Guys, Omar Little said waitstaff at restaurants that cater to families with children should probably learn about this issue, or families won’t come back. He’s expressing mild irkedness, not a demand that every fine dining establishment cater to his widdle snowflakes every desire.
I agree, it’s annoying when a server announces how dangerous an item is while simultaneously placing it in easy reach of your toddler. I’m not talking about a waitress who says, “This is hot, where would you like it placed,” and actually giving you a chance to answer, but someone who, in the very process of putting the burn hazard down, says it’s hot. That’s a piece of information useful to adults, who understand. But it’s not nearly enough warning for parents to intervene and protect their kid! I have sometimes rolled my eyes and wondered where my servers brains are when they do this kind of thing. I don’t immediately complain to management and demand their firing - I don’t even tip badly - I just gripe a little internally. (I DO tip extra awesomely when a server goes out of their way to accommodate my kids, on the other hand.)
I will also send hate rays from my brain at any retail worker who offers my child candy before asking me. Yes, the complimentary candy can be nice, but not when my kid has had way too many sweets that day and you just set up a situation where I have to endure a giant tantrum when I say no.
(BTW, anyone who thinks that “not putting a sizzling hot plate in front of a toddler” is synonymous with “babysitting” hasn’t got the slightest clue what actual child care involves!)
Get over yourselves. When I was waiting tables, I had never been around a toddler in my life (at least not since I was one). I had NO IDEA what they were like. How am I supposed to know how far your child can reach or how much they understand? I was somehow supposed to magically know what I needed to do to care for a child because the parents that brought it can’t be bothered? Fuck that shit.
OTOH, we now somewhat frequently dine with a toddler, and have for the past several years. (Not the same toddler, natch.) Everyone at the table keeps an eye on the tot - we don’t expect servers to do anything but what they would normally do. That’s OUR job, not theirs.
Unauthorized Cinnamon, sounds like you’re fairly reasonable. Eye-rolling or internal monologue, got no problem with that. When I was working, I’d have been happy to cooperate with a polite request, if I got it/processed it in time (sometimes you might say something but I’d have the plate down before I realize what it was you said). If explained properly, I might even have made the connection to other children, not just yours.
But Omar Little has made it pretty clear that he does complain to managers and more-or-less expects service staff to be fired for not adequately caring for his pwecious little snowflake. That’s bullshit.
I’m not sure what makes y’all think that everyone comes imbued with knowledge about childcare. Is a server also supposed to know what size items shouldn’t be placed in front of what age child as choking hazards? Because, honestly, I still wouldn’t be able to manage that.
Not, it’s not on the menu, but it was in my training as a waitress. I was 17-20 years old when I was waitressing. I had no children, was an only child, and had absolutely no experience with small (or even medium-sized) children. I did not know children could reach across a table - and I had no idea there were parents who would let them do so. I feel fairly sure I never put a hot plate in front of a child, mostly because small children were fed from their parents plate and would only have an empty plate in front of them.
I think it’s pretty unreasonable of parents in general to expect childless people to look after their children. If you don’t have experience with kids you don’t know what they are capable of. Since I knew from a very early age I was not cut out to be a mother, that was not knowledge I felt I needed to have.
I was a server while I was in high school, didn’t know a single toddler and was still smart enough to figure out not to put red hot plates in front of a small child.
Shockingly, my invitation to MENSA was not extended on that basis - humm - perhaps ‘don’t put burn hazards in front of infants’ does not require an advanced degree in child development after all…
Your assumption that those are my expectations is bullshit. This thread is in MPSIMS, it’s not a pitting of any server I have experienced. I have never asked that anyone be fired. I have only complained to a manager when the asshat that gave me attitude when I asked him to be more careful.
Let me explain it too you simply. Small children are going to touch anything you put in front of them. Even if you say don’t touch this. If the item you are holding with your one inch hot pad is so hot that you would announce as a warning to the table, is very hot, then the last place you should put it is in front of the small child.
Now that’s not rocket science is it? Or do you need pictures?
Really? I can’t take my 21 month old to Chuck E’ Cheese in case the servers are too stupid to figure out not to put hot things in front of him?
Frankly, expecting family restaurants to hire staff that actually give two passing shits about not burning their customers doesn’t seem like a huge stretch.
It is a laugh riot that there are people in this thread genuinely claiming ignorance of the fact that you should not put burning hot plates in front of small children. “Who could be expected to know this?! I’ve never been within 10 yards of a small child in my entire life! As God is my witness, I thought they were made of asbestos!”
Yes, I know this now. Why would I have known it in my teens when I was waiting tables? Why would I have cared? I didn’t know any children, didn’t want to have anything to do with children, never planned to have children, etc. etc. etc.
I’ve got eight other tables with people that all want stuff, too. I’m supposed to stop when I get to your table, make sure to rearrange whatever crap you’ve got spread out (with my hands full of your plates, of course), and figure out where to put stuff so that your child is safe from touching a warm plate? Please.
I’ve never in my life had a restaurant serve a plate that was hot enough to actually burn. Hurt, yes, burn, no. What the hell restaurants are you people going to that server food direct from a nuclear reactor?
ETA: Your complaint should be with the restaurant management, not the staff. If you expect waitstaff to do something particular at a restaurant, they must be trained that said something is required and how to do it. Evidently all these managers that agree with you don’t think enough of your problem to dedicate 15 minutes of training to it. Huh, must be vitally urgent for them.
Oh yeah, and amazingly enough, in the past 7 years that I’ve been dining with various toddlers (sometimes more than one at a time!), on not one single occasion have we ever had a problem with a child getting burned on a plate.
Not once. Never. Ever.
Snagging stuff and throwing to the floor? Oh hell yeah. But not one single solitary 3rd degree burn from a nuclear plate.
I think I get it now. At first I thought it was cluelessness on the part of the server. But the more I hear from people that think I’m unreasonable in my expectation, are more in the “just don’t give a fuck” about the safety of kids camp.
Do you people hand out pocket knives and cigarette lighters at halloween?
It’s not that I think they don’t know (or wouldn’t upon reflection) … It’s that they don’t have an obligation to be vigilant for the issue.
As another poster commented above: the adults bringing the kids to the restaurant are the ones best-positioned to know the responsibility levels of the kids. And those knowledgeable parents, and no one else, assume the risks and duties of managing the kids they bring, particularly if they do so knowing that the kid does not have a maturity level up to the task.
“Proceed at your own risk” is another item of “everybody knows” knowledge, even if we won’t cop to it in the hopes that we might bamboozle others into acting as the guarantors of our happiness and safety.
Jesus Chreaking Frist - all this over an MPSIMS thread. Did I miss the bit where Omar Little said “I hope the next waiter who puts a hot plate near my child gets syphilis and dies?”
No, he remarked that some folks seem oblivious to the fact that a toddler will touch anything within reach. As a father of 4 who does go out to restaurants with his kids often, I can attest to this - some waitstaff get it, some don’t, and the ones who don’t I would place pretty low on the common-sense scale. And yes, if I’m in a nice family restaurant, and expect to pay a 20-30% tip for quality service, part of that service includes being aware that some of their patrons are children, who might lack the capacity to discern that a plate is hot, or that a glass of water is very wet, without actually having touched said plate, or tipped over said glass.
Despite our best efforts, we’ve had our fair share of close calls, and a singed hand, wet lap, and a spilled dish or three, because some dumbshit couldn’t observe a baby at the table and discern that perhaps right next to that baby isn’t the best place to put the fondue bowl. And when it happens, it rightfully gets reflected in the tip. And anyone who says I should leave my kids at home - is there some magic age at which you feel kids are old enough to go to a restaurant? How am I supposed to teach them proper manners and public graces if I lock them away with a sitter every time the wife and I want to go out?
And some of us react to these close calls with “Goodness! That was too close for comfort! I need to be more watchful in the future!”
And others react with “Hey asshole, pay attention to my problems, because I can’t be bothered! Where’s the manager? You’ll be hearing from my lawyer!”
Incidentally, it is not lost on me that the OP is one of our more enthusiastic spokesmen for that brand of economic populism embraced by the Tea Party. Which purports to be libertarian in outlook, but really just wants a nanny state with different winners.
On the other hand parents, where the fuck are you sitting that this is even an issue? Is it a banquet table, are you in the bathroom, is the highchair just ridiculously high and you happen to be short?
Because the few times I’ve had a toddler in a restaurant the little booger was right next to me. The waitstaff could have attempted murder and I could have thwarted them so I’m failing to understand how parents are being stymied by something as simple as a plate.
