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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

You grab a table while I queue up....

313 replies

Grandshiredoubles · 14/02/2015 23:24

Which means that some people before you can't get anywhere to sit. Happened today in Waitrose where the naice people should kmow better. Do you think people should wait until they have their food before getting a table or Aibu. Talking about YOU lady with the red shoes in malvern today

OP posts:
merrymouse · 16/02/2015 08:46

I would never, ever, ignore a sign.

However, the last time I walked into a full cafe and couldn't find somewhere else to go was probably a wet august bank holiday in st David's in 2009.

This world of waitrose and m and a cafés bulging at the seams is completely alien to me.

Bakeoffcake · 16/02/2015 08:49

I'm not going to pay to eat in a cafe unless I'm sure I have somewhere to sit first.

Siarie · 16/02/2015 08:53

As I've mentioned already I've been doing this for years, everyone I know does this. Only on MN does this seem to be an issue Grin. Oh the injustice of it, every social situation should be divided out fairly so we all get an equal crack at everything in life. We can't have those table grabbing queue jumping coffee drinking citizens using their brains to get a table just because they happen to have another person with them. Oh no, everyone MUST stand in line and wait needlessly so that I may feel everything is fair in life.

I'm being sarcastic just in case you missed it.

Mehitabel6 · 16/02/2015 08:59

Siare- I think you have it! We should all be obedient and follow systems without critical thought.

It is a pointless thread. Has anyone changed their mind- one way or the other.? I have read lots of these threads on MN and haven't changed mine.

(I still think the same with parent and child parking and shoes on carpets too!)

OTheHugeManatee · 16/02/2015 09:05

Surely the simple solution to all this aggro is to not to have lunch in places that don't have table service?

hazeyjane · 16/02/2015 09:07

ok, ok. I get the sarcasm, I get that it is the way things are and I get that it is a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things - but sometimes it is the minor gripes that just kick you up the arse after a long day - and that is when I silently fume in an impotent way - when someone sits down at a table I am heading towards with my boy in his buggy and a tray precariously balanced in one hand and I look around and all the other tables are taken, half of them with people waiting for someone in the queue.

grumble grumble mutter mutter.

Mixtape · 16/02/2015 09:12

I would always make sure I had somewhere to sit before buying food, especially with DC. If I am alone with them, they get a table and I get food. If there was nowhere to sit, we would leave. If there are plenty of seats, I would still send them to sit down. unless we are in McDonalds in town where people have been known to sit in the floor

OstentatiousBreastfeeder · 16/02/2015 09:13

I've never been to a cafe that hands you hot food at the till on a tray, except McDonald's (and places like it). Supermarket cafes ask you to take a seat while they cook your order, don't they? They do in every one I've been in.

I find a table with the children while OH gets the food in fast food places. There's a good chance that 60-70% of those queuing are taking their food out anyway, and even if they aren't I'm not keen on queuing up with two small, mobile children while people hold trays of hot food over their heads.

Never had anyone get shirty with me about it.

hazeyjane · 16/02/2015 09:15

I am talking about cafés.

RufusTheReindeer · 16/02/2015 09:15

I don't understand why people don't look through the window, think "fuck me that looks busy...I don't need a cup of coffee that badly" and try somewhere else. Save all the angst

kali110 · 16/02/2015 11:54

Ye. BRenda iv had flack for nearly 10 years but you know its really starting to get to me as people are starting to get nastier. People would still think me rude as i simply keep my headphones on as i don't want to announce my disabilities to all and sundry. It does get to me, other people though who may not be used to it may not take the flack so well.
Im lucky as i always have partner, friends or family with me so no one would dare say any anything to me.
Not everyone sitting down may have disabilities but you dont know which ones do.
Two of my friends also have hidden disabilities and you wouldn't know too look at them either.

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 16/02/2015 12:02

Oh I just can't give a damn. If there is nowhere to sit I think its my fault for going somewhere too busy or its the cafe owners fault for not having enough tables.

LoisWilkersonsLastNerve · 16/02/2015 12:03

Xpost rufus

CavalierQueenCharlotte · 16/02/2015 12:27

It's fairly simple to me. It isn't a universally acknowledged legal and moral outrage (parking in disabled space) neither a universally acknowledged moral outrage but actually legal (parent and child space) so because most people don't know it's a thing what is actually is is a small number of middle class people tutting loudly into the air.

Still reeling from a poster saying it's discrimination because people with small children can't do it. This place is nuts.

Behindthepaintedgarden · 16/02/2015 12:38

I agree it's annoying when people do it, but at the same time I can totally understand it, and have done it myself in the past.
Part of the problem is people sitting at tables long after they've finished eating, even though they can see people wandering around with trays in their hand looking for a seat. In self service restaurants people really shouldn't linger at particularly busy times, but should free up tables as soon as possible.
But on the other hand, as other posters have said, people should use a bit of common sense. If a restaurant is mobbed and there are twenty people lined up waiting to be served, the practical thing to do is go somewhere else.

hazeyjane · 16/02/2015 12:41

....is actually is is a small number of middle class people tutting loudly into the air

oh yeah, that's right I forgot that middle class people can't get the hump about stuff. And of course working class people don't frequent cafés probably because they are to busy whistling cheerfully and never getting pissed off with the minor inconveniences of life.

pfff

CavalierQueenCharlotte · 16/02/2015 12:46

They are the ones who say they are discriminated against because they can't get a seat as fast because they have small children with them. Which is really shit and a bit nuts.

zazzie · 16/02/2015 12:52

That is a problem if you have anyone with you who cannot be left on their own. May not be a small child.

CavalierQueenCharlotte · 16/02/2015 12:53

And the OP hastened to say it was in Wait rose where the naice people are. Their assertion not mine. Give me an a old fashioned caff any day. The people are gruff, mind their own business and have no opinion about who sits where.

paxtecum · 16/02/2015 12:54

I'm the really annoying person on my own who asks (very politely) to join a table that has a space, bacause it's not easy to stand in a queue and save a table at the same time.

RufusTheReindeer · 16/02/2015 12:55

Right back at ya lois

CavalierQueenCharlotte · 16/02/2015 12:55

Since when was not being able to bagsy a table a problem? Really? It's. Not like anyone is being refused a table and as this problem only exists in mumsnet world the offender would have been heavily scrutinised for a sen or disability before huffs and tufts issued. Non problem.

ghostspirit · 16/02/2015 13:12

i get my kids to go sit down whilst i get the food. no good standing there with a tray of food. and 3 kids and no way of eating... what does pee me of is when you get a single person who sits at a large table/4 seater sofa type table

vienna1981 · 16/02/2015 13:26

ghostspirit. I am guilty. I apologise for peeing you off. Those squishy leather settees in Costa are frightfully comfy though.

hazeyjane · 16/02/2015 13:31

Jeez, look I have said it is a minor gripe, but it is a pita for us if it is just me and ds - I can't leave him at a table, because he would find it very upsetting, so we have to queue up and if someone takes the last table in front of us it is a pain. No it doesn't happen every day, yes it is minor and I don't wring my hands and sob about it, but it is a pain in the arse when it happens.