Ewwwwww. Sometimes you can take multi-tasking to an overly extreme level. Let me just say "check please!"

This is beyond rude, and one of the most extreme examples of an over-inflated sense of entitlement I've ever seen. I would have been all up in her face if I had been there. To expose your children like that? What a piece of garbage.

Naturally I had to look up Thanksgiving Point Deli. This is the restaurant's mission statement:

At Thanksgiving Point, our mission is to inspire the minds and renew the spirits of young and old by providing unique learning experiences, family-friendly entertainment, and opportunities for discovery in a safe and beautiful environment.

Sounds like mission accomplished to me! And I thought that just changing babies on restaurant tables and chairs was about as bad as it got.

There are NO words for this . . . just no words!

However, I would have simply gotten up, walked over to management to explain to them why I was about to leave without paying, and then left without paying for my meal which would have been left unfinished.

P.S. sorry to stiff the wait staff; but, why should I support a business that doesn't handle this type of situation properly?

Wow.

My kid is (almost finished) potty training right now, and I understand it can be stressful, but there really is no excuse for this. You take them to the potty at the house before your outing, then as soon as you get to your destination, then again before you leave...
Part of the process is learning to exercise control- you know, to hold it for a while if needed. If these kids can't control their bladders- if they have to have a piss pot under them all the time because they don't know when they have to pee- maybe they're not ready.

Plus, there are Pull-Ups now that have a "cold" sensation when the kid pees, so they KNOW they've just had an accident.

This woman is sending the message, "F- you, don't judge me!" (Why do people always say, "don't judge me!" when they KNOW they're doing something inappropriate/wrong/stupid?)

Similiar story but not *quite* as bad: I have seen a woman with a toddler pull her kid's pants down to pee in a garden outside of a restaurant.

> Let me just say "check please!"

You'd pay a restauranteur for a meal he'd permitted to be so egregiously despoiled?

This is like cranking up a boombox at a Heifetz recital, or blowing your nose in a surgical theater.

P.S. sorry to stiff the wait staff; but, why should I support a business that doesn't handle this type of situation properly?
Posted by: Charles at September 5, 2012 1:25 PM
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Um, from what I heard, the staff didn't KNOW - maybe the waiters had no reason to be in that area at that time - until it was too late.

I mean, you might as well blame the staff for not having the ESP needed to keep such a family out of the restaurant in the first place.

And someone else brought up an interesting point - is it not outrageously rude and jumping the gun to snap a picture and post it online, as opposed to simply alerting the staff ASAP and having THEM deal with it? After all, the maternal creature who commited the original crime is probably thinking "well, I got away with it without being confronted at the time; my name hasn't been released, so what should I care?"

Potty training them for what, exactly? To poop at the table, or eat on the toilet?

Birthday parties must be a real treat at her house. Can't blame the kids, but mom should be put in the stocks.

Bring back the stocks!

I can't believe the other diners weren't up in her face screaming about it. I got yelled at for changing my 2-week-old outside on a park bench, on a changing pad.

Don't sweat the small stuff.

Many of the kitchen staff and waiters didn't wash their hands after going to their potty. People don't worry about what they don't see.

um, how are they supposed to learn to wipe?

> is it not outrageously rude and jumping the gun
> to snap a picture and post it online, as opposed
> to simply alerting the staff ASAP and having
> THEM deal with it?

No. No, it's not.

I've been to nations where housewife-y women, visually indistinguishable from those seen in America as our most socially prim and reticent, will pause by the road to hoist their skirts and defecate. Our impatience with this behavior is one of the things that separates us from the third world. I am not interested in seeing these very real epidemiological boundaries flaunted by idiot women who demand public attention for the bodily wastes of children. During meals.

While reading this synopsis (and not following the link), I imagined sitting at a table nearby and shouting at her at the top of my lungs, then bathing in the applause of the nearby righteous Americans, and then greeting them out on the sidewalk to shake hands to figure out where we could go for lunch.

Internet photography is the least of this goofball's worries. If you think that's a metaphor for a "gun," you're probably incapable of the kind of clear (if not aggressive) responses the public sphere demands of us.

A woman who presents the shit from her children to the mealtimes of strangers is not concerned with discretion.


Yes, we should expect the restauranteur to take an immediate and firm stand against the conduct, just as if someone started smoking weed or shooting drugs in there. And if the place was trying to make a space in the "family" market by permitting this conduct, you and I would have no business eating there anyway.

But there's more to living a decent (and courageous) life than cdemanding that authorities respond when things go wrong... Good people disrupt.

Eyeglass boy in the rear of the photo has dropped his jaw and lost interest in his burger... He's trying figure out which millenium he's in.

And look at sis. Girls at that (similar) age have often given considerable thought to how they'll handle such things, or how they were expected to assist when their baby brothers interrupted family outings.

She's smirking: She knows this woman is fucking it up.

I say name her and shame her. There is no excuse for this! Yuck. Just out of curiosity, how old is that pic? Does anyone know?

Truly disgusting. And yet today's world idolizes children that there are some parents that think this is perfectly acceptable and the rest of the world should be hounored by her childs precence. The mother probable thinks the rest of the diners were lucky that they could behold such a miracle moment in her precious child's development. I would not be the least bit surprised if other parents comment that this is ok.....

In a similar vein, I was in a Trader Joe's and found a woman that had placed her smallish but not purse sized dog in the "child seat" of a grocery cart.

She told me it was okay because she had placed one of the dog's sheepskins underneath the dog.

So far I have seen this on Drudge, Yahoo, and here on the blog. SO collectively as a nation we have probably spent a million or more hours ( a number I carefully calculated and pulled out of my ass) on this subject, when you take into account everyone (like me) who is discussing and viewing it, and in the end it's just a rude woman who needs a good talking to.

Is there a thread between our loss of competitiveness and the internet?

PS- Did anyone else see that thing about Kim K and her body insecurities? Wow.

Crid; yep, good comment about the two kids in the background. I noticed their dumbfounded looks too.

Ummm, health and safety code violation - anyone?!

No shoes, no shits, no service!

However, I would have simply gotten up, walked over to management to explain to them why I was about to leave without paying, and then left without paying for my meal which would have been left unfinished. -- Charles at September 5, 2012 1:25 PM

From what I googled there is no real waitstaff. They apparently work on the Subway fast food model. Get in line, grab your food, seat yourself and bus your own table. But that still doesn't excuse any of the observers from notifying the management or other employees of what was happening.

It definitely doesn't excuse the parents of the rude behavior.

> and her body insecurities? Wow.

I know, right? And here I thought her life must just be almost perfect!!!




And now, let's talk about TINA.

First, I think we should stick to the instrumental versions. Bowie's career has had good moments, but this particular piece wasn't one of them.

That said, the more elaborate "PM Group" version is preferred.

In an emergency, you can go with the "Chris" version from the soundtrack album... But even though the mixdown is cleaner, the bass line isn't as funky as the acoustic viol on the other take, and the percussion tracks are entirely synthesis.

And of course...

And of course, if you're feeling daring and exploratory, there are a number of audacious live performances to review as well... But the recording quality is often weak, and you have to be ready to listen carefully. And again, as with the studio tracks, I think you'll want to stick to the instrumental versions rather than those in which he let his jazz singers do the Bowie lyric.

It's a personal choice: My feelings, while strong, may not guide you to the fulfillment you seek. It's important to have faith and keep searching for the version that means the most to you on an individual level.

So that's that.

I only wanted to cover this because I know some of you are feeling depleted by this week's atrocities in Charlotte, and you need some kinda spiritual kiss on the forehead to help you remember who's who and what's what. Yes; we live in a troubled age, a darkening & chilling hour in which cowards and buffoons squander irreplaceable treasures, wonders composed in the toil and sacrifice of generations.

But there are gifted men out there, God-blessed and Earth-forged, men of gratitude and discipline, who will do what it takes to bring beauty into our world.

So don't let the bastards get you down. Their way is not the American way.

Seriously

Also, if it's a fast food place, it's less surprising if no less rude.

*****Truly disgusting. And yet today's world idolizes children that there are some parents that think this is perfectly acceptable and the rest of the world should be hounored by her childs precence. The mother probable thinks the rest of the diners were lucky that they could behold such a miracle moment in her precious child's development. I would not be the least bit surprised if other parents comment that this is ok.....*****

Well said. And likely true.

As for me, I would have screamed out "OMG THAT'S FUCKING DISGUSTING" in the loudest voice possible while pointing at the source of the problem.

Want to act like an entitled ass? I'm calling you on it. Especially something that fucking rude.

Psst- Hi Raddy! Saw the first 10 seconds and thought of you....

(Dining room diapers are discussed in the latter link)

If the smell of her tot's pooptasm didn't make that mother gag, this precious-child-bashing site probably will -

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=irule

"pooptasm"

ROFL!

I'm starting to worry about potty training, and the advice people are giving me is, "So basically you spend a couple weeks with no diapers, and you stay close to her with the potty, and put her on it as soon as she shows signs of going. It's a PITA but its only a couple weeks".

This lady took the advice waaaaaay too literally.

This is hilarious, like an SNL skit.

Gog- I'm one of those people! (But I work from home.) I've had the same crayon drawing right next to my computer for 3 years now.

So far I have seen this on Drudge, Yahoo, and here on the blog.
Posted by: Eric at September 5, 2012 4:41 PM
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And now you can read about it at The Bitchy Waiter.

http://thebitchywaiter.blogspot.com/2012/09/potty-training-in-restaurant-hell-no.html

30 comments so far. Here's one:

DMT said...
10 years ago I entered the world of food business to earn money for socializing and subsequently paying for my University fees, I went in with a naive optimism and came out as a haggard cynic who doubts the existence of the inherent goodness and decency that is supposed to exist in people.

Like many above me have said before, I would have put a stop to it I would have told her she was breaking health and safety law and showing no consideration for everyone else around her. I have no qualms about tackling parents for allowing their kids to run wild in the establishment, climb the counter tops, throw stuff, draw on the tables with felt-tip pens and crayons put their feet up on the tables, and for changing diapers on the tables.

One of the reasons this stuff goes on is because managers act like spineless cowards and enforce the "customer is always right" bullshit, which sets a precedent for that stuff to continue and get worse. Typically what happens is....
1. Customer does something bad, server asks them please stop.
2. Customer throws a strop and complains to the manager.
3. Manager instead of backing up the server and enforcing store policy bends over backwards shoves his/her head up their own arse and gives the customer free shit.
4. Server may or may not be chastised for doing their job, but either way feels like they've been made to look a fool for doing their job properly and in future wont stop bullshit from happening and so it escalates.

September 5, 2012 6:14 PM

I'm starting to worry about potty training, and the advice people are giving me is, "So basically you spend a couple weeks with no diapers, and you stay close to her with the potty, and put her on it as soon as she shows signs of going. It's a PITA but its only a couple weeks".

Posted by: NicoleK at September 5, 2012 11:50 PM
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John Rosemond (who considers it ”a slap to the intelligence of a human being that one would allow him to continue soiling and wetting himself past age two”) has a similar method called "Naked and $75." It's supposed to work in less than a week - provided the kid is not already over age two. The $75 is for the carpet cleaning. (I can only hope he doesn't REALLY think there's anything wrong or misleading about confining a toddler to a carpetless room or removing the carpet - just because people shouldn't HAVE kids if they can't afford $75 for something doesn't mean they should have to burn money unnecessarily either.)

More here:

https://www.google.com/#hl=en&sclient=psy-ab&q=%22naked+and+%2475%22&oq=%22naked+and+%2475%22&gs_l=hp.3...2203.2203.1.2453.1.1.0.0.0.0.94.94.1.1.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.qpMVF5B-NfY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=e128788b07bf9731&biw=1024&bih=659

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go... next up, kids flinging poo in food(waste) fights.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0GFRcFm-aY