What is it about restaurant playplaces?

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Sadly you don't even need a kids area.... this happened in my country recently (not my city, small comfort that is) ...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/life-style/fo...land-McDonalds

...humans did this?

[ApolloSZ]

Technically humans, in the broadest definition of the term.

[EricKei]

What? No. They weren't humans. They were customers. Something completely different...Just not in the way Corporate imagines.

[MoonCat]

Aaagh! I so did not need to read that.



Depends on how hard the balls are.

Oh lord someone went there...

[notalwaysright]

Then corporate investigates the employees, that makes sense in corporate-land. Ouch, my eyes hurt from rolling them so much. I would have to take tranquilizers to work in fast food. I can barely handle how parents act at my store, which doesn't serve food.

[Teefies2]

So maybe it's just fast food that brings out the worst in people?

How I wish that were true, but sadly it is not. I have worked retail for almost 40 years and see this time and time again, no matter what type of store. Heck, I even worked for 2 CHURCHES where I would see this type of behavior from the adults

[Minflick]

I'm pretty sure it's an ironclad sense of entitlement and NO sense of shame that lets people behave like this ANYWHERE. Their homes, the animal hospital, the bus - you name the location, people will be blindingly oblivious to social norms.

[wolfie]

So glad I was in between bites of my snack. Broccoli through the nose would hurt. A lot.

That's why you should stick to the list of foods approved by former President Bush (senior).

[Lovecats]

So glad I was in between bites of my snack. Broccoli through the nose would hurt. A lot.

And your remark just made me glad that I wasn't eating OR drinking when I read it.

[MamaMootz]

True Story #1: I was in the Mickey D's playplace with my then 3 year old daughter. This playplace had tunnels, like a hamster habitat, that ran above the slides and such with a connection on one end that went into an rocket ship type enclosure.

We were having lunch when a mom and her two kids came in. Both went into the playplace, and after a short time --- liquid was dribbling down from the seam in the middle of the rocket ship. We hear the older child yell: "Hey, Mom! Benny said he had to pee and I dared him to do it in here! And he's doing it!!!!"



Mom looked mortified, yelled at both of them to get out of the play place that instant, grabbed them and bolted out of the door.

No, she did not notify anyone or offer to help clean that up, or take any responsibility.

I ended up telling the manager. And I'm sure he believes that it was my DD who peed in there. But I had to tell someone because could you imagine some poor other kid playing around in that?

True Story #2: I worked a 2nd job in a toy store over Christmas and was astonished at the number of parents who would just drop their kids off at the toy store, and amble off to shop elsewhere in the mall. I actually had a parent get ticked off at me because her kid wandered off somewhere. You see, I wasn't watching her kid because I was dealing with the angry horde of customers buying Christmas gifts (line was out the door into the mall itself). I ended up calling security while ringing out other people, and she actually complained to the manager about me. At least my manager was a decent human being and backed me up. But who does that? Don't answer... I already know who does that.

[WishfulSpirit]

I've decided that letting kids run rings around our lobby is no longer acceptable. I'm not exaggerating, they'd run literal circles around the outside edge of the table area while parents gabbed. The next kids to do that are being told to stay with their parents. Parents don't like it? Too bad. Control your kids or find other accommodations. There's always the magic "we had a complaint from another guest."

[Slave to the Phone]

I'm one of those "other guests" who actually do complain to staff about kids being disruptive. Its kinda sad how often they seem relieved that I did complain because they couldn't do anything unless a guest said something.

I'm one of the few eligibility workers who refuses to spend my own money to buy toys for kids to entertain themselves during interviews. I don't think that I'm mean and I certainly do not hate children. I know that its a boring process for them.

My feeling is that its the parent's responsibility to parent their children. Everyone knows that when they come to the office to apply or renew its going to be a 4 to 5 hour process if they are lucky. They need to bring things to entertain their children. (I also don't understand the reasoning process that makes both parents drag their children to the office for an interview. 1 parent could stay home with the kids and the other one could come to the office.)

[siskaren]

(I also don't understand the reasoning process that makes both parents drag their children to the office for an interview. 1 parent could stay home with the kids and the other one could come to the office.)

Yeah, I've never understood why grocery shopping needs to be a family affair for some families. Granted, it shouldn't take 4-5 hours, but I still think it would be a lot quicker and easier for one parent to do it alone while the other stays home with the kids.

[WishfulSpirit]

Well that assumes there IS another adult to stay home with the kids. When you see a family that obviously has mom and dad there, I agree. If it's one parent with kids, I try to give more grace. Could be a single parent (child care aint cheap) or they could work incompatible shifts.

I'm thinking about getting some crayons at Dollar Tree for our guests. They may or may not reimburse me for them but I don't really care. Kids need to color if mom and dad aren't going to watch them.

[Sparklyturtle]

When I worked in the hospital clinic years ago, people would go in for treatment and leave children in the waiting area. While it was okay for the 10-yo who was engrossed in a book, once someone left a 2-yo in the waiting area who got frightened, and went screaming and running through the halls looking for her mother. And the technicians had the nerve to chew on me for not watching her (I chewed back.) Hey, I had other patients to check in, etc. and babysitting someone's toddler wasn't part of my job description. At least my boss dealt with the situation; he passed down a rule that no unattended children were allowed in the department under the age of 12. Of course, I was then asked, "What should I do with my child when I'm here having treatment?" and I'd refer them to the on-base child care center. People didn't like it, but my boss was firm. I liked working for him.