Last night I went to out to dinner. The restaurant was a nice place, with several families with children. One table had a woman and three kids - oldest was a boy maybe 4, possibly 5, youngest was a boy (I think), could be 12 months? (In high chair, with passafier, eating solid food.)
So the food arrives, then the baby spills his cup and drink on the floor. Mom gets up to clean up while the waiter goes to get a mop. Here comes the funny part. I see it coming - if you have kids you can probably predict what happens next. While mom is busy looking away, the oldest boy decides he’s hungry and wants to take a bite of his roll. So he picks it up, does some sort of space ship swoop, and takes a bite. Then he tries to set his roll back down on the plate. But it doesn’t balance well, and plopfalls on the floor. Mom still doesn’t notice, son knows he shouldn’t drop his food, so he bends down and picks up the roll, and then sits it back on the plate like nothing is wrong. Mom never notices.
Okay it was funny. Now here’s the ethical dilemma. Should I have said something to the mother? Realize I’m across the room, not next table over, so it would take some effort to get her attention. Should I have gotten up and informed her? Let it slide? Would it make a difference if I was sitting closer, and it took less effort on my part? Either for me, or so it wouldn’t seem as strange to her?
Note the 2 second rule wouldn’t apply, but it probably wasn’t on the floor for more than 20 seconds.
I saw a little girl drop her bowl of ice cream on the ground at Busch Gardens. She scooped up the ice cream and put it back in the bowl. She then went to her father, who was trying to keep an eye on two other younger kids, to tell him what had happened. The father did one of those, “yeah, yeah, ok, whatever” things with his daughter, not even looking in her direction. The little girl wandered away, then went back to her dad a few seconds later to try again. Exasperated, the father looks at her and says, “Just be quiet and eat your ice cream!” The girl looked at her dad, looked at the ice cream, shrugged her shoulders, and dug in. YUCK!
Most parents take offense at a suggestion that they aren’t watching their children. Even the most innocent suggestion or comment. I think if it isn’t harmful to the child, let it slide.
seeing as it was 20 secs, the 5 second rule would have just slightly been passed, however, there’s also the “not bad till it drops twice” well, where i am anyways… so there was still absolutly nothing wrong with that roll
Oh c’mon. There really isn’t anything that dangerous inhabiting the floor, especially in a restaurant, where the floor is typically cleaned very often. The floor was likely cleaner than this kid’s hands.
You don’t know if she would become confrontational or what. So, it probably would’ve been best just to let it slide. Also, like Audrey has pointed out, the kid probably does this at home all the time.
Speaking as an actual mom, I’d say you did her a favor by not saying anything. Odds are she really doesn’t care if he eats a roll that’s been on the floor, but if an onlooker cares enough to tell her, that implies she shouldn’t let him eat it. And that might just give her one more reason to worry that she’s not a good enough mother.
I’d say any woman who’s got three children under age 6 in a restaurant has enough problems without worrying about a few specks of dirt on a kid’s roll. I’ve only got two kids, and our 5-second rule is now more like 60-seconds, or whatever time period passes before the dog notices there’s something on the floor and eats it.
Thanks everyone. Just wanted to be sure I wasn’t being a bad, um, backseat parent?
I rationalized it similarly - the floor is generally clean, the kid’s probably stuck worse things in his mouth, no sense making a big deal of it. Hell, I’ve eaten worse things.
You’ve met my puppy, haven’t you?
And, no, Irishman, you did just fine. Trust me, they’ve no doubt eaten worse than that. <shudders at the thought, and tries to remember that her kids are still okay.>
