Restaurant refuses to sing happy bday to 6 yr old

[iggymcfly]

OK, I replied to this thread on Page 1, then looked back at OOT, and saw it had ballooned to eight pages. I read through the first 3 pages, but I'm not going to spend an hour reading the whole thread to see if this has been addressed so here goes:

The "happy birthday" song was not a condition of the meal since multiple people had already driven to the restaurant. There's no way they were all getting up and leaving over that. If it was really that important, they would have called the restaurant ahead of time. The dad's just trying to make that into a big thing in retrospect because he wants his way here.

Also, regardless of whether the dad's at fault in his interaction with the restaurant, he's definitely at fault in terms of what he did with his son here. No 6-year old would really care that much who sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. He's just reflecting everyone around him who's making a big deal out of it and is upset by the commotion. The dad's the one who spoiled the birthday here, not the restaurant. Also, the idea that you fight tooth and nail and cause a commotion whenever some trivial thing doesn't go your way is a terrible life lesson for a young child. Just make the best of the circumstances, and don't let minor incidents ruin your day.

[RunDownHouse]

I don't agree with all the people who said that because the hostess said the kid would get a song, the restaurant is under some obligation to provide it. At the same time, its not unreasonable for the dad to expect it and be upset when its not given, but if I was the owner I'd tell the dad he'd get some sort of comp but also make it clear that there would be no song.

Also, guids took a bit of heat for saying the dad was an idiot for asking the hostess in the first place. I wouldn't go that far, but he is ignorant. Blarg's mock conversation is off because anyone who has spent any time in the food service industry wouldn't even ask the hostess in the first place, knowing she's likely some idiot high school kid. You just ask to talk to someone with some authority in the front straight away. Again, the dad isn't an idiot for asking her, just ignorant of the way things work in restaurants.