And this is why it should be perfectly acceptable rant material, just like people who walk on the wrong side of the sidewalk, people who drive the wrong way into the gas station, etc. We all pit people who cause minor inconveniences that are out of the norm. But, for some reason, when children are involved, you’re a horrible person for wanting a little consideration.
There just seem to be some topics that certain ordinarily rational Dopers lose their minds over, and this is one of them. I mean, we have people defending tribalism here. You know, the philosophy that you should only care about you and yours–a philosophy we all make fun of in the political arena.
I decided to not read the rest of this thread - stopped at the first page. I can see that the “take responsibility for yourself” crowd is jumping all over the OP.
There’s something about this society today that likes to shift responsibility for things. WTF is so hard about paying attention and not putting the hot plate in front of the kid? Seriously…it ahs nothing to do with the OP expecting anyone to cater to him. There’s no knives at the kid’s place setting. The kid gets a special chair with a fucking SEATBELT in it to make sure he doesn’t FALL OUT! So we’ll take care of some needs, but the one’s which are the easiest we’ll ignore? Why? That’s fucking lazy.
Put the hot shit away from the kid - for the same reason that you would put the sizzling hot oil spitting fajita away from the kid. For the same reason that you choose to pour coffee either at the end of the table where a spill won’t land on anyone or while holding the cup. For the same reason that we have fucking handicapped parking spaces.
You lazy bunch of cum drizzlings - it is neither unusual or extraordinary for someone to expect a certain level of attentiveness when someone is filling the role of SERVER. Don’t stab me with a knife, don’t pour coffee on me, don’t mop the floor and then not warn me that it’s slippery, and don’t put a nuclear hot plate in front of a CHILD!
Sorry if I offended people who were actually on the OP’s side…like I said I stopped reading after the first page because the inanity got to be too much for me.
Yeah, that’s kind of what I was thinking also, hence my question. I mean what does the OP (and others) mean by “put it right in front of the toddler”? I can’t imagine someone actually being dumb enough to do that. So if his(her?) waitperson did really put it right in front of the kid (and not just on the table without realizing the super stretch abilities of said toddler), then I’m on his side.
Again, if he’s one of those many hyper-sensitive “how dare you not worship my pwecious snowfwake” types, then step up to the plate and parent your kid like all of the rest of us parents do and stop imaging slights where there are none. People are acting as if there’s no such thing as those helicopter parents. They do in fact exist and they need to knock it the hell off. People who don’t fit that description aren’t the ones being complained about. As in all of these 795k threads, it’s not the kids, it’s the bad parenting.
It’s not “OMG kids anywhere in public should be banned” it’s “cult of the child” parents should be banned. There IS a difference.
The thing is, this didn’t start out as a pitting. It started as Mundane Pointless Stuff. It got moved when Crown Prince went on a “Why can’t you hate who I hate, kill who I kill to be free?” type rampage.
And then some other self-important, entitled cunt gets all up in the waiter’s shit because *his *steak arrived 30 seconds later than it could have if the waiter hadn’t spent so much time having a chat with the family over there ; his steak OBVIOUSLY is what should have come first because he’s paying and by gum he’s a customer and he has rights and shit.
That was recommended a few pages back. The prostitute part wasn’t explicitly stated, but it’s the natural result of everybody making their own food instead of having it served to them.
Also, the OP flipped a little early on, because he didn’t get sympathy for the horror of imagining his little snowflake melting away as a result of someone’s carelessness. But then he joined in the fun, and this would have faded away until a couple of people took it way over the top by claiming everyone who didn’t agree with them were evil child hating motherfuckers. So it’s not really the OP’s fault for the train wreck. The train was going a little too fast for the curve, and he was applying the brakes, when others jumped in the cab, released the brake, and started throw coal in the firebox. Bless there insane little hearts, this thread would have been nowhere near as much fun without them.
I’m sorry but is it too much to ask that when the prostitute is blowing me while my wife drips candle wax on her tits, she not put her butt plug within reach of my kid ? HE’S ONLY 18 MONTHS OLD, of course he’s going to pull it out and put it in his mouth. When I’m jacking off in their face, 1 time out of 5 the whore kneels down directly between my cock and the crib. WTF are you thinking ?
Oh I understand you haven’t been replying to my posts despite quoting them. It’s more of an ego preening and obtuse snideness you seem to do for your own amusement. My amusement comes from your explaining parental responsibility (already raised two wonderful kids much more considerate than you so that’s a lol in itself) while expecting no minimum from society at large. Not doing the bare minimum of consideration for welfare, particularly at a public eatery, is legally actionable.
You say idiots have the right to put hot plates down anywhere they wish except on someone right? In a high traffic area on the floor where people can step on it and fall down? It’s the same principle. According to the law we do not have the right to place others in harms way as is done by placing a hot plate in front of an inexperienced child. McDonalds learned this the hard way about too hot coffee and old ladies.
And you are wrong in attributing to me your own view that waitresses are idiots. On the contrary, most are reasonable, thinking, and kind. I can see how you might not understand that because anyone who would work for you would indeed be an idiot. Good luck not getting sued.
I’m happily child free. I’ve never taken a child out to eat. I’ve never gone out to eat with people who have toddlers. I didn’t know that when they were strapped into a highchair that their arms stretch out to grab the hot plate that was placed in front of their parents. I’ve learned from this thread.
One of my favorite places is a bit of a dive. They make the best breakfasts ever. I will confess that I cringe when kids are seated next to me, but when the waitress brings a bowl of grapes and drops it in front of the kid while giving the caregivers their menus, her tip goes up.
Wait, what? First you are upset that society today like to shift responsibility onto others - I’m with you there. Then you go on to insist that any and all random servers are responsible for any children at a table? That is shifting responsibility from where it belongs (the parents) onto someone else.
So the wait person puts a hot plate on the table and it happens to be in reach of a child not old enough to understand “hot plate”. Number one, if that child is in a highchair, he can’t reach it unless the parent (i.e., the responsible one) has snugged the chair up to the table. If he’s not in a highchair, why not? Number two, what are the parents doing that is so freaking important that they cannot turn their attention to the person bringing them their meal, which might - dare I say usually? - involve hot items.
The wait person is not your slave, as much as you would like to believe it. This child-and-hot-plate thing is the same as any other asshole complaining about any other imperfection coming from a less than minimum wage worker. Pay attention, have a bit of patience and quit expecting others to keep your child safe. Shit happens, it’s your job to try to see it doesn’t injure your kids.
What does that have to do with the subject at hand? Other than nothing at all?
You are the lazy bunch of cum drizzle, since it is neither unusual or extraordinary for someone to expect a certain level of attentiveness when someone is a parent out in public with their child. Oh wait, yes it has become extraordinary for parents to not expect the rest of the world to be wrapped in cotton for their kid, hasn’t it?
I too quit reading at the first page and skipped to the last to see how it turned out. Nice to see most of the people didn’t agree with the OP that the rest of the world should be watching his child.
While I sympathize with the parents’ attempts to look out for everybody’s comfort and safety by childproofing the toddler-accessible section of the table as much as possible, I have to say this:
If you remove all items from a substantial chunk of the table surface, and put those items elsewhere on the same table, you may not be leaving much space for the server to put down plates anywhere that isn’t the toddler-accessible section.
To help in avoiding the problem, why not try putting some stuff in the toddler-accessible section that is okay for the toddler to access, such as some toys or a coloring book, and clearing space elsewhere on the table for the food service?
A busy server who sees a big clear space on a crowded table is naturally going to be tempted to put a dish down on it. Clutter up that big clear space with some crayons or something, and the busy server will naturally look elsewhere on the table for a place to put the dish.
A good suggestion, and one that I’ve tried to employ, back when my son was small enough for this to be a big issue. It does have its downsides, like picking up the toy or crayons from the floor 51,273 times before the server arrives with the food.
But I think it deserves at least a little grumble when the server’s reaction to the cleared no-man’s-land is oh, good, a place to set this stuff down, instead of I wonder why all the dishes on their table are pushed out of the way? Oh, of course, they’re keeping them away from the baby. I’d better keep these sizzling steak platters with sharp knives on them away from him, too. I wouldn’t dock a tip for the former train of thought, although I might pointedly move the dish out of the way as soon as it hits the table, but I’d increase a tip for someone who was smart enough to go for the second version. I’ve also had it happen that we start stacking up the dishes already on the table to make space as soon as we see the server, but the dish goes into that tempting empty space before we can clear a better one. Maybe we should just remove all the empty service plates and silverware from the table entirely as soon as we sit down, but that also seems a little tacky.
This is just retarded. What kind of tables are these it’s your job to protect my snowlfake crowd sitting at anyways. From my limited dining experience a table that sits four, does so snugly most of the time. This is not taking into account the other shit that is on the table. The majority of peoples plates are going to be hot because they are sitting under a salamander. With that even if you are three or two people with that a kid’s ninja reach the kid can still cover a good portion of the table anyways. Where the fuck are they suppose to put hot shit on that limited real estate?
Second restaurants are busy places. If it is busy servers have a million things going through their minds while working, and isn’t their responsibility to estimate and properly measure a strangers kids ninja ability.
As far as I’m concerned when a server says “Watch out this plate is hot” that means watch your snowflake.
Unspoken laws of urban travel.