I gotta be honest with you, I see things like this...
An eatery in rural Georgia charges extra for unruly kids — and the policy is sparking an online debate after it went viral on Reddit.
...and my first reaction is more or less:
I mean, look: If your kid has a meltdown at a restaurant, or something unexpected or crazy happens, do I think you should be charged a ton of money for it? No. Especially if you address the situation, calm your kid down, and/or take him out of the restaurant if you can't do that.
But if you just let your kid run wild, or scream, or screech, or whatever — basically, if you let them ruin the experience for everyone else — then yeah, I think a little surcharge might be in the offing. Especially when it's right on the menu in bold:
In fairness, though, it sounds like that's not what happened at this restaurant:
"The kids were sitting at one end of the table and they were being so good," Landmann says. "I even commented halfway through the meal, ‘I can't believe how well-behaved they are.'"
After dessert, some of the parents took their children down to the water. That's when Landmann says the owner, Tim Richter, approached their table. ...
... Richter was there to inform Landmann that there would be a $50 charge per bill at their table. When Landmann asked for an explanation, she says Richter told her they were being "too loud." She says he was also angry that the kids were "running around outside," even though they were chaperoned by adults.
This is basically a he-said-she-said sort of scenario, so it's hard to know what to think. But if the mother's account is correct, it sounds like the policy is less about loud kids and more that the guy just doesn't like kids.
Which is, you know, really lame.
Bolstering the mom's account, the restaurant, in speaking to Today, didn't really try and deny the allegations:
We're not going to comment on a policy we've had for years. We just want to live in the woods and cook.
Fair enough — but if your policy is enforced as capriciously as this, then you're probably just going to find yourself "living in the woods" without cooking.
Just saying.
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