# 2-year old sips alcohol, mom calls cops and paramedics; blames restaurant **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 4, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245 "2010-05-04T03:35:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/81 "2010-05-04T20:08:33Z")
If the kid’s at the table with the parents, then they can grab food. It’s one thing to give a kid an alcoholic beverage saying, “OK, here’s your wine, and here’s junior’s apple juice.” But once you’ve put the stuff on the table in the middle (not given it to any kid in particular) then isn’t it the parents’ job to restrain the kid until they know what’s in the food/beverage? ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/82 "2010-05-04T20:30:25Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > You don’t think the public would be upset by a restaurant policy of straitjacketing kids? I’d be all for it, but generally?:dubious: I prefer the “put the kid out of arm’s reach of the parents” - because other restaurant patrons really love it when your kids are more than an arm’s reach away. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/83 "2010-05-04T20:56:26Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I can actually see both sides. The resturant clearly needs to rethink their serving scheme if small children can grab foods and drink. > > The restaurant is wrong here. > > The mother way over-reacted and I agree it seems she is out for some $$$$ > > A simple apology and maybe a free meal should be enough to cover the mother’s distress. > > But really the restaurant needs to prevent any child from being able to grab any food in the future. It’s the parents’ job to police what the kids are eating and drinking at the table, not the restaurant. If this were to happen with one of my kids, it would never cross my mind to blame the server for it, and I sure as hell wouldn’t call the cops. I doubt that I’d even think anything about it if it was just one sip. I’d probably laugh, wipe the kid’s face, give her some milk and forget all about it 4 seconds later. It would never even occur to me to blame anyone but myself. This woman is over the top self-absorbed. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/84 "2010-05-04T21:03:10Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The resturant clearly needs to rethink their serving scheme if small children can grab foods and drink. > > The restaurant is wrong here. Fuck that bullshit. Watch your fucking kids. If you don’t want something in their reach, then move it out of their reach. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/85 "2010-05-04T21:11:21Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > I can actually see both sides. The resturant clearly needs to rethink their serving scheme if small children can grab foods and drink. > > The restaurant is wrong here. Okay, share with us your wisdom. How should the restaurant arrange their serviing scheme to prevent the urchins from grabbing food & drink? I see five possibilities: 1. Prohibit anyone under the age of 12 from entering the building. 2. Having a separate dining area for children. 3. Strapping down the little ones so that their arms & legs are restrained. 4. Hiring extra staff so that a single dedicated person is available to watch over each child in the dining room. 5. Chop off the children’s fingers immediately upon entry; put the fingers on ice and hire surgeons to reattach later. Which of these works best for you? ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/86 "2010-05-04T21:17:04Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > The resturant clearly needs to rethink their serving scheme if small children can grab foods and drink. You mean, the _scheme_ of delivering food and drinks to the tables of the people who order them? ---
**Author:** ![norinew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/eb9ed0/32.png) [@norinew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/norinew)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/87 "2010-05-04T22:00:50Z")
I _might_ be able to agree somewhat with **Markxxx’s** point _if_ the server had specifically set the alcoholic drink down in front of the kid. Even then, of course, the parent should be supervising, but the restaurant should share some of the responsibility. But at most every ‘family friendly’ restaurant I’ve been to, most of the table has been within reach of the kids, and it is the _parents’_ job to make sure the kids aren’t grabbing something they didn’t. I mean, Christ, this sounds like the kind of woman that, _if_ a staff-member had noticed it first and taken the drink _away_ from the kid, she would sue the restaurant for traumatizing her pwecious mis-spelld (see what I did there?) Snowflake. ---
**Author:** ![santosvega](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@santosvega](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/santosvega)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/88 "2010-05-04T22:01:43Z")
> [@Mycroft\_Holmes](#): > > To get back on topic. Kids in the middle ages drank mostly weak beer (becaúse the water was too filthy) and managed to survive. And my grandpa sometimes let me have a nip of his Schnaps when I was a toddler. One sip of a White Russian isn’t even gonna make the kid tipsy. We don’t really have the information to know the precise strength of the ale kids drank in the Middle Ages, but I’d hazard a guess that it probably wouldn’t have been all _that_ weak. The ‘dinner ales’, ‘luncheon ales’, and ‘family ales’ of the Victorian era, by which time the invention of the saccharometer allowed for better record-keeping, typically were brewed to gravities of 1035-45, resulting in beers ranging from around 3.5% to nearly 5% ABV. They were definitely weak and watery by the standards of the time, being the weakest beer in the brewer’s range, but normal strength beers by today’s standards. Those Victorians were made of hardier stuff than us today, it seems. The equivalent of a pint of bitter or an American light beer would have been specifically brewed for young children. Our modern culture needs to step it up a bit. Taken in an historical context, we’re alarmingly sober. And yes, I do have odd hobbies. If anyone would be interested in an ‘Ask the guy who’s oddly obsessed with the history of beer in the British Isles’ thread, let me know. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/89 "2010-05-04T22:30:47Z")
> [@santosvega](#): > > Taken in an historical context, we’re alarmingly sober. This looks like the time to recommend [this book](http://www.amazon.com/History-World-Six-Glasses/dp/0802714471/ref=tmm_hrd_title_0). > [@Mark Knoblauch](#): > > Historian [Tom] Standage explores the significant role that six beverages have played in the world’s history. Few realize the prominence of beer in ancient Egypt, but it was crucial to both cultural and religious life throughout the Fertile Crescent, appearing even in the Gilgamesh epic. Wine’s history has been recounted in many places, and its use to avoid often–polluted water supplies made it ubiquitous wherever grapes could be easily cultivated. Spirits, first manufactured by Arabs and later rejected by them with the rise of Islam, played a fundamental role in the ascendance of the British navy. As a stimulant, coffee found no hostility within Islam’s tenets, and its use spread as the faith moved out of Arabia into Asia and Europe. Tea enjoyed similar status, and it bound China and India to the West. Cola drinks, a modern American phenomenon, relied on American mass-marketing skills to achieve dominance. An appendix gives some modern sources for some of the primitive beers and wines described in the text. ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/90 "2010-05-04T22:39:02Z")
> [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](#): > > Okay, share with us your wisdom. How should the restaurant arrange their serviing scheme to prevent the urchins from grabbing food & drink? The thing that got me was that all the drinks were put in the center of the table. If you’re serving alcohol at a table with underaged children, I’m pretty sure you need to be, per licensing laws, sure to actually serve the drinks to the adults who have been properly identified as old enough to have that alcohol. That doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a child getting ahold of a drink, but it would certainly lessen the possibility over the practice of dropping drinks in the middle of the table. Also, it’s not the patrons’ job to sort out what drinks/meals belong to whom, if your servers aren’t capable of remembering who ordered what and actually giving those things to them, and not just to the table, then get new servers. ---
**Author:** ![Merneith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/57b2e6/32.png) [@Merneith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merneith)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/91 "2010-05-04T23:13:52Z")
> [@santosvega](#): > > If anyone would be interested in an ‘Ask the guy who’s oddly obsessed with the history of beer in the British Isles’ thread, let me know. Go for it! ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/92 "2010-05-04T23:20:11Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > The thing that got me was that all the drinks were put in the center of the table. If you’re serving alcohol at a table with underaged children, I’m pretty sure you need to be, per licensing laws, sure to actually serve the drinks to the adults who have been properly identified as old enough to have that alcohol. I can’t see where the [GENERAL LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, CHAPTER 138. ALCOHOLIC LIQUORS.](http://www.mass.gov/legis/laws/mgl/gl-138-toc.htm) make any such requirement or distinction. I may have missed something, but I’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think the restaurant was in perfect compliance with the law. Yes, ideal table service would mean placing each drink at the correct spot at the table. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/93 "2010-05-04T23:22:21Z")
> [@Marlitharn](#): > > If they never see responsible drinking how are they supposed to become responsible drinkers when they go off to college and don’t have Mommy and Daddy to control their lives for them anymore? The college will be responsible, natch. ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/94 "2010-05-04T23:27:49Z")
> [@norinew](#): > > Christ, this sounds like the kind of woman that, _if_ a staff-member had noticed it first and taken the drink _away_ from the kid, she would sue the restaurant for traumatizing her pwecious mis-spelld (see what I did there?) Snowflake. I wonder…if they had ordered a bloody mary with **tobassco** how this would have shaken out? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/95 "2010-05-04T23:44:08Z")
> [@](#): > > Shouldn’t the parents have been cited, for something like neglect/endangerment? Agreed. Even if (as any sane person can tell), the tiny amount of alcohol actually consumed won’t harm the child, the mother clearly thought that it would. So we have this woman who, by her own admission, negligently allowed her child to do something that she thought was deathly dangerous. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/96 "2010-05-04T23:49:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > \ the mother clearly thought that it would. So we have this woman who, by her own admission, negligently allowed her child to do something that she thought was deathly dangerous. Exactly. If it’s the end of the world if your toddler has a sip of alcohol, don’t friggin’ order it! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/97 "2010-05-05T13:39:49Z")
> [@tumbleddown](#): > > The thing that got me was that all the drinks were put in the center of the table. If you’re serving alcohol at a table with underaged children, I’m pretty sure you need to be, per licensing laws, sure to actually serve the drinks to the adults who have been properly identified as old enough to have that alcohol. Then again, if I were aiming to keep something away from the reach of children, the middle of the table would actually seem like the best bet. Assuming the kids aren’t \*on \*the table or endowed with freakishly long arms. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/98 "2010-05-05T14:47:56Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Then again, if I were aiming to keep something away from the reach of children, the middle of the table would actually seem like the best bet. Assuming the kids aren’t \*on \*the table or endowed with freakishly long arms. They stand on the seats. Especially in a booth. A table, mine always at at, a booth seems to involve duct tape to get them to sit. But the booth has its advantages in that I pin them in between me and the wall, so while they stand on the seat, they don’t leave the table, rock their chair… (I’m so glad they are getting older and the days of toddler behavior are behind us. Now they are just ill mannered and uncivil in the way middle schoolers are.) ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/99 "2010-05-05T15:16:40Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I wonder…if they had ordered a bloody mary with **tobassco** how this would have shaken out? 🙂 It would have been like taking Tobasco from a baby. Everybody would be yelling and screaming. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2010, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245/100 "2010-05-05T15:22:20Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I wonder…if they had ordered a bloody mary with **tobassco** how this would have shaken out? 🙂 > [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > It would have been like taking Tobasco from a baby. Everybody would be yelling and screaming. Ah, thank you kids for this bit of hilarity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2-year-old-sips-alcohol-mom-calls-cops-and-paramedics-blames-restaurant/538245.md?page=6)