to have thought these mums were knobs?

[herwegoagain]

my friend and i took my 3 to a garden centre yesterday, decided to stop for lunch.
we went up and ordered, and a gaggle of mums came and sat in the same bit as us, 4 mums, each with a buggy, and with ( i think) 10 kids between them.
kids all young, eldest must have only been about 7.
so their kids go to play in the play gym thing, which has a glass wall, and door, but a sign saying please supervise your children.
all the mums sit and get settled for lunch, so they pull 3 tables together, so then they call their kids back when lunch comes out, and around their 3 tables and 5 high chairs, 4 buggys 4 women and 3 children sitting and 2 babies in arms.
their children bought some of those ball pit balls out with them and started playing on the floor with the balls.
in the bloody resturant bit, with other people, waiters carrying hot food, people carrying hot drinks.
kids start throwing balls, one of the staff comes over and says, sorry but you need to put the balls back in the play area, one of the mums says she is eating so the waitress will have to wait, the waitress starts to collect up the balls, que one of the kids kicking off, and the mum shouting at the bloody waitress.
out comes the manager, all the women launch that this is supposed to be a child friendly place and the waitree is being unreasonable.
he backs the waitress up and says that they will need to pick the balls up and get the kids to sit down or that he is more than happy to wrap up their food so they can take it away.
they huff and puff but sit the kids down, and the staff take away the balls.
5 mins later the kids are on the floor again, and right after that there is an almighty crash, a customer is on the floor, as is her pot of tea and cake, and there is a kid screaming.
guess what the knobby mums do?
try to make a complaint!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, am i being U to think that it was their own fucking fault?

Sounds exactly like a large coffe chain shop near me that resembles a Playgroup most weekday mornings with kids running around while mum's enjoy their coffee and chat and the young staff look on helplessly.
I don't go there before lunchtime anymore.

YANBU the mum's behaviour was appalling.

Is it in West London? I think this chain of garden centres have similar things all over the country. A lady got very upset when her son was told off for jumping onto a small child in the ball pool. Other mum was very polite to the child but did ask him to be more careful.

This attitude of my children can do no wrong (despite me not knowing either way as I am drinking coffee outside) irritates me to death.

It's just ignorant and selfish and it does the children no favours whatsoever. So many places are completely spoiled by entitled 'look at me' families. Makes me so angry.

Our local gastro pub had a family friendly policy when it opened. Cue giant jenga being hurled around and toddlers in nappies and dummies jumping up and down steps at 9.30 at night, whilst the yummies knocked back the Malbec. Twats.

I cannot stand this lazy type of parenting. If they wanted their children to run around like they are in a playground then they should take them to the sodding playground.

So glad to hear that the manager backed the waitress up - a rarity indeed.

You need to see our local Hungry Horse family friendly eating emporium on Bank Holiday Monday.

YANBU -this is lazy parenting at its best & it drives me nuts when i have seen situations like this!
If they wanted children they should look after them properly

The mums were completely in the wrong and should have been apologising profusely for upset. I hope they were asked to leave after the accident.

OTOH, I don't think it's really a great idea to say parents have to supervise children in the play area, then install a glass wall, basically saying "well, actually, no you don't! Just watch through the wall instead!!"

That could have been so much worse: injured customer, burns (adult or child). It doesn't bear thinking about.
Those women sound awful and I am glad I wasn't there!

What did they complain ABOUT???!

There's a lovely Italian restaurant down the road. Most of the time the children who go there are well behaved and sit and eat as I would expect but just occasionally middle class arses sit knocking back the vino whilst their little darlings run around. How the waiters manage to not walk into them I do not know.

Happens all the time where I live. The absolute state the mothers with buggies leave the coffee shops in is a disgrace. The poor waitress last week didn't know where to start picking it all up after the large gang of mothers and their juggernaut of giant prams and nappy bags had left, so we helped her. Big pieces of food squashed into the furniture and mess everywhere. The older kids just run up and down past people carrying hot drinks while the mothers get on with their chatting. The attitude is unbelievable.

No doubt these are the parents who give out stink about children being made to feel 'unwelcome' in restaurants, or about other customers giving daggers looks when a family with young children sit beside them.

Yes, because their perception of kids in restaurants has been severely tarnished by the likes of them.

They should have been chucked out.

YANBU, what twats, its so dangerous, what in earth did they complain about?

My cousin is a waitress in a carvery and has a personal policy of taking any uncontrolled running children back to their parents and informing the parents nicely but firmly that their little darlings are in danger of having hot food and drinks dropped on them if they continue to maraud. She has occasionally been shouted at but is backed up by management as they don't want to get sued for scalding tinies with boiling gravy.

I've also seen a sign on the internet that reads, "unaccompanied children will be given a double espresso and a puppy and returned to their children".

YANBU. This sort of entitled behaviour by parents has meant that so many restaurants in the UK no longer welcome children at all, and that's such as shame.

You are so right belgo. Child friendly cafes are a Godsend but this kind of behaviour reflects badly on well behaved mothers who are trying to teach their kids how to behave in public when there are others to consider.

Yes children should be tolerated and catered for in cafes etc, but parents have to meet the cafe/restaurant halfway and keep their side of the bargain.

Returned to their parents, dear me.

Customer should have sued the parents as their children caused her accident. That'll learn em.