Somewhere out there on social media I’m sure there’s some post from a whiny teenager about how the grumpy old lady friend of her mom tried to make her eat at a diner.
That would have been my response if it had been my kid. Thankfully, he’s not a whiner and will pretty much eat anything anywhere.
I agree that there may be more context than is immediately apparent, and that the mother may have been trying to salvage the afternoon rather than have a full-on fight in front of you.
Also, I dislike diners and always lobby against them. They are madly overpriced around here and the food is always just a half-step removed from how it came out of the Sysco truck.
I would had been whining in the back seat too b/c I hate dinners ! I took my daughter to one and I got fried chicken , it was served on a white plate with white mashed potatoes and white lumpy fried chicken that looked like it was left from the first Thanksgiving ! I had it taken away and I waited till I got home to eat.
Your friend should had told you her daughter was coming too, then you could decided if wanted to go too. It sound like the daughter got her ways just by whining and mom is not doing her any favors by allowing her to keeping this at that age ! If my daughter didn’t like what I made for dinner when she was a teenager she had to cook her own meal . I would had wanted to say something to about the girl not liking dinners too. I think it was a good thing to you didn’t if you really like your friend.
My wife’s brother has a son who went from a cute little kid to the most sullen asshole 17 year old I’ve ever seen.
We happened to be at their apartment and her brother said can you fix son’s PC, he wanted it fixed. I was like ok first of all we’re gonna need the power cable, the kid is like I don’t know where it is and I’m NOOOOTT going to look:mad:. I was like cool no prob because I’m NOOOOTT doing shit then, you expect me to crawl around your room to find the power cable to fix your fracking PC?!? Are you crazy kid?
And his parents treat him like a goddamn god or something, they go into debt buying him crap and even sending him on exchange programs to the USA etc, and he seems to repay it by being an ass to them and everyone else he meets. I had abusive neglectful parents and to see him get everything he desires and get angry because he deserves even better is jaw dropping to me.
And what exactly is that difference? (I saw monstro’s description, but that seems especially specific and also basically describes the Cheesecake Factory).
When I was young there was no battle to be picked. At 15 I would have been uninvited from the car. Don’t want to hang with the adults? Not a problem.
A diner, to me, looks like a rather large aluminum train car. Booths by all the windows, stools at the counter. Each table had it’s own index of what was on the juke box and for a quarter you could select 3 songs. Menus were in a plastic sleeve, often with the day’s special written on a slip of paper clipped to the menu.
The pies were especially good. And coffee was served in thick china cups, with cream in little glass pitchers with a paper pull top.
They were the food equivalent of a warm blankie on a cold night.
Haven’t seen one in donkey’s years.
I don’t think the Cheesecake Factory has a menu like this.
Nor are they open 24 hours.
To me, a “diner” always has a counter with single stools where people can get served, plus tables/booths. They don’t have to be 24 hours - there are certainly breakfast/lunch diners around here that are closed by 3pm, but the counter is ubiquitous. While I’m sure there are exceptions, they generally don’t serve alcohol but often do offer bottomless coffee, and the ones open 24 hours or at least offering dinner hours also have all day breakfast.
True - that one is only 15 pages. Theirs is 20. 
I have a sixteen and a seventeen year old. And I won’t say they never whine, but its infrequent and seldom around outsiders. Hey, once in a while I whine and I’m almost fifty. But seldom around outsiders.
I have nephews however - ten and twelve, who are training for the Olympics in whining. Even my kids thing they whine. My daughter says “you’d think they were two and four, not ten and twelve.”
What do you know? The Cheesecake Factory is the next best thing to a diner!
That would have been me if it had been my son, except he knows better than to whine.
I would have said we are going to the diner. You can come in or you can sit in the car and sulk, makes no difference to me. If you come in you will sit and behave yourself, and let the adults talk and have a good time.
no. teenagers are worthless, irresponsible, destructive, self absorbed pieces of shit.
I think you left off the word “some”. Some teenagers are like that. I know a lot of teenagers. Most of them are not as you described.
You’re not just a grumpy old lady. That was obnoxious. But, it’s always hard when your friends’ kids misbehave in front of you, and there is no surer way to stress a friendship than to tell someone else how to raise their kids.
I one went somewhere with a friend and two of my sons. They were at that awkward age, one where they didn’t like shopping and had to do stuff to make it fun, like hide-and-seek among the racks of clothing, and long chases down the aisles. Note to self: do not take kids shopping with her any more. (She was a different kind of shopper than me. I go in, get what I want, and get out. She likes to look at everything. This made all the difference. But I knew that and should have figured my boys would get antsy.)
A restaurant or diner or anything like that would have been no problem though. They were boys. They would go anywhere where there was food.
Come to Long Island. They are everywhere and are exactly as you’ve described.
T-bone steaks for 30 cents, too, I’ll bet.
The girl is a spoiled, whiny brat, AND the mother should not have brought her along without telling you first.