Whoops!

[Mishi]

Rugz and I took the girls on holiday recently. We went up the coast to see my grandpa and while we were up there, we took them to a lot of the places that I visited when I was a kid. One was a national park, we had a lovely long walk and then found out that park cafe was closed for. No problems, there's a darling little cafe on the way back into town, I had spotted the whimsical decorations on our way and wanted to stop there for a coffee anyway.

Our girls were rather hungry, so we quickly walked into the cafe and met the owner. I did see a little billboard on the way in, with faded photos and what I (stupidly) thought was a brief history of the cafe in very faded text. The owner was abrupt and nearly rude, but we shrugged and ignored it, thinking that it was a personality quirk. She chatted politely with the other patrons, people that came in after us were served first and our lunch was delayed. Our girls sat nicely, enjoyed the view over the fields and quietly talked about it. They thanked the owner for their lunch when it finally arrived, ate neatly with their utensils but didn't quite finish it. As we were paying and saying goodbye, the owner made a few snarky comments about the amout of food left on the plates even though we'd apologised and said that it was delicious. Miss Jazzy complimented her on her beautiful cafe, Bubbles waved and blew kisses to her and finally the owner unbent enough to comment favourably on them.

On our way to the car, I paused and read the little board. As a part of the history, it mentioned that it was a CHILDFREE cafe. All of it could have been avoided if I'd taken the time to read the tiny little board with it's faeded text! ARGH!

[Andara Bledin]

All of it could have been avoided if I'd taken the time to read the tiny little board with it's faeded text! ARGH!

All of it could have been avoided had the unusual designation been noted in such a way that a typically conscientious individual would have been able to be aware of it without taking special effort to read a faded sign.

However, at least the owner realized that yours were not the type of children that the sign was meant to keep out, even if it did take her until you were leaving.

^-.-^

[RecoveringKinkoid]

She needs to keep her signage up if she has special rules. Unless she particularly enjoys being a snarky, rude, passive aggressive jerk (which I suspect she does) to her customers. I would think simply posting her rules clearly would be a lot easier than hoping your customers are mind readers, but whatever.

The "whoops" is not on your part. I'm just sayin'.

Also, on top of it all she's the food police? She's complaining about what does or does not happen to the food that YOU PAID FOR????

She sounds like a lovely person.

[Ironclad Alibi]

It is major fail on the part of the owner. It is incumbent upon her to mention it is a childfree cafe when you walk in the door, and not to rely on a faded sign. And certainly not to provide poor service for her failure to speak up.

[Pixilated]

She needs to keep her signage up if she has special rules. Unless she particularly enjoys being a snarky, rude, passive aggressive jerk (which I suspect she does) to her customers.
*snip*

This. If she seriously does not want children in her restaurant then she needs to make it plain with an easily readable sign.

She should've either clarified the situation with you as soon as you walked in, or thawed out a lot sooner when it became obvious your children were not the ones her sign was aimed at.

[csquared]

It could also have been avoided with a simple and polite "I'm sorry, but this cafe is adults only."

[RealUnimportant]

Also, on top of it all she's the food police? She's complaining about what does or does not happen to the food that YOU PAID FOR????

Making kids clear their plates is a recipe for obesity... Such an outdated concept.

[Elspeth]

Making kids clear their plates is a recipe for obesity... Such an outdated concept.

Yes yes it is. And it makes you not eat much at your mother-in-laws.

back to the topic at hand. I agree with the other posters here, the owner is clueless.

[Mishi]

Thanks everyone, our girls are awesome and you've made me feel a lot better about an honest mistake. It just falls into the 'Do unto others' category for me. I don't like going out to eat, expecting to have a little bit of time off from parenting and then having to listen to other peoples kids.

Also, our girls are slender and tall, so a lot of people think they need more weight on them. They eat small, frequent, healthy meals and I don't believe in forcing them to eat everything on their plates. If they're full, then they're full.