Wibu about this "seat saving" incident in the Michelin starred restaurant that is...

[IHaveNoShameLeft]

McDonalds. (Apologies for the thread title!)

Have name changed incase I was being unreasonable, so here goes:

I went to McDonald's yesterday with dd aged 5. I NEVER go in there on a Saturday, but she's recently started school so decided to treat her with a quick lunch and day in town.

We took our order upstairs and found that it was chockablock. I walked further in and found one small empty stool seat for dd and she sat down. There was a woman waiting at the table without any food and she told me she was saving the seats for friends. I told her I was only putting dd down to eat. She was getting more and more aggravated by dd sitting there.

Suddenly she tapped me on my arm and told me seats were empty behind me. I wanted to leave dd there as I couldn't be arsed to move again, but seeing as this idiot was about to suffer a heart attack for us taking her friends space I picked up Dd and put her down on the empty seat.

I had just put her down and was about to sit down myself when a woman jumped out of nowhere and declared she was saving the seat for someone and that we couldn't sit there. I looked at her. No food in her hands. I replied loudly (so other woman heard me too) that you can't save seats for people when you have no food. There are others who have paid and have food to eat. She got angry and started shouting at me about why I hadn't moved other people. I looked at her and said loudly, "you can't save seats for people that aren't here. Show me any rules about seat saving and I'll move". I sat down and started eating. She stood and stared at me (trying to intimidate me) for about 3 mins, during which time no one had come up with her food. She then huffed loudly and walked off.

Now, normally I would have not even imagined doing something like this. But I feel I've grown up a lot and am becoming less and less caring about what people will think of me. I told DH, and he agrees with what I did. I had food to eat and the seats were empty. I had already been forced to move by another woman, and I wasn't going to start moving around the whole place with a child.

So wibu?

I've never seen that 'rule' anywhere. I'd just go elsewhere, it's madness to stand in line with kids, husband, shopping etc when the sensible thing to do is sit down, take orders and one person do the whole queue thing. Lines would be chaos if for every one person in it there were 3 kids, another adult, a pram and tons of shopping bags.

But at a pub they don't hand you your dinner over the bar do they? You can actually drink a pint stood up.

At our local pub you get a table with a number on it then order food. If there are no tables free you can't order food because you don't have a number. It works.

That's the solution then
Macdonalds tables should have numbers
No number no food

'Scottish deli' what a asshole thing to say

The lines are chaos anyway...then you go to sit down and can't because people are table saving.

I am so going to McDonalds for lunch today after this thread. It's given me cravings.

The lines wouldn't be chaos if everyone done the sensible thing!

YWNBU. I've done the same as the OP in Mcdonalds but didn't get any verbal abuse

Well I hardly think everyone sitting down would be seat saving sparkling! They're all bound to start eating sometime.

I just think I'd go somewhere else if it was THAT busy. I have 3 under 5 there is no way I would queue with the lot of them then struggle to find a seat whilst balancing trays that is utter madness!

However OP I do agree that it's probably a bit off for an able bodied grown up to save a seat for another grown up mate.

Yum @ putting ketchup and fries in a McChicken Sandwich! [hgrin]

Would you go and sit next to someone who had just finished and tell them to move?

You would hope so walter. But who knows?

I think go home and make a sandwich is looking like much the better option. everyone seat save on the sofa.....

OP, YANBU. Seat saving is annoying for the most part. Parents sending their children to do it are just about tolerable, unless it's very busy. If that's the case then you could very well be preventing people who are ahead of them/you in the queue getting to sit down and eat, so that's not very nice and shouldn't be done.

Generally though, unless the above is true, it's not usually a massive problem. I do get why people get the rage about it though, because it is selfish. It's just that most of the time it's not going to present an issue.

sparkling I have visions of a restaurant full of hungry people just staring wistfully and the servers behind the counter!

If a group had clearly finished and there were no other tables I'd ask them to move.....

Ooh Binky that's brave. i just wouldn't have the nerve.

walter.

I've done it a few times, but only to friendly looking groups. I'm not very brave really!

Had to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation described upthread when someone got all hot under the collar about someone else's kid trying to 'save' a table and having a group of adults sitting down to it with their food!

Presumably the group sat there precisely because there were no free tables. Most normal adults would prefer to sit at their own table than with some unknown kid. Makes total sense that a group of people who have already bought their food and are ready to eat it can sit at a table, rather than the table be monopolised by one child who isn't eating!
I would imagine that most adults prefer to choose their own food at the counter (particularly if they are selecting a cake or panini or something where you really want to see the selection) rather than expecting one person to manage a group of adults' trays!
Honestly that situation is so ridiculous. I wouldn't think twice about sitting with my meal at a table where there were free chairs if there is one person there not yet eating and no other free tables available- if anyone honestly believes people in that situation should wander around letting their dinner get cold they must be stupid.

There should be signs saying that you cannot sit down until you have purchased food.

In the needlessly gigantic brand new M&S in Cheshire Oaks they had to close the queue in one of the cafes due to all the tables being full. It had only been open a day but i was quite impressed they had even noticed.

I thought a group of adults sitting around a child who was already at a table vile behaviour. Think about it from the girls point of view. Nasty bullying behaviour. There were adults on their own, they didn't pick on them.

I do agree Keith, If that was an adult sat there they wouldn't have done it. Did the Mum come back and have a go at the little girl for not managing to save the table?

I always send the DDs off to nab a table while I queue in McDonalds etc. Always.

No she just got the little girl out (one of the adults had to move to let her out) and muttered something to them. The poor girl looked torn. She'd probably been told to sit there and not move so didn't know what to do when she was descended upon by randoms!

Seat saving fine if the place is not busy, seat saving unacceptable if the place s busy like in the op sorry it is