"Table or booth? Oh, and we're going to be charging you a fee for that baby."
Yep,
that's what happened to a UK mother when she went out to eat with her 6 week old son. Her pushchair (stroller) was apparently taking up too much room in the buffet-style restaurant so they charged her £3, which is about $4.00 US dollars. She offered to put the stroller into her car, but the restaurant refused to remove the charge and said the baby was still taking up space. A 6 week old doesn't take up much space, especially when they are breastfed - mom would just hold him in her lap!
According the restaurant, the "minimum charge" is not new, and is intended for those children who eat, but don't complete a full meal.
The restaurant chain issued this statement:
Hi everyone, We have issued a statement: COSMO would like to apologise to Natasha Young for the terrible experience at our Croydon branch. COSMO is a family friendly restaurant and we pride ourselves on making children and parents feel valued. The minimum charge isn’t new and has been in operation for the 7 years that we have been in business – without incident until now, as it was never intended for babies. It’s designed for small children who eat but not a full meal. It would appear that the training, for both the staff and the managers fell well below that of our other restaurants. COSMO would like to assure customers that this is an isolated incident and we will be retraining all employees at Croydon as a matter of urgency." How would you handle something like this? What do you think about the "minimum charge"?
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Comments (80)
@StatelessPilot@revelife - Oh God, this is the first time I have ever agreed with you.
this is ridiculous.
wow. this is ridiculous.
i so would not eat at the restaurant out of principle if this happened to me.
@written_conversations@xanga - Oh I see. I'm just used to restaurants in my area only having booths with some tables and always being seated in something too big for just a few people.
I went on a date with my boyfriend to get away from my 3 year old. What happens? Im facing an 18 month old throwing crayons on the floor sounding like a baby dinosaur >.< So much for peace of getting away from my little one. Our Valentines date was almost the same way... we were in the corner and an small child entered the picture near the end.lol. I love my child, I am going to be a PreK teacher (in college for ECE) but I would like grown up time eating the food that either me or my partner pays for. No picking up shit. No talking a child down from throwing themselves off their high chairs. Im thinking about not having a 2nd kid so I wont have to go through the awkward infant age. I'll see if my daughter passes Kindergarten before making that leap.