Last night DH and I went out to get something to eat. It's been a stress filled week and I just wanted to get out of the house and get a burger.
We went to an Applebee's that is in a Target/home depot plaza.
We got there around 10:15 or so and noticed there were teenagers EVERYWHERE. They were running from table to table, running outside to talk with friends, screaming, etc.
There was a basketball game last night so some of the parents were there (maybe 3 parents to every 25 teens).
Honestly, that didn't really bother us b/c the hostess told me they "seat adults first," and it looked like they were trying to keep the teens together.
Anyway, we were seated by the windows and ordered and really weren't bothered by anything going on around us. We got our food and then we start to notice some of the teens and their dads are getting closer and closer to our table to look at something outside.
It got to the point where they were standing right behind DH and right at the corner of our table.
We look out the window and there is a group of 40+teens outside and they're cheering on a fight. There are 2 teens fighting!! They are beating each other and the people (the dads mostly) standing right next to/behind DH are saying, "oh it's not a good fight!" and other stuff like they were disappointed.
I was LIVID. I wanted to get up and tell the manager that there was a fight outside and they should probably call the police. I start to look around for the manager and can't find them. The waitresses/waiters are carrying on like there's nothing going on. My dh tells me to sit and not do anything b/c if everyone there isn't concerned it's better that I don't ruffle any feathers (I think he was a bit worried that someone would do something to us or follow us.)
The fight outside breaks up and the kids are still outside and we're waiting for the police to pull up....
No police but another fight starts and this time I think the manager goes out.
The kids are all still outside, and there's still a fight, and we keep having people walk over to out table and stare out the window. The manager came back in and the kids still stayed outside, screwing around and "play fighting."
Finally we see our waitress and I asked her if this was something that normally happens. She told us that it's like that every Friday night and the kids are always running around the restaurant, screaming, etc, but not usually fighting.
She said she'd love to have some sort of curfew put in place (one of the local malls have one).
The police never showed up.
On the way out, though, we noticed 5 kids standing outside the doors (4 guys and a girl), talking. Across the parking lot we saw a car with a bunch of girls standing around it yelling. From what we heard, while walking to our car, basically someone said something about someone standing next to the car and we hear, "you do NOT want me to f-ing walk over there. I will beat someone's a--!!" I found this the teeniest bit amusing b/c the girl was wearing a dress up tiara.
The girls friends finally get her into the car and pull away. As we're pulling away we noticed they were going back to the restaurant.
Anyway, all the way home Dh and I had a talk about what happened and how unhappy I was that he wouldn't let me get up to find the manager to call the police.
I understand that there was basically a mob outside cheering on the fight and on top of that the restaurant was FULL of teens and parents (some cheering, some ignoring it) and that DH didn't want to have to worry about anyone coming after us. Over the course of about an hour we noticed about 25 cars of teens so most of them drove or were riding with friends.
On the other hand, I seriously have issues when everyone just sits there and watches as kids beat each other up. I told Dh that if the kid that "won" the fight had punched or hit the other kid the right way, it could've killed him.
Anyway, sorry this is a long post but I'm wondering what would you have done?
We went to an Applebee's that is in a Target/home depot plaza.
We got there around 10:15 or so and noticed there were teenagers EVERYWHERE. They were running from table to table, running outside to talk with friends, screaming, etc.
There was a basketball game last night so some of the parents were there (maybe 3 parents to every 25 teens).
Honestly, that didn't really bother us b/c the hostess told me they "seat adults first," and it looked like they were trying to keep the teens together.
Anyway, we were seated by the windows and ordered and really weren't bothered by anything going on around us. We got our food and then we start to notice some of the teens and their dads are getting closer and closer to our table to look at something outside.
It got to the point where they were standing right behind DH and right at the corner of our table.
We look out the window and there is a group of 40+teens outside and they're cheering on a fight. There are 2 teens fighting!! They are beating each other and the people (the dads mostly) standing right next to/behind DH are saying, "oh it's not a good fight!" and other stuff like they were disappointed.
I was LIVID. I wanted to get up and tell the manager that there was a fight outside and they should probably call the police. I start to look around for the manager and can't find them. The waitresses/waiters are carrying on like there's nothing going on. My dh tells me to sit and not do anything b/c if everyone there isn't concerned it's better that I don't ruffle any feathers (I think he was a bit worried that someone would do something to us or follow us.)
The fight outside breaks up and the kids are still outside and we're waiting for the police to pull up....
No police but another fight starts and this time I think the manager goes out.
The kids are all still outside, and there's still a fight, and we keep having people walk over to out table and stare out the window. The manager came back in and the kids still stayed outside, screwing around and "play fighting."
Finally we see our waitress and I asked her if this was something that normally happens. She told us that it's like that every Friday night and the kids are always running around the restaurant, screaming, etc, but not usually fighting.
She said she'd love to have some sort of curfew put in place (one of the local malls have one).
The police never showed up.
On the way out, though, we noticed 5 kids standing outside the doors (4 guys and a girl), talking. Across the parking lot we saw a car with a bunch of girls standing around it yelling. From what we heard, while walking to our car, basically someone said something about someone standing next to the car and we hear, "you do NOT want me to f-ing walk over there. I will beat someone's a--!!" I found this the teeniest bit amusing b/c the girl was wearing a dress up tiara.
The girls friends finally get her into the car and pull away. As we're pulling away we noticed they were going back to the restaurant.
Anyway, all the way home Dh and I had a talk about what happened and how unhappy I was that he wouldn't let me get up to find the manager to call the police.
I understand that there was basically a mob outside cheering on the fight and on top of that the restaurant was FULL of teens and parents (some cheering, some ignoring it) and that DH didn't want to have to worry about anyone coming after us. Over the course of about an hour we noticed about 25 cars of teens so most of them drove or were riding with friends.
On the other hand, I seriously have issues when everyone just sits there and watches as kids beat each other up. I told Dh that if the kid that "won" the fight had punched or hit the other kid the right way, it could've killed him.
Anyway, sorry this is a long post but I'm wondering what would you have done?
Also, thanks for all the other replies, so far, and for not biting my head off...I was kinda expecting someone to tell me how horrid I was for not doing something at the time. 
