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I worked in a restaurant last year that had an indoor playground facility for the kids. This
facility generated a lot of business for us, especially on those days when the weather outside wasn't exactly the best for children to be playing in. But, just like any other indoor public facility, there are certain rules and regulations that we are required by law to enforce. If we don't, agencies like the Health Department can close us down. How many parents do you think get upset when you tell them that their children can not play in the indoor playground unless they have socks on their feet? Surprisingly quite a few. I never would have thought that this would be considered an unreasonable request, but apparently to quite a few people it is. I can understand when you are in a hurry forgetting to make sure your children are appropriately dressed. I can even understand that coming to our restaurant may have been a "spur" of the moment idea that wasn't originally in the plans of how you were going to spend your day. And being a parent myself, I understand that you do not want to be placed in a position where you have to say "no" to your children and disappoint them especially after making a promise to them. But it isn't our fault that you failed to read the signs that we have posted in the playground area on the door and on the wall. Nor is it our fault that you failed to make sure your children were appropriately dressed before leaving home. We sell socks at our front counter, and all too often when we let customers know this, they want to get nasty about it. "What?! ______ can't afford to pay their bills, so they have to resort to selling socks?!" No, people. We sell socks as a convenience to our customers so that they don't have to say "no" to their children and disappoint them after mom and dad promised them they could play in our playground. For many of these people, this is the main reason they came to our restaurant versus another because we offer a place where the kids can play. So, we do sell socks to our customers if they need them. What the hell is wrong with that? But by the way some of our customers react to this, you'd think that we had just committed some awful crime. We had a customer come in one summer afternoon with her five children, all of whom were wearing either sandals or gym shoes with no socks. After eating their lunch, the children went out into the play area. Our dining room hostess noticed them running around the facility in their barefeet, so in doing her job, politely informed the parent that her children are required to wear socks if they wanted to continue playing in our play area. The woman got so upset, she actually got physical. She had our hostess backed into a wall and would not let her move. She ranted and raved about how "this is bull", and decided that she wanted to speak to a manager about this, threatening our hostess that she was "going to have her job!". She stated that our hostess used some very "colorful" language toward her children, but a few of our other customers who had witnessed this woman's display, came forward and said this woman wasn't telling the truth. That our hostess didn't even approach the children. She politely spoke directly to the mother. In seeing that speaking to a manager about this wasn't going to produce the results she was hoping for (as matter of fact, she was told that if she didn't leave the police would become involved), she collected her children, ranted and raved some more about how she was "never coming back to this place again", and shoved our hostess into a table on her way out. Nothing ceases to amaze me anymore in this industry. I have seen so many rediculous displays of behavior over the years, and all by the same people who just love to point their fingers at the fast food industry, and call us stupid and ignorant. In witnessing incidents like this one, I can't help thinking it's no wonder we have children "packing heat" in our schools these days. This is the type of role model they've had to grow up with, and they've learned that this is a perfectly acceptable way to go about solving a problem. I thought our hostess handled the situation very well. She didn't shout back. She didn't shove back, and quite honestly, I don't think that I could have been as calm as she was. I think that I would have been more inclined to do a little shoving back myself, and honestly, I would not have blamed her one bit if she had hawled off and smacked that woman. |