Restaurant refuses to sing happy bday to 6 yr old

[timotheeeee]

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CLiff Notes:

1. Dad makes a mountain out of a mole hill

2. 6 year old may/not be spoiled

3. Restaurant owner does the right thing but could have possibly handled it a little better

4. Blarg knows absolutely nothing about the restaurant business but pontificates as if he does.

Why is this thread so huge?

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thread analysis

1. Way too many people have strong opinions about a situation that is highly fact specific (people are rarely as big as a dick as other make them out to be; children are not really the monstrous spoiled brats that a single situation makes them out to be) and context specific.

2. A single anecdote about a six year old brings in the wrath of oot about this kids very soul.

3. The OP is probably too biased towards his side of the story to make a meaningful assessment (i.e. I'm sure the owner is writing in a thread somewhere about some dick customer and his bitch child).

4. I've worked in one restaurant (independent, single restaurant owned by one person) and the managers/owner were more than willing to be flexible with the 'rules.' It would depend on the type of restaurant and the owner, but if it's a family restaurant with a bar I don't see why they just didn't sing the stupid song, but ultimately it's the boss's decision.

There are a lot of dumb answers and over-the-top emotion in what has to be the stupidest, longest thread evar. My contributions are dumb too.

[suzzer99]

[ QUOTE ]
CLiff Notes:

1. Dad makes a mountain out of a mole hill

2. 6 year old may/not be spoiled

3. Restaurant owner does the wrong thing and couldn't have handled it much worse

4. Blarg knows absolutely nothing about the restaurant business but pontificates as if he does.

Why is this thread so huge?

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Why can't the dad and the restaurant be wrong? Does that just upset some people's sense of balance in the universe or something?

[Matt R.]

This thread is full of stupid, and I'm only halfway done!

Quick note to the stupids: the hostess is a representative of the restaurant. The owner hired her, you know. She can't say whatever the hell she wants just because she's not the owner. You don't call the CEO of Disney World to see if your kid can get a birthday song sung to him/her at a Mickey Mouse restaurant.

Let's see if the 2nd half is as good as the first.

[tuq]

Brandi posting in OOT: thread delivers. [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img]

Plus it was one of the better posts in the thread.

[xxThe_Lebowskixx]

brandi,

lets mate.

[tuq]

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Why is this thread so huge?

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Show all posts + CTRL/F + "Who is Fistface?" + Enter key about 100 times.

[Hume]

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He's not some spoiled brat on My Sweet 16 whining about getting a Lexus instead of a Porsche. [censored], he probably still believes santa is real. I'm sure if you ruined that for him on Christmas Eve, he just might not be hungry for a while.

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I'm pretty sure 6 year olds that believe in Santa only exist in cheesy christmas movies. At least I like to believe that.

[Signal777]

Just want to clarify a couple of things. First off, I didn't hear the interaction between the father and the owner, or the father and the hostess for that matter. I was with the mother and kids while the dad went up to the hostess, he told mom and I she said fine as we were walking to be seated. Secondly, I didn't hear the interaction between dad and owner, just got it secondhand from him. The thing is, based on what I know about him, his personality and demeanor, I found no reason to disbelieve him. I haven't seen him be angry or abusive to anyone. He left the normal 20% tip on this meal as well, because it was apparant the waiter was not the problem here. He was a nice guy and he didn't want to penalize him for a problem that wasn't his fault.

The thing is, I do find some of the replies a little ridiculous. To say, Dad should have called ahead I think is silly. The hostess most likely would have answered the phone, but it didn't really matter. When we go out to eat, we don't call to see how long a wait is unless time is an issue (to catch a movie after, for example). There was no rush here. If we go out and there is a huge wait in a restauant, we just get back into the car and go to another one. No big deal, so calling ahead really isn't an issue.

People accusing the kid of being spoiled, how is this possible without knowing him? I have seen spoiled, badly behaved children in my life, and IMHO he isn't one of them. He was disappointed, he is six years old. Again, IMO, if he was spoiled he might have started crying, yelling, etc. as some kids do when they are upset. He was just disappointed, it doesn't make him a bad kid.

The claims that the father got 2 no's, then proceeded to the owner/manager. Where does this come from? He walked in, got a yes, then after we had eaten and ordered dessert got a no. One yes, one no. Perfectly reasonable to speak to the person who told the waiter not to do it, instead of arguing at the table, being rude to him for no reason, etc. Trying to handle it quietly with the person who could remedy the situation away from the table so as not to upset anyone seems like the right thing to do to me.

To make a comment like "its the parents fault for taking the kid to a nice restaurant, they should have made tacos at home". How can this make sense? People take kids out on their bdays, its a day off for the parents too. Why must parents invite people over, shop, clean the house from top to bottom, cook, etc. when they can have a relaxing night themselves? This is a ridiculous position as far as I am concerned. They were taking the kid to what we knew to be a family atmosphere restaurant, who we knew in the past had no problem singing happy bday.

Lastly, the hostess, as an employee of the restaurant, is there to greet people, seat them, and answer questions. I don't fault her if she wasn't told of this policy change. If a person hires another to represent the business, he/she should inform them of policy changes as they come up. To question further up the ladder after receiving the answer to a basic question would seem rude. Can you sing happy bday? Sure. Can I speak to the owner, in case you are wrong? Doesn't this seem silly? If the hostess simply said "sorry, we can't do that" we would have piled back into the car, end of story. As far as people saying, well, your fault for taking her word, wtf? She works there.

Next time you buy something, and ask a saleperson about the product, whether its a car, plasma tv, or sandwich, why not call the owner of the business over to verify? Does that make any sense? If I order something over the phone, and ask if there is a warranty, and the person says yes, does the warranty I was promised become invalid because I didn't get the answer from the owner? Oh, your item broke, sorry, it was warranteed at one time, but we changed the policy. Oh, the rep on the phone said it was still warranteed? Well, that's your fault for taking the word of the person who makes $10 an hour.

[roaaahhh]

the REAL question here signal, what did the 3 adults order to drink?

[MicroBob]

signal - as I think you gathered from my replies I 100% agree with you on all of this.
I'm pretty sure most others following this bizarrely lengthy drama do too.

Thanks for clarifying and addressing some of the specific points though.
I'm not sure those who are so in favor of the idea that it's somehow your fault for not calling ahead or any of the other pretty ridiculous ideas thrown out there are going to come around on this one.

But I think you have made a very reasonable position even more clear (and I really didn't think it was lacking in clarity in the first place).