To think children should be allowed to run around and have fun in McDonalds

[JimmyNail]

It’s a children’s restaurant so children should be allowed to have fun while they eat their meal. Nothing outrageous but things like crawling under our own table, playing a little chase around our table. Not in any way bothering other customers. Being a little loud. Just a bit of fun.

1. It's not a children's restaurant
2. Assuming no huge dripfeed, by that age.children should be able to sit down and behave appropriately for the length of time it takes to eat a burger.

Of course 5 and 6yos can sit down for a meal! But you’ll need to explain that to them and then insist on it, until they learn that you mean it. Do it at home every day and it will be much easier.

I think you'll change your mind about 'running around the table' when they bump into someone and end up with a scalding coffee dropped on their head.

@JimmyNail - very annoying & dangerous. It's not a children's restaurant, it's a fast food place.

5 & 6 is not that young. Perfectly reasonable to expect them to sit down & behave.

Why is everyone pretending they cant possibly understand why someone might call it a childrens restaurant ...

Because that is the supposed justification for letting your kids run riot.

mcdonalds is not a children’s restaurant, it’s just a fast food restaurant.

why can’t a 5 & 6 year old not sit still and eat a McDonald’s for 20/30 minutes? Surely they sit and eat lunch in school without running around or crawling under the table?

My son knew from a very young age that at dinner time you sit and eat at the table, he was never allowed to run round or crawl under the table in a restaurant.

I wouldn’t be too happy to have my tray of food/drinks knocked from my hands because of a school aged child running around. It could also be very dangerous with hot drinks.

Wind em up and watch em go.....

It’s not a children’s restaurant OP. Like multiple PPs have said, it’s a fast food outlet. Children don’t have the right to run around while people are trying to enjoy meals and work.

The workers will be carrying trays, emptying bins, mopping and sweeping the floors. Major hazards if brats are running round.

If you find it difficult to keep them sitting down take them to the play area. Plenty of McDonalds have indoor and outdoor play areas. Or go through the drive-thru and let them run around at home.

And what happens when I fall over one carrying a tray with a hot drink and scald them, or myself?

It's also not a children's restaurant. Probably 85% of footfall is adult groups.

Because it isn’t.

There’s no such thing as a “Children’s Restaurant”.

There’s “Family Restaurants” which is a restaurant that caters for all ages and has a children’s menu. (E.g McDonalds, Wacky Warehouse, Pizza Hut etc.)

& being in a Family Restaurant doesn’t give parents the right to allow their children to physically run around the tables. (Play areas - no problem at all!) But not in the actual restaurant where people are serving and carrying food and cleaning. That’s surely common sense no?

You imagine your children aren’t annoying other customers.

the reality is something else entirely.

I feel like I need to expand my last post a bit. I'm a Customer Experience Leader in a very busy McDonald's.

All I want from visiting kids is for them to walk (to the loos, or the door or whatever) rather than running (or using bloody Heelies). For them to stay at their table. For them not to climb. (Had a lovely incident recently where a child fell from one of the high tables which are ~4ft high, split his head open badly enough that we had to ring an ambulance and pull two managers from their roles to help. Then we had to close the dining area because there was blood everywhere. It was absolutely awful and I doubt I'll ever forget the sound his head made on the tiles.)

I don't care how much noise they make at the table, if they're watching a tablet or on a phone.

I mostly just want them to be safe, because it's easy to miss a small child if it's busy and you're carrying a full tray. I've had hot drinks splash on me and scald me, and I'd hate to accidentally scald a child. I also don't want to fall over them or dump a full tray because that's just making more work for everyone.

(Also, slight sidenote - the floors should be getting cleaned regularly so they're never too bad. We aim to sweep under tables between customers and do the main areas as needed.)

Lastly, and only slightly on topic - please fill in the food for thoughts survey on your receipts. It's the only way we can get any bonus, and the feedback is taken very seriously!)

@JimmyNail it shouldn't be difficult to keep a 5 and 6 year old sat down. It's not a children's restaurant. It's a fast food restaurant for everyone. I would expect a 2 year old to sit nicely in a restaurant let alone a 5 year old. You have very low expectations.

Reverse and No

No it isn't. Sit down and eat your happy meal.

Chuck E Cheese is a children's restaurant. McDonald's is just a regular restaurant. Running in the playland, yes. Running around the tables, no.

It isn't a children's restaurant - most of the customers are adults. In any case, it is completely unacceptable to let children run around in any restaurant. It is very dangerous and unfair to the children, the wait staff and other customers. I've run several restaurants and seen the havoc that one badly-parented child can cause. And when the child falls, or trips waiting staff and is injured, the clueless parents complain and threaten the staff, rather than accepting that they allowed their children to be hurt through their own fecklessness.

let's hope your little darlings have fun while recovering from being burnt by scalding hot coffee dropped by someone they barged into.

It's not a children's restaurant. It's a fast food restaurant where some of the items are dirt cheap, so there's a very varied clientele. (Not a snob - I do eat there too.)

Each branch varies, but some of them are grim, because customers mess the place up faster than the poor staff can react. I wouldn't let a child run around unsupervised in a McDonalds, not for fear of causing annoyance to other people, but for their own safety. They could easily end up hurting themselves and or having contact with something grim.

Some of the worst toilets I've ever seen have been in a McDonalds. If that level of disgustingness is the benchmark for the store, do you really want your kids crawling on the floor and touching stuff? Didn't think so.

I have nothing against kids getting overexcited in McDonalds and making noise, but for their own safety, an adult needs to make sure they're sat down and to pay close attention to them.

& the parents of the child that found it amusing to let it stuff its face full of chips and gawp/stare at people whilst chewing with an open mouth can fuck off too.

How about you control your children and stop ruining other people's visit's?

At the ages of five and six they should be able to sit and eat

And it's not a children's restaurant. It's a fast food restaurant for anybody and everybody, children happen to be there

I went to Smyth's recently and I didn't see any children running around

Age 5&6 they’ll be in school where they won’t be allowed to run around the dining room or crawl under the tables. They’ll also be expected to sit quietly in assemblies and when lesson input is being given (carpet time). Of course they’re not too young to behave properly in a restaurant, fast food or other kind.

Lastly, and only slightly on topic - please fill in the food for thoughts survey on your receipts. It's the only way we can get any bonus, and the feedback is taken very seriously!)

That’s a really poor and unfair staff reward system. There are a great many reasons people do or (mostly) don’t fill that in and almost none of them have anything to do with your performance in your job. That’s obvious.