Kids at a Separate Table...

[BriarRosie]

There are no words

Yes there are. And the whole thing is making me giggle. Mostly because Barb's now become a magnet for wacky antics during her meals.

 

[3girls4me05]

Wow..that is unreal! As others said, I can't believe the manager allowed this.
That being said, I would have (much to my husband's horror) either
a. Gone to into the parents and told them their children were out of control in the other room and they need to come and deal with it

or

b: Told the kids themselves to sit down, stop throwing food and behave themselves or I was going into their parents (in my best and sternest teacher voice of course). This may or may not work but I find that they are usually so shocked that a stranger is speaking to them about their behavoir that it can work (sadly, I have had to speak to other people's kids before when I witnessed them doing something dangerous to themselves and others and their parents were nowhere to be found)

 

[chrisann]

if you have too many kids to enjoya nice dinner, then maybe stop before you get to eight!!! It's a little shocking but honestly some people are so self absorbed these days, it really doesn't shock me that much!

 

[BriarRosie]

if you have too many kids to enjoya nice dinner, then maybe stop before you get to eight!!! It's a little shocking but honestly some people are so self absorbed these days, it really doesn't shock me that much!

I thought that the 8 kids were not from one set of parents, but by several from the group of adults at the other table. So there would be multiple sets of parents to blame, IMHO.

 

[3girls4me05]

I thought that the 8 kids were not from one set of parents, but by several from the group of adults at the other table. So there would be multiple sets of parents to blame, IMHO.

I believe you are right and that makes it even scarier! There are more than one set of idiot parents! Amazingly they found each other to be friends with!

 

[ROEDISNEY]

I believe you are right and that makes it even scarier! There are more than one set of idiot parents! Amazingly they found each other to be friends with!

To funny!
We have five Boy's and when they were little we went to the right resturants like Chef Mickeys and sat with our kids .Like you SUPPOSE to.

 

[bdcp]

I know one family with 8 children and two more with 6 and those are the kids that could be left alone to dine because they have all been raised with manners and by loving and consistent parents. But, they wouldn't do what these parents did and would never consider not sitting with their children. That's so telling anyway on so many levels. This is not about how many kids, it could have been 2 or 3, but about the total lack of parenting involved.

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

I have trouble coming to grips with Citrico's even allowing this. Tantrum or not, they should have been told "NO".
My guess is that even had the so-called adults been seated with the kids, the behavior wouldn't have been a whole lot different.

I completely agree. I would have had a meltdown, too. I would have asked to speak to the manager and shown them the line in the Disney pamphlet that reminds parents that their duty is to supervise their children and by separating them, the manager is a) breaking Disney rules b) infringing on my right to enjoy my meal and c) aiding parents in negligent treatment of a child. They were not only (!) at a separate table, but wanted their kids in a different room.

I definitely would have gotten the manager's name if I had seen anything like this.

 

[bytheblood]

What would possess a manager to actually agree that children could be seated away from their parents (if you can actually call them parents).

I have trouble coming to grips with Citrico's even allowing this. Tantrum or not, they should have been told "NO".
My guess is that even had the so-called adults been seated with the kids, the behavior wouldn't have been a whole lot different.

That is pretty bad, I don't see the problem so much if the table is right beside the "adult" table, as usually in a big group of kids they will want to sit together and providing the parents are beside the table and are keeping them in line I don't have a problem with it. But that is just crazy. I agree management should never allowed it.

I would think the liability alone would be enough for the manager to say no, even if his common sense didn't. I would have been tempted to tell the family that their insurance wouldn't allow it or something along those lines. Geez, parents who throw tantrums and you gotta wonder are they clueless as to why their kids are so out of control? If they don't want to dine with their kids they should hire babysitters and go out alone. Personally I think the manager should have added an additional 25-30% gratuity to the entire bill for "babysitting services".

I agree with all of these comments. Poor kids. I feel sorry for them.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

Wow! I'm all for the occasional night without the kids, but I would never put them at a separate table. Why would you take your kids to a restaurant just to ditch them? Whatever happened to being responsible for your own kids? Not only that, but how about actually spending time and talking to them? I love relaxing over dinner at the end of the day with my husband and 2 boys. We talk about all the fun things we did and plan what we're going to do the next day. If I put them at a different table, I would miss them and worry about them too much! If we wanted a night to ourselves, we would put them in a kid's club where they would be properly supervised and safe. We just spent 10 days on a cruise ship. Our boys ate in the formal dining room with us every night (ages 12 & 9). On the night we wanted to go by ourselves to the speciality steakhouse, we fed them room service and signed them into the kid's club. Everyone was happy!

Why is it that you have to have a license to drive. You even need a license to go fishing! But anyone can have kids anytime they please. Jeeeesh!

 

[TDC Nala]

I would think having a group of unsupervised minors in a restaurant dining room while the parents dined in another room would open the restaurant up to far too many liability issues for them to agree to it no matter what sort of hissy fit the parents threw.

 

[oybolshoi]

I know I'm not the first person to say this ... but why do you have to have a license to own a pet when any idiot with a working reproductive system can have a child?

I would have been furious if that had happened while we were there and you can bet someone would have heard about it. We usually have a healthy sense of humor about life in general and ourselves in particular but that's ridiculous.

 

[Alexander]

Honestly, I can't even comment on this situation!

I have to say however, that Barb must bring out the "best" in people! Honestly, you have the darn funniest stories. I say "funniest" tongue-in-cheek, because they truly aren't funny, but so amazing that what is there to do but laugh! You know, just when you thought you'd seen it all!!!!

 

[southernbohemian]

When I got my check, I would have found the parent's table and told them "If you expect me to babysit your children instead of enjoying my dinner, I expect you to pay for it." Then hand them the check.

 

[ChristaDeVil]

This reminds me of a sign that I saw the other day:

"Unsupervised children will be given espresso and a puppy."

 

[LuluLovesDisney]

When I got my check, I would have found the parent's table and told them "If you expect me to babysit your children instead of enjoying my dinner, I expect you to pay for it." Then hand them the check.

I like that one! I can only imagine what would happen, though, lol!

 

[inkkognito]

To clarify on the party make-up, it looked like the eight kids were split up between two sets of parents as there were two adult women and two adult men. The children were speaking Spanish throughout the dinnertime antics, so I wonder if they would have pulled the "No speak English" routine if anyone had said something to them directly.

Next time we're at Citricos, I'm going to ask some questions on their policy and why they allowed such a thing. We're usually there very early, when it's not at all crowded, so that will give me a chance to take the time to ask some questions.

I was a little surprised the manager didn't say something to the parents or kids when she was called over to the couple's table...I suppose they could have been complaining about something else, but since they were right next to the devil spawn table, I doubt it.

Ironically, people say Universal is more...er, Jerry Springer than Disney but we eat at their restaurants a lot too and we're never seen any good antics at any of them yet.

 

[lovetoscrap]

This just

But I guess I am more "forward" than other. I figure that if the kids are already ruining my meal then I am going to make sure the parents know about it. .

I would have been taking those kids and saying "take me to your parents". And every time one of them got out of their seat or was causing a problem I would have taken them over to the parents and told the parents they needed to deal with it.

I am sure the parents wouldn't have done anything, but at least they wouldn't have gotten to have a nice quiet relaxing meal!

I also have a wicked former teacher stare and voice that might have stopped some of the problems!