Children running around restaurant WWYD?

[AutisticLegoLover]

Please could you tell me what you'd do in this situation:

In a hotel restaurant at breakfast there were two young children about age 4 running around and screeching. It wasn't clear where the parents/adults were that they were with. They were eating while running in front of guests who were carrying hot drinks and food from the breakfast buffet and going up to other tables and carrying on their screeching.

What would you do in this situation?

A stern ‘Stop running, it’s dangerous’ usually does the trick - even the most wild of (neurotypical) children will follow a command if spoken with authority. If not, ask to speak to a manager.

I think what you did was fine, you just got unlucky with some less than professional staff and a belligerent parent. Another day it could have worked much better.

Myself, I'd probably just ignore them and try to help DS, give him options etc.

Speak to a member of staff!

Our local has just had to put no unaccompanied children, children should be seated unless entering or exiting the building, children mustn't use the toilets unaccompanied due to entitled and frankly lazy parents who think the pub is some sort of glorified playground - we are talking kids climbing on the booths etc. it's ridiculous, I like the fact children are welcome places but it comes with responsibilities that the parents keep them reasonably quiet and definitely under control - and no I don't except excuses like age, additional needs (except for noise where additional needs means unable to talk quietly or babies briefly crying then taken outside for instance). Running around when there's hot food, drinks and unstable other guests potentially just is wrong wrong wrong

Do you have a breakfast muffin or brioche to chuck at their heads? Don't try with a croissant as they just don't have the weight to travel very far... and can also get very flakey when air born... and toast is totally hopeless as it always falls buttered side down. Ideally the best thing is an uncut breakfast bagel which can be despatched swiftly with a kind of 'frisbee' flick of the wrist.

Children can be much harder to hit than adults due to their heads being smaller and also as they may also be running quite fast, so you may need several attempts before you get one.

I'd trip them up.

There should be no need to speak to any of the staff should there , they should step in and deal with it without anyone complaining

The staff member absolutely should not have pointed you out. The issue is the children's behaviour, not that you complained.

I'd escalate it at the hotel so they can put appropriate training in place. You being subjected to a rant by another customer because the hotel staff failed to deal with the situation appropriately, isn't on.

@topnoddy that's my thinking too but they probably don't want any abuse from the parents.

I would have said something to the children such as "Be careful! You shouldn't run around while people are carrying things." Just as you might warn your own child "Watch out!"

If I were feeling really brave, I might have tried to locate the parents and told them their DC were endangering themselves & others.

Definitely would have looked for a member of staff to try to re-unite children & parents.

But some parents today are appalling.

Honestly it wouldn’t bother me at all. But then I live abroad and this ‘children should be seen and not heard’ is very much a British thing. Where I live people would probably just smile or gently say ‘Be careful!’ if they’re getting in the way of hot food. Much more tolerance and understanding of young children being young children outside of the UK!

@AutisticLegoLover could you rehearse - maybe on this thread - the complaint you're going to make to the hotel manager about the way that the staff member in the breakfast room dealt with your request?

Because they treated you very badly, and that should not happen again.

The member of staff should have taken the feral DC back to their parents, and requested, politely, that the parents keep their DC at the table because it was quite dangerous for the children to be running around with other people carrying hot dishes & drinks. And that they hotel liked to maintain a clam & relaxed atmosphere, and the children were making too much commotion and disturbing other guests.

And the family with the terrible manners should have then been asked f they'd be more comfortable eating their breakfast elsewhere - in a room away from everyone else, basically.

I once, on instinct, kneeled down and caught a child that was zooming around. Figured the mum was miles away. Nope, peered up from her phone before looking back down into it even as I was telling an armful of her kid she would have to wait until she was outside to run. So annoying.

But then I live abroad and this ‘children should be seen and not heard’ is very much a British thing. Where I live people would probably just smile or gently say ‘Be careful!’ if they’re getting in the way of hot food. Much more tolerance and understanding of young children being young children outside of the UK!

Oh give over. No way would DC be allowed to behave as in the OP in either France or Germany. Particularly in a restaurant/dining room. Not at all.

I've been the manager in this situation and id say the hotel handled it terribly.

Firstly, they should have clocked the kids running around anyways and approached the child/their guardian if it was clear who it was. They should have been told that it was a safety hazard as the children could be injured (scalds, slips, trips and falls), get lost (in both guest and staff areas of the hotel) or be taken (hotels are full of strangers so isn't safe for children to be separated from guardians).

Secondly, once you raised a complaint they should have apologised to you (for them not noticing) and then done the above but without flagging you as the source.

If the parent/guardian refused, then they would have been asked to leave the restaurant. If that had escalated, they would be asked to leave the hotel.

I'd complain to the hotel about this because it's an accident waiting to happen.

Btw I say this as someone who has a burn scar on my leg from a child running into me while I was carrying a flask or boiling tea. Managed to avoid any going on her but I have a scar on my upper thigh

i don't want to be tolerant of children using a restaurant as a playground and put up with lazy parenting thanks
I don't want to understand why they do it just take them outside to play
Its not rocket science

What would it be then? What would you do?

This. The staff member was completely in the wrong.

I definitely don't expect kids to be seen and not heard, but I also don't expect to have life long scars thanks to rogue children