Papa Tiger and I were eating at a buffet this evening, and a completely strange 5-year-old boy came up to him and, without asking or anything, just reached up and helped himself to a sausage off Papa Tiger’s plate, while the mother just watched!
So Papa Tiger walked over to the mother and very politely said, “While I don’t mind eating with children around, I really would prefer that they don’t eat the food off my plate.” The mother made no response, not even an apology.
What’s with kids like this? And the mother? I mean, to walk up to a total stranger and take food with Mom watching, and she doesn’t even think it was worth an apology, let alone correcting the child?
I was just completely flabbergasted, I have to admit. Was it unusual for us to be surprised by this behavior?
I agree with Q.E.D except that some people might be embarrased by what their kids do and feel too ashamed to open their mouths to explain or apologise.
If I were the parent(s) I would apologise but before that I’d be taken aback by Papa Tiger’s not seeing the funny side of this.
Having said that, it is entirely possible that the parents were just rude idiots who don’t care what their kids do.
There’s a funny side, Lobsang? Ignoring the fact that maybe Papa Tiger was loading the plate with arsenic to serve it to me to hasten my demise or something and could have poisoned the kid (hopefully not a likely possibility, but hey, you never know), since when is it funny for a 5-year-old to walk up to a total stranger who’s getting food from a buffet, stick his hands in the stranger’s plate of food, and grab a piece?
Call me humor-impaired, but I just don’t see it. My reaction was more along the line of Krister’s. As was Papa’s.
It could be funny…I mean, the kid sees all this food displayed on tables, apparently free for the taking, and doesn’t realize that this does not also pertain to the food on other diners’ plates, so he sees something he likes and grabs it.
Of course, if this were the case, Mom would probably be running up behind the kid saying, “No, no, no!” and apologizing to you, etc., etc…and hoping that you will be the understanding sort, and perhaps even the sort to chuckle at this kid’s obvious misunderstanding rather than the sort who gives Mom and Kid the Glare of Death.
At least it was a buffet, right? You could always get a new plate.
So, yeah, there’s a funny side. However, it’s really hard to see when the mother witnesses the misbehavior and does nothing at all about it. So, I can see your point as well.
Wow. Just when you think you’ve heard it all…
I agree that the kid may have been confused about where he was supposed to get the food from. That’s where the mom should have come in.
And, no, it’s not at all unusual to be surprised/shocked at that behavior. It’s not the norm nor is it acceptable.
Things like this happen because parents don’t watch their little mutants. I was at a Chinese buffet once and there was a kid running around like a little monster while his mother sat and ate her food without a care in the world. This kid had a plastic horn(!!), and was marching around blowing the shit out of it, much to the annoyance of everyone there. He was also making the rounds and stopping at every table to sit and chat. My husband, who is not as nice as I am, scolded him and told him to go sit at his own table. When someone finally complained to the management, the mother took the horn away and the kid wailed the rest of the time. People actually clapped when they left.
How did that mother know that the man sitting at the next table wasn’t a child molester who was waiting for a chance to let the kid come and sit next to him? She didn’t, and yet she let her kid run around and talk to a restaurant full of strangers. How did the mother know in Mama Tiger’s case know that there wasn’t anyone waiting for a chance to take advantage of the situation of a loose child? She didn’t either.
When I was 5 I wasn’t allowed to run wild anywhere but my own backyard. If we were out shopping or in a restaurant, I was next to my mother and didn’t have the chance to go feral.
When I saw the name of the thread, I thought I would have something to say. Both my kids’ favorite restaurant is Old Country Buffet. (They have never taken any food off anyone else’s plate)
Didn’t realize it was about rowdy kids at the buffet.
Sad part is, I can beleive what happened. People can just be that rude. Happens all the time.
I would be so surprised, Mama Tiger, that I’d probably just start laughing.
Then I’d be pissed, after it becomes clear that Mom doesn’t care and isn’t going to remonstrate with the Lil’ Buffet Bomber.
Having said that, however, I’ve worked in restaurants for seven years, so I’ve seen so many rude and ill-behaved children (and adults) that it takes a lot for me to really get worked up about it; things that would have phased me if I had another line of work no longer even make me blink.
I mean, I get parents who let their little kids sit up at the bar and play the touch-screen game, totally unattended, for the entire duration of their parents’ dinner. They’re just happy the kid’s occupied elsewhere. Nevermind the fact that the kid is sitting at a bar by himself, surrounded by drinking/smoking/swearing adults, and most likely playing a game with naked women all over it.
I work in a restaurant bar so we do allow children to sit at the bar (mostly for nights when we’re on a wait and families want somewhere to sit) and so I get very little back-up from management if I try to get the parents to watch their own kid. :shrug: Nothing I can do about it. I’m not a babysitter and I refuse to try to make people better parents anymore. If they don’t care, why should I?
grrrr
Sorry for the hijack, Mama Tiger. You just reminded me of one of my pet peeves.
I’ve said this often, and shall repeat it here: All children should be managed with cattle prods. Were this the case, there wouldn’t be serious issue such as sausage theft to deal with. But nooooo, there’s people out there that think kids are actually cute, and would feel sorry for the little monsters. Appoint me to rule that world and this will be the fourth Sweeping Declaration to Make the World a Better Place.
Unfortunately, my friend is like this with her son. He’s eight now, but will go right up to total strangers and start talking with them, getting right in their faces, demanding a hand shake from men and a hug from women. She thinks it’s sweet that he’s so personable–actually, many people have asked me if he’s retarded. He’s not, in fact he’s incredibly intelligent, just very lacking in the social skills department.
I like to eat out on occasion so I made sure that my boys knew from a young age how to behave in a restaurant. If they acted up, I took them to the car while their dad had everything packed to go and they got the lecture on what is NOT acceptable behavior in public. After having to do that maybe twice, they got the message. And at five, that kid should have known better. Food issues aside, he should have already known not to approach strangers in that way.
Yeah, the last time I ever went to a buffet (and this being one of the two incidents why) a child was going up and licking all the food off of each and every serving spoon of the dessert section and then putting the spoon back in the food.
Finally, his mom came running up as he was in mid-slurp, and she took away the serving spoon, scolded him, then she put the slobbery spoon back in the ice cream.
It took her awhile, but at least she stoppe dhim and scolded him. But to put the serving spoons then he’d been sucking on back in the food… I was so grossed out, I swore I’d never, ever eat from a buffet again.
Kid’s and buffet’s don’t mix.
(Geez, when I was a kid and we went to a buffet, the grown-ups explained how everything worked very carefully when we arrived so I woulnd’t make any blunders.)
I‘ve occasionally considered getting some nice shiney badges made up to give to kids like this, with merry slogans such as: “I’ve been abducted!”, “Mummy, what’s a paedophile?” and “A gift from your friendly neighbourhood child molester”.
Is it possible that there’s a cultural angle here? For example in some cultures, such as Arab, it’s quite acceptable to take food of another person’s plate.
It’s not only children that are clueless at buffets.
Back when I was a travel agent, I sent a wealthy couple to the Homestead , a posh golf resort. http://www.thehomestead.com
I called to check up on them when they returned.
(The following dialogue requires a soft Texas drawl to be fully appreciated).
Me: “How was your stay?”
Her: “Fine but I swan, puhleeze don’t ever book us into a hotel that offers a buffet again. He just can’t do buffets” (referring to her husband, the real estate baron).
Me: (Thinking WTF but actually saying) “Good lord-what happened?”
Her: “Well, they had a beautiful sculpture made out of some kind of molded lard or something. It was of a roast pig and he confused it with the real thing so he started trying to carve of a side of pork with a bread knife. The dining captain had to explain that it wasn’t real. I was pretty embarrassed.”
Me: (at a total loss for words) “Uhh…”
This is why I cringe when I see kids at buffets of ANY kind, be it a full service meat, potatoes and dessert buffet or your simple pizza buffet. shudders
I put the blame squarely on the MORONS who introduced the ‘child’s feelings are more important than ANYTHING else around them’ school of parenting.
You just reminded me of one of my pet peeves.