Went to Friday’s tonight…

[WCGreen]

For a nice meal, about eight, eight thirty. Mrs. WC Green, my 84 year old mother in law and I strolled into the place and suddenly, we were surrounded by kids. There were kids all over the place. I was shocked. Since when did parents start taking kids out on a Saturday Night? I’m talking you see. Two, Three year olds

And they were kids being kids, screaming and hollering and making a big commotion. I was pissed. I called the manager over and asked him to quite down a particularly loud table. The girl was just screeching. He told me he couldn't that this was a family restaurant and that it would’t be PC to interfere with how a person tames their children.

Well I asked the young fellow what he would do if a person who had too much to drink started to get out of hand at this family restaurant of his? (BTW, what family restaurant advertises Margaritas in really colorful, neat looking glasses that could appear, to the immature eye, to be kool-aid, a full line of food smothered in Jack Daniels, and has a thriving singles bar scene going on not twenty feet away from the children. I digress)

The young man replied that he would ask them, the drunkard, to leave but that his hands were tied on the unruly children thing.

I then asked him, dude, cause he is of that age, what about all the adults here who are having a bad experience because these people can’t find a baby sitter or worse, and probably more accurate, don’t have enough sense to see that they are disturbing dozens of people. No one was having fun except of course the little darlings who seem to have been fed intravenously with Red Bull.

I even told the manager that I probably wouldn’t be back and he just shrugged his shoulders like it didn’t matter.

Short of calling him a pussy for not standing up to an unruly customer, I dismissed him. Almost every other person who was sitting around me congratulated me for speaking my mind. I was about to go to the table in question and take matters into my own hand, when the barbarians at the gate started to shuffle around, get up and leave. Having worked as a bouncer oh so long ago, I knew that there is no controlling a scene once it starts to happen so I chalked it up to a heartburn experience and let it go.

So, if you got this far, why is it that people are so divorced from the world that they can’t see how their actions affect those around them? I hate to stereotype people but I would venture to say, given the neighborhood I live, that these folks were probably conservative, more than a 70% chance. Is this whole idea of selfishness, that everything revolves around the self and that nothing should ever interfere with what I am doing arise from this conservative philosophy of it’s mine, you can’t tell me what to do with my money or my time……

Is the whole Rush generation as ill mannered and uncouth as he?

I pray for the future......

[RevolutionaryActs]

1. You went to Friday's? But its Satuday...

:silly:

[borlis]

2. I wouldn't go back

Food's not that great anyway and the service is slow. Just can't understand the lines to get a table.

[UdoKier]

3. I take my kids to restaurants on Sat. nights sometimes

Not Friday's, as the atmosphere is a bit too adult there, but we've taken them to Chevy's and Chili's - and alcohol is served there. (and my kids don't order for themselves - I really don't get what your issue is about the alcohol...

But we've never had a problem with the kids misbehaving OR with drunk or unruly adults. We don't go that late at night. Usually arrive before 7.

More people take kids out to eat because they don't have a relative to babysit, and are afraid of hiring a stranger given the terrible things some babysitters do when parents are out.

After an exhausting and long work-week, I think an occasional night out with no dishes to wash is a well-deserved break.

[WCGreen]

4. I see your point....

But I'm sorry, I don't think of friday's as a family restaurant.....

I don't think kids should be anywhere that drinking is considered part of the fun..........

Red Robbins, but Bob Evans or the local Big Boy, hey the food is just as good....

But the point of all this is why do I, as a paying customer, have to put up with someone elses unruly kids. And that the management was not going to do anything about it....

those kid's chased away at least 100 bucks worth of drink orders that didn't come simply because people left early...

And yes, I work hard all week long and why should i have to put up with a mess of screeching children. Especially at eight thirty or nine o'clock...

Yes it is a free country nut you know what, I don't have any kids, I don't hate kids actually like them, but when someone thrust their little darlings at me simply because they can't or wont find a baby sitter, that's not my problem....

Fridays has curbside take out.....

[CanuckAmok]

5. I agree...

non-parent here, too, and also not a child-hater...

but it seems some people have no problem allowing little Britney and Dustin to run amuck and misbehave in public as an excercise in 'expressing their creativity', or something...or maybe they just can't 'parent' their kids.

I agree, though...and I wonder when we'll start to see a shift toward 'adult only' establishments as the influential "Boomers" get older.

I know I alreay pay a premium on planes and trains to buy 'business class', not because of the service, but because of the liklihood of children stirring my shit up to be much lower.

[VolcanoJen]

6. Well, in my professional and vast experience in the restaurant/bar world..

.. on Saturday night especially, many parents absolve themselves of all responsibility to look after their children while out dining.

It's incredibly upsetting as a server. Not only are your customers miserable when screaming children are roaming the restaurant unsupervised, the children are actually in danger. Hot food on hot plates is abundant, and it can take some real juggling skills not to trip over them and burn them, myself, and others. Seriously.

The manager should have taken charge of the situation when you brought it to his attention; in fact, it should have never reached the point where you had to call him over. In my experience, I talk calmly to the parents as if it were a safety issue, and they tend to oblige. Usually, they're quite embarrassed when it gets to the level that a manager has to have words with them.

I sympathize, WCGreen, and I'm sorry you're dining out experience was ruined.

Next time, if you have the option, do try to visit a local establishment rather than a chain restaurant. Corporate restaurants like Friday's employ overworked, underpaid, far-too-young managers, which was truly the root of the problem you experienced.

[WCGreen]

7. I usually do go to local haunts

as I once was a server as well....

We only ended up there because the wait was short and my mother in law was getting, shall we say, cranky....

The food was not worth the price, the server was cool, but the atmosphere, i shan't be back.....