going guy but this was too much, it's awful behaviour.

'Molly was a bit grumbly, a bit moany, but her behaviour certainly wasn't terrible - so this was just uncalled for. Presumably they meant to delete it before printing but it's still no excuse.'

....

[Gabz]

It was unbelievable how these people could allow their children to behave as they were doing in this restaurant..........

And as I said in another post, those are the type who will be the first to complain about someone else's children.

I admire your restraint and applaud all that you said and did. I'm not so sure I would have been as polite.

[Straight Vermonter]

I never understood why airlines did not offer child free flights on busy routes. I think a lot of folks would pay an extra $20 for the peace of mind of knowing no kids will be on the flight.

[chris_bdba]

You and me both! What really peturbed us was we were not in a “family” resturant but a nicer place trying to celebrate our anniversary. Apparently the parents wanted to enjoy the nice resturant but didn’t want to spring for a babysitter? I thought it was very selfish of them and after about 45 minutes of listening to screming kids the manager finally asked them to do something, of course they acted like it was an unreasonable request! *rolleyes*

[plsjr]

Another interesting aspect of the article (since there has been adequate comment on inadequate parenting):

We get a preview of what zero and the democrats (communists) want to do to us at the end:

"The incident rounds off a torrid first fortnight for the restaurant.

After opening on August 28 it had to close again just days later because the gas supply was inadequate causing dozens of cancellations."

[Oztrich Boy]

I am surprised that a restaurant run by a guy named “Cactus Joe” doesn't have a more refined standard of discourse.

[Erasmus]

There's a pretty nice Mexican-flavored food restaurant in Orlando that I've been patronizing. The owners are from central Texas, where I lived for thirty years.

I come in one day recently and see that they've added to the menu sausage from "Central Texas," so I have to try it. At the end of the meal I ask the waitress "what town in central Texas?" (It makes a difference to a Texas sausage conoisseur, of course.)

After a lttle while the manager comes by, and says "Oh we bring it in from 'Eljin'." I give him a little pointer on the pronunciation. "It's Elgin," I 'splain.

[SamAdams76]

Well obviously the comment on the receipt was uncalled for (and pretty stupid considering that waitstaff depend on tips to make a decent living at what they do), however I've been to restaurants enough times to know that the father should probably not be so smug. Most likely his kid was an insufferable brat and probably ruined the dining experience of all those who had the misfortune to sit near him and his unruly brood.

It amazes me to see how parents indulge bad behavior from their kids in restaurants. I've taken my kids to restaurants from the time they were in high chairs but they behaved 99% of the time. That's because the 1% of the time they didn't behave, we immediately yanked them out of the restaurant, drove them home, fed them cold beans for dinner and sent them immediately to their beds.

[jamiekw]

I’m on the verge of giving birth to my fifth child; my oldest is a Marine, my youngest just turned 2. None of them are perfect; all have gone to restaurants since they were very small. I TAUGHT them how to behave in restaurants, primarily by starting with fast food and child-friendly family restaurants (which a kid-friendly section would certainly imply this one was) and then graduating to more sophisticated venues. Learning to eat politely in restaurants is part of training the barbarian out of children. That lesson is a big step to learning to behave in other more stressful public areas, like airplanes.

I am proud to say that, outside of quickly-controlled outbursts from my autistic son when he was a preschooler, I have NEVER had a problem with any of my children in public; they have always been beautifully behaved, and I have never hesitated to tell them so.

Now, any good server or manager, upon seeing a child growing restless and especially if food was slow, would go to the table and offer something to calm the child: crayons, crackers, bread, chips, SOMETHING. We don’t have both ends of this story, but the fact that the restaurant doesn’t seem to offer much to defend itself certainly implies the parents are in the right here.

My sympathy is with the parents here. Those of you who are hating on this child and her parents: keep in mind that children who don’t experience public restaurants often never learn how to behave in public places, and often grow into remarkably rude and ill-behaved adults.

[dayglored]

> I've taken my kids to restaurants from the time they were in high chairs but they behaved 99% of the time. That's because the 1% of the time they didn't behave, we immediately yanked them out of the restaurant, drove them home, fed them cold beans for dinner and sent them immediately to their beds.

I don't think I ever did the "cold beans" part, but the part about aborting the outing and thus letting the child know, in no uncertain terms, that they had blown it big-time and this was not to ever happen again -- that's the key thing. Kids who are permitted to get away with tantrums aren't stupid -- they quickly figure out what "works" for them. If they are taught, consistently, that when they act up they lose, no questions asked, they figure out that they ought to act right.

To be fair, the child has to be capable of recognizing that what they've done is wrong; there is some small percentage of children without that capacity, due to medical or congenital problems.

But in general, teaching children public manners is not rocket science. As you described above, it mainly requires steadfast attention and willingness to deal, on the part of the parents.

[Some hope remaining.]

Several years ago I was at a restaurant with my 4 kids during a break from a long drive. My kids weren’t perfect by any means but an older couple came by after their meal to congratulate us on how well behaved our kids were. Made me feel good to hear something like that.

[wardaddy]

my kids are fairly well behaved compared to what I used to see when I lived in Manhattan where native whites let their kids run the household.

mine know like Mike Ness sings: “my daddy spanked my bare ass” and I damn sure will.

my kids say yes sir and yes ma'am etc

but considering the tone of many comments here I'd like to know who has or has had kids and who hasn't?

when I was a boy a long time ago my patience for kids was far lower than today even though with a little brother 12 years younger I was sorta acclimated better than most

when I was a boy, folks didn't go out much and when we did it was blue blazer, grey flannel and white bucks and bow tie...and very stiff posture and serious ..very serious behavior or my 6/4 240 lb former All American defensive end dad would put me in the emergency room..anyone else remember going out to a fancy restaurant in the 60s?

[dead]

I have never read that far down on a receipt in my life.