Actually, the OP didn’t appear to specify one way or another. I assume that he’s not eating frequently at Ruth’s Chris with his toddler, though.
High chairs in restaurants have never had a tray on them. There would be no room for such a thing - the tables are too close together for that. You can keep them a little way away from the table sometimes, but not too far, because there is someone else sitting behind you who would like to use that space. I would also say that during our high-chair phase, about 50% had broken seat belts that could not be used, and another 20% never had a seat belt in the first place. But my kids outgrew them really fast. As soon as they’re tall enough to reach the table, it’s a lot easier on everyone to let them just sit in a chair, even if they eat in a high chair at home. Lord knows the servers seem to prefer not to have to maneuver around a high chair.
75%-90% of midrange chain restaurants (basically everything in the $10-$30/plate range) have high chairs, kid’s menus, and crayons. Do you not eat out much?
What ENugent said–restaurant high chairs have, so far as I know, never had trays. They have always been sized to pull up next to the extant tables.
This thread cracks me the fuck up, because a few years ago I recall going to a restaurant with my (deranged) sister and her then almost 2 year old son and a group of other adults. The table was set for 6 and we had more so the waitress showed up with add’l place settings and gave utensils to everyone EXCEPT my 2 year old nephew. My sister was livid that “the waitress just ignored him and treated him like wasn’t even a person!!! I mean seriously, does she really think he’s stupid enough to stick that fork in his eye??? Does he LOOK retarded!?!”
The waitress then proceeded to bring water glasses to everyone EXCEPT the <2 year old nephew. This again launched my crazy sister into another spell of stewing and ranting about baby’s rights.
Then when taking dinner orders, the waitress asked everyone what they wanted, then had the condescending audacity to ask MY SISTER what her son would like to eat? “Does she think he is an idiot and can’t talk?!?” she ranted.
God fucking forbid that the poor waitress would have failed to put a piping hot plate in front of in front of my toddler nephew and presume he would be moronic enough to touch it as that would have sent my nutty sister into a tailspin.
I have blocked out the rest of this event in an effort to preserve my sanity and subconsciously deny that I could be related to such a presumptuous pain in the ass, who thinks the world should revolve around her kid, but I’m relieved to learn her disorder is not unique.
To the OP: my theory is that your waitress’s previous customer was my sister, who gave her and the manager an earful after the meal. Your waitress simply didn’t want to insult your precious snowflake by implying she was idiotic enough to touch a plate she had announced was hot.
Restaurant high chairs are designed to be set right up to the table, so the child eats at the table.
Second, if a restaurant has high chairs and kid’s meals (and many, many, many do) they are conspicuously agreeing to provide service to toddlers. That means providing service to toddlers in a fashion that is appropriate for a toddler. If they choose to provide a level of service that is inappropriate for a toddler, then they should expect a dissatisfied customer. If the server chooses to learn nothing and know nothing about how to service a toddler, they should expect a dissatisfied customer.
Additionally, for the non-parents who have never waited tables at a family restaurant, high chairs are useful from newborn (when the “baby bucket” that serves as a car seat sits on top of them in a clever fashion) to sometime between 12-18 months. At that time baby becomes a toddler and toddlers have outgrown restaurant high chairs, but are far too short to sit in the booth (as a parent, most of us seem to like booths against the wall - you can pin your child in so they don’t run around the restaurant and are a little more discrete - obviously they aren’t if they start screaming) and a booster seat is provided by the restaurant. In these cases, the small child is directly at the table.
IF you do take your young child to a high end restaurant (which I don’t believe is appropriate, but I have witnessed), waitstaff tends to bend in knots for said small child. Because the higher end the restaurant, the more the waiter is making on tips. If diners near the toddler don’t have a great experience, they might not tip as well. If the parents don’t have a great experience, they don’t tip as well.
They may not have signed up for it, but they recognize that they have to do their best not to let it create a bad night.
Who’s said anything about “choosing to learn nothing and know nothing”? I imagine most servers learn not to do it after the first time they thoughtlessly place a hot plate near a toddler. I don’t remember waiting on that many young children during my waitressing days.
That actually made me laugh out loud. Don’t worry, he’ll be back to see it. Maybe he’ll even have taken his lithium and calmed down. BTW, Crown Prince, I checked the threads you’ve started and I’ve never once posted in any of them so I’m not sure who you are remembering who shitted up your threads but it wasn’t me.
Really? Surely it can’t be common either since I’ve not met one in my half century on the planet. Then again I wouldn’t have said it was common to meet people who think it’s okay to burn a child if the parents are inattentive either. Must be more folks live on the corner of crazy and asshole street than I thought.
Assuming the parents aren’t cluelessly making it more difficult for them to do so. As others have noted, restaurant tables tend not to have lots of excess surface area.
If your childproofing efforts before the food arrives have produced a table surface with one big clear space in front of your toddler and the rest cluttered with stuff, I won’t feel too sympathetic to your grumbling if the server puts a platter down in that one available clear space.
Nor will I become more sympathetic if you then whine that the server ought to have noticed the problem and requested you to clear another part of the table before putting the platter down.
Sorry, Your Highness, but it’s up to you and the other members of your party to proactively manage your seating arrangements with due regard both to the safety and comfort of yourselves and the convenience of your server. Don’t heedlessly clutter up the whole table outside your designated “toddler zone” and then complain about the server’s cluelessness in putting down a plate in the only clear space you’ve left for them.
If you do a little strategic clearance while you’re waiting for the food to arrive, including moving extra silverware or centerpieces to an unused table to make some more room on your own table, then I think you’ll find you won’t have so many problems with hazardous objects in the “toddler zone”.
What a crazy thread. Dude just wants to rant about a minor thing and the kid-haters come out of the woodwork in full-on kid-hating crazy mode turned up to eleven. Jesus Jive-dancing Christ.
And then I read several posts by this Crown Prince guy I’ve never seen before, and I totally agree with him (both on the specific topic of this thread and his meta points), but he apparently hates me (and also Der Trihs somehow ).
And then I saw BigT actually make a reasonable post that I also agreed with (he rarely accomplishes even the first).
What a thread. What a day. I’m going to bed.
Fuck me, I’m going to weigh in on the actual topic of the thread a bit. ATTENTION KID-HATERS: The OP just wanted to rant about one of those minor annoying things that happens in life sometimes, and it just so happens to be kid-related. He didn’t say anything that would lead a reasonable person to believe that he wants to transfer the responsibility to take care of his child to anyone else. You are crazy. Please get a life.
Threads about minor irritations whose premises can be interpreted in two slightly but crucially different ways to shift the onus of responsibility for the minor irritation from one presumably well-meaning and mostly harmless party to another presumably well-meaning and mostly harmless party are Doper crack. None can resist.
Boy you haven’t read any but one poster’s comments then have you?
Because most people, (many of whom ARE parents of toddlers or former toddlers, and former waitstaff), have said “yeah, if the hot plate is going RIGHT in front of the todder, the waiter is clueless”. However, the parent needs to pay attention because the waitress can’t possibly read your mind and know what your toddler’s reach is.
So, if you’ve rearranged the small restaurant table top in such a way that the ONLY clear spot is in front of the toddler YOU need to pay attention also and make sure that you’re keeping little hands away from the hot plate while the waitress attempts to place food on the table.
Lastly, the OP claimed that 2 out of 3 waiters do this and/or put water right in front of his toddler. With that, I think he falls more into the range of “clueless parent who refuses to take any responsibility” than “person who has a valid realistic complaint”. I’m not saying he’s lying at all, I’m saying I believe his perception of the situation may be just a tad entitled.
There’s a big jump between Ruth’s Chris and Chuck E Cheese.
Well, that’s not true. When my last two brothers were of that age, restaurants that catered to children had regular highchairs, with a tray. Apparently space as become such an issue that such a highchair cannot be used any more.
By then, you should have been able to teach them about “hot” then.
To the car ad? I’d have to see the ad again so I know which company is being advertised. I’ll watch for it.
I guess I don’t tend to frequent those places - do you live in the southwest? It could be a regional thing. OTOH, since I am never dining with a child that would need a highchair, I probably wouldn’t know if any given restaurant offered them or crayons. Unless I’m on the road, I don’t tend to go to restaurants that have kids menus.
That seems extremely stupid. You are giving a being without the ability to deal with silverware or hot plates access to a table that almost always will not have enough room to keep all those things away from it? And then folks like ENugent are making it worse by putting a child without the skills to avoid hurting itself in a seat actually at the table. How is this good parenting?
Uh, no. Once again, all the restaurant is offering is food brought to your table and in the case of the toddler, they are offering food it will likely like and maybe crayons and high chairs. They are not offering to babysit your children, or keep them safe from anything that is commonly found at a restaurant.
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