Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Chat

Join the discussion and chat with other Mumsnetters about everyday life, relationships and parenting.

You’re out for a coffee, cake and people watching in a cafe, what annoys you and spoils the experience?

476 replies

Britpopbaby · 31/10/2023 14:50

People who “talk” so loudly that even in a busy cafe you can follow their full conversation.

OP posts:
katseyes7 · 31/10/2023 17:59

"Hugo, why don't you order your croissant in mandarin, you've only been having lessons for 3 minutes and you're so good already" 😂

WiddlinDiddlin · 31/10/2023 18:06

Humans.

And their children, dogs, whatever else they've brought with them.

Loud tech - phones, ipads. Shouty runny children. People who think bums should be checked and nappies changed AT their table. Dogs allowed to wander or invade others space.

The lady whose dog was permitted to give mine the hairy eyeball and sit there, lip curled the whole time, softly snarling, whilst mine was trying to face the other way and ignore him... 'Oh he wants to say hi'... whilst mine is saying to me 'can we leave, that dogs an arsehole'...

She kept giving her dog a few extra inches of lead to get into my dogs space to force a meeting despite me telling her my dog was working and leave him alone. When she left she came round the OTHER side of me, where I'd parked him to get away from her dog to try again, and I had to up the ante and tell her to fuck off. I got a 'oooh! no need to be like that'... and then her dog tried to take a chunk out of another dog on the way out as she was so busy being affronted with me she didn't look where she was going or where her dog was. So someone else told her to fuck off too!

I stay at home wherever possible!

Badsisters · 31/10/2023 18:07

Dogs, especially smelly ones with hair everywhere. Thought of dog hair on food is disgusting 🫣

ElevenSeven · 31/10/2023 18:09

Whalewatchers · 31/10/2023 17:14

I don't mind parents interacting genuinely with their children, but mindless yes/no closed questions and also repeating the child's name over and over because they REALLY want you to know what their child is called and just LOVE their name too!!!

There’s not even really normal gaps in the conversation for the child to answer, it’s just a constant stream of narration

nonumbersinthisname · 31/10/2023 18:13

Disappointing cake - either too dry or too much sickly sweet buttercream in an attempt to disguise the dryness.

No decaf coffee option
Tables too close together because the owners wanted to increase capacity by squeezing in more seating
Ridiculously early closing times in tourist areas - 3.45pm is usually the perfect point after lunch when a cup of tea and a piece of cake will see you through the journey home/until your evening meal.
The only unoccupied tables being piled high with everyone elses' used crockery, spilled drink, smushed up cake etc
Sticky, dirty floor
Noisy due to poor design/decor of the room
The only free, clean table being under the air-conditioning unit or by the door or by the toilets

Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 18:14

Lukewarm coffee or cool ( as in not warm) interior. I want to be warm and cosy!

Blueberrycreampie · 31/10/2023 18:15

Also cakes made of vegetables ( apart from carrot cake of course)!

HopefulSeller · 31/10/2023 18:18

So many things annoy me! But usually when they do, it’s because my life isn’t terrible and I can afford to be in a cafe eating cake. So I try and have a word with myself…

But yes today I was sitting with DS who has to wear headphones in a cafe and use his ipad, as otherwise he just couldn’t be there. And I had a really annoying family plump themselves down next to us, squeeze right next to DS as he was on the ‘comfy seat’ so the mother sat with her 2 kids, instead of in the chair opposite with husband. And she looked over the whole time as we were eating silently with a lot of stares.

Yes I am a single mother with a child who uses headphones! Yes we don’t interact! But he isn’t verbal… you nosey person!

SmudgeButt · 31/10/2023 18:26

And for flipping fuck's sake - do NOT put my extra gooey cake on a napkin. Put it on a plate. Put the napkin on the side with the fork. do NOT, I repeat, DO NOT put my cake on a napkin before putting it on the flipping FFS plate!!!

WoollyBat · 31/10/2023 18:46

Especially the loud blokes. “Hi it’s Hugh. Yah, yah, good thanks. Ahahaha yes! So can you give me a rundown of the blahdiblah project please. Yah yah, I hear you”. On and on at 100 decibels.

Oh god yes but I encounter these much more on trains. My local cafe is full of people working but they don't have loud calls.

The worst ever was actually a woman on a train who was having a business call about biscuit packaging and how many biscuits they were going to put in each packet. Not that hard to decide you would think, but on and on she went at massive volume discussing every possible detail and all the pros and cons of every possible number of biscuits they might consider. I knew everything about it by the end, I could have run the company myself.

MachineBee · 31/10/2023 19:18

UHT milk in plastic cartons rather than proper milk in a little jug.

Not enough milk in little jug (see above).

Sticky tables and chairs.

LeonBlack · 31/10/2023 19:35

Sebsaloysius · 31/10/2023 17:05

Serial sniffers. Blow your fucking nose!

But go to the lavatory to do it!

Nose blowing in public, especially in a place where people are eating, is utterly repulsive 🤢

Allwelcone · 31/10/2023 19:44

@ManateeFair you made me think of Boris Johnson if he ever takes his kids out hahaha!
Im presuming by your use if names like Jago etc you're portraying a posh family, do you think a less posh but equally large family would behave differently?

Guesswho88 · 31/10/2023 19:59

HangingOver · 31/10/2023 17:56

Anyone on a laptop

Coffee shop working essential to freelancer lifestyle to prevent cabin fever. Most cafes where I live have a separate bit with bar stools and plugs if you want to work.

Headphones in, coffee, cake, work... Very peaceful on a rainy afternoon and much encouraged by our local cafes... As a seaside town they're often very quiet in the off season weekdays.

It's integral to my life!

KimberleyClark · 31/10/2023 20:01

dancingqueef · 31/10/2023 16:05

When people read at the table. It's a cafe not a bloody library!!

Is reading a phone or tablet or kindle ok? Is it real books you object to?

And all these people who hate it when someone asks to share your table, what if the cafe’s busy an£ there is nowhere else for the person asking to sit?

PickledMuffin · 31/10/2023 20:02

When i've run out of cake!

porridgeisbae · 31/10/2023 20:05

And all these people who hate it when someone asks to share your table, what if the cafe’s busy an£ there is nowhere else for the person asking to sit?

That'd be somewhat reasonable. Plonking yourself at someone else's table when there are other places to sit= completely abnormal.

Sleepygrumpyandnothappy · 31/10/2023 20:23

TastesLikeStrawberriesOnASummerEvening · 31/10/2023 15:42

It's performative and not done for the child at all, it's always ridiculously loud too.

How on earth do you know that? There are lots of parents who - gasp - genuinely believe you should talk to small children.

guineakoo · 31/10/2023 20:34

ElevenSeven · 31/10/2023 18:09

There’s not even really normal gaps in the conversation for the child to answer, it’s just a constant stream of narration

This is what you are actually advised to do with pre-verbal or very young children... narrate everything you are doing and everything that's going on around them, even if they can't reply. It can bring on language development in leaps and bounds. I talk to my daughter in public and it's not performative - I don't care who hears or doesn't hear me. It's just a habit I've formed and it's so intuitive now I sometimes catch myself narrating what I'm doing when she's not even there haha.

GreatShaker · 31/10/2023 20:38

Draughts. This is number one for me. I will not sit anywhere that is cold. I do not want the door open in the middle of winter.

2nd is teenage servers with bad false nails who touch up their hair constantly.

3rd is no soft furnishings leading to an echoey, uncomfortable space.

4th keeping cake in the fridge (Starbucks, Nero etc). It makes it dry and cake isn’t supposed to be cold.

I don’t have many cafes that I do like.

Ohmywordsomepeople · 31/10/2023 20:43

ManateeFair · 31/10/2023 17:28

I think that for me, the thing that annoys me most is when you get a family group coming into a cafe and just making such a massive unnecessary faff out of the entire experience, and somehow managing to dominate the entire space with their endless fussing and dithering. For example, four adults, four kids and a baby come in, stand around everyone's way for a bit saying 'Oh, are there enough tables? I'm not sure there are. Perhaps we could push two together. Perhaps Ophelia could sit on your lap? Oh wait, are these people going? Yes, wait a minute, Toby, we're going to sit down soon and then Daddy will take you to the toilet - Guy! Guy! Can you grab that table and perhaps ask the waitress to clear it so we can push these two together? Right, now, Ophelia, you sit here and Jago, do you want to sit here with Toby or - OK, Toby, well, perhaps if you ask Mummy nicely she might swap chairs with you so you can have the one with the blue cushion... Jago! Jago, take your coat off please, darling? Would you like Daddy to get your gilet out of the backpack, if you're cold? Guy! Can you find Jago's gilet for him please?"

This goes on at top volume for about 20 solid minutes while every member of the party, adults and children, moves seats about four times, then there is a 20-minute debate about what everyone would like to eat with endless negotiations and questions, then one of the adults goes up to the counter to order and then calls loudly over their shoulder to the other people at the table for clarification on every single thing while a massive queue builds up.

"Right, so, could we get three flat white coffees, please - wait a moment - Izzy? Did you want decaf, darling? Ok - so, two ordinary and one decaf, then - sorry, wait a second - GUY? GUY? Did you say you wanted tea? Oh he's taken Jago to the toilet, has he? Ophelia, did Daddy want tea, do you know? And what cakes do you have please? Right, OK - children? They've got blueberry muffins, lemon drizzle, Victoria sponge and chocolate brownie, which do you all want? What's that Toby? I don't know if the brownie will be like the one you had at Oliver's party, no, I expect it will be quite similar - well, no, darling, I don't they do have any Bakewell tart but I'm sure you'd like the muffin, although they're quite large... Ophelia, are you sure that's what you want because I don't think you'll be able to finish it?"

[everyone in cafe loses the will to live and is shouting 'JUST FUCKING ORDER AND SIT DOWN' silently in their own heads]

These sorts of families are also a nightmare when checking in at airports or taking their seats on an intercity train. SO MUCH FUSS. SO MUCH NEEDLESS COMPLICATION. SO MUCH WET, CLUELESS DITHERING OVER NOTHING.

Spot on and my teeth were grinding as I read your wonderful account of faffing fecking family groups. ;)

ElevenSeven · 31/10/2023 20:44

guineakoo · 31/10/2023 20:34

This is what you are actually advised to do with pre-verbal or very young children... narrate everything you are doing and everything that's going on around them, even if they can't reply. It can bring on language development in leaps and bounds. I talk to my daughter in public and it's not performative - I don't care who hears or doesn't hear me. It's just a habit I've formed and it's so intuitive now I sometimes catch myself narrating what I'm doing when she's not even there haha.

Lovely for you. But this thread isn’t ‘how to bring on your child in leaps and bounds’. It’s ‘you’re sitting in a lovely coffee shop, what is ruining it for you?’

Unexpectedlysinglemum · 31/10/2023 20:48

Parents shouting at their kids

TastesLikeStrawberriesOnASummerEvening · 31/10/2023 20:49

guineakoo · 31/10/2023 20:34

This is what you are actually advised to do with pre-verbal or very young children... narrate everything you are doing and everything that's going on around them, even if they can't reply. It can bring on language development in leaps and bounds. I talk to my daughter in public and it's not performative - I don't care who hears or doesn't hear me. It's just a habit I've formed and it's so intuitive now I sometimes catch myself narrating what I'm doing when she's not even there haha.

Oh yes, those of us who didn't do it have thick as fuck Children.
Mine can barely string a sentence together at age 22, no idea how she got in Uni or got a degree.
If only I'd over narrated croissants...

Sebsaloysius · 31/10/2023 20:52

LeonBlack · 31/10/2023 19:35

But go to the lavatory to do it!

Nose blowing in public, especially in a place where people are eating, is utterly repulsive 🤢

Ha, true!

Swipe left for the next trending thread