Seems like 2 out of 3 servers in restaurants I go to have no concept of what small children will or will not do. In fairness to them, the most likely don’t have kids of their own and are probably clueless, but if a good portion of your customers come in with small kids, you probably should learn or they won’t want to come back.
My youngest is about to be 18 months. She feeds herself but she doesn’t really understand if you say “hot plate” that she shouldn’t touch it because she might burn herself. My wife and I are pretty good at intercepting these things and moving them out of her reach when they reach the table, but every once in a while, she’s too damn fast and the waiter/waitress is not thinking when setting something extremely hot down on the table within her reach, all the time saying “this plate is extremely hot!” Well, no shit Sherlock. You probably shouldn’t be sitting it down near the toddler.
When we order water all around, again, 1 out of 5 times the server is going to bring a standard glass filled with ice water and set it down directly in front of her. WTF are you thinking?
So far, no extreme damage has been done, but it does give me pause with regard to the critical thinking skills of some of our youth.
Which would possibly be seen as a positive thing for the majority of diners.
I have two kids (grown up) so I’ve been in the OP’s shoes. Back then I saw it as my responsibility to control/monitor/feed my kids. Now that my kids are grown, I tend to pick restaurants that do not cater to kids.
We as a matter of practice don’t take our kids out to eat on Friday or Saturday nights, we’ll get a sitter for those evenings if we are going out. But you can’t feasibly not ever take your kids to a restaurant.
Somebody should invent a job that entails a responsible adult’s supervising young children, at home, while the parents go out an enjoy their evening off.
Perhaps we could call such a person a “babysitter.” This has the added advantage of allowing people quickly to distinguish between those who are responsible for monitoring the children and those who are not. For instance,
“Hmm… Questionable choice of plate placement there. Are you the child’s babysitter?”
“No. Actually I’m the waitress.”
The downside is that this “babysitter” might expect to be paid for his or her effort. And some people might want to welch on paying. So we will need to be vigilant against parents who look to make everybody else in the world their impromptu, unpaid babysitter!
Terrific point. But great news! You can, as a matter of fact, not take your kids out to eat until they are old enough not to require supplementary supervision by waitstaff!
Not for her specifically, it might be an appetizer for the whole table, and they’ll sit down in front of her. It might be my entree, and I’m sitting next to her and they’ll set the plate between me and her within her reach.
There are lots of good servers that get this and understand it, but there are a lot who are oblivious. And if the people they work for are welcoming famlies with small kids into their establishments, then they’ve got to deal with it.
A waitress is not a parent or a babysitter or some other kind of child care professional. It’s not their business to know anything about children. If you are so aware of these issues, you’re the one who should warn the server in advance – Don’t put anything within the kid’s reach.
I know this is the 795,348th thread on this topic, but I think this time we’re *finally *all going to reach to an agreement on the “kids in restaurants” thing.
Customer service isn’t your strong suit apparently. The warning you advise is readily given, but should also be readily understood by your average idiot.
As the grandfather of a toddler, I can see why that might happen. The parents carefully clear a semicircle on one side of the table, with a radius the length of a toddler’s arm. Then the waiter comes along and puts the hot plate in the middle of the largest clear area on the table. Perhaps they should ask themselves why all the cutlery, etc., of the smallest patron has disappeared.
I waitressed quite a bit during my college days, and never once was watching a customer’s children included in the list of my duties.
There was one awesome couple who were members of the country club I worked at. The club required members to spend X amount of money a month at the club, or they would simply be charged that amount. This couple would call on a Tuesday or Wednesday, early in the month, and ask if there was a private room available - and could they have a table set up in there?
They would come in with their toddler and a small number of toys. After the child was finished eating, she would play quietly on the floor while her parents lingered over coffee. No unhappy baby, Mother got a night out, they spent their minimum, and the server always got a tip over the percentage for going out of his/her way. Win-win!
As time went on (I worked there for 3 years) the little girl spent more time at the table and learned table manners. I realize it’s not feasible in all situations, but it was a nice solution for this place.
The OP may think it’s the job of the server to watch his child, but the server probably doesn’t have the time. While she’s putting your hot plates on the table, the cook is putting other hot food on hot plates for other tables. Those tables would probably like their food to be hot, too, instead of having to wait while she measures the reach of your 18 month old to see if the plate can be reached.
If you consider not burning or endangering one of your customers “babysitting”, then you’ve got a fucked up sense of customer service. I don’t expect the waitstaff to watch over my kid, change her diapers, feed her, entertain her, etc. I just expect them not to harm her, just as if they poured hot coffee in my lap that wouldn’t be a good thing either.
So the waitress says, “This plate is extremely hot.” Not “Now now, honey, no touch!” She is warning the ADULTS at the table that the plate is hot. As the child’s caretaker, YOU are responsible for keeping her safe, not the waitress. What is so hard about clearing a place for the plate and asking the server to set it there? You cannot expect the server to be responsible for YOUR child.
A ha, this is the problem right here. Until I had a baby, I had no idea how long the reach of a baby is … it turns out, it’s like three or four times longer than the length of said baby’s arm. I’m not sure how this is possible, but it certainly is the truth.
The waitress could very reasonably think that the dish is far enough away from the baby, because hey, it looks that way to me too – only I have the benefit of knowing the kid is essentially a human Stretch Armstrong.
