When the Summer Camp kids Strike....

[South Texan]

Eleven-year-old kid comes up to my counter at now defunct taco place that just happened to be around the corner from a middle school.

Kid: <looking at dollar menu> I'll have a regular taco and a small Coke.

Me: <rings up orderr> Ok, you total comes to $2.14.

Kid: No it doesn't. It comes to $2.00! Look at that menu.

Me: <thrilled someone actually bothered to read the menu, but knowing where this was heading> Yes, those items are $1.00 each, but we have to add on tax, so the total is $2.14.

Kid: BULL (STUFF)!!!!!! You put it up at $1.00 AND THAT IS ALL I AM (FARKING) PAYING!!!!!!

Me: I know it can be hard to understand at first, but taxes are added to everything you ever buy no matter what the price says. SO... do you want me to cancel your order, or do you have $2.14?

Kid: <slams two singles on the counter> You're trying to rip me off. My dad's a lawyer and he'll sue your ass. I gots $2.00 and I want my taco and Coke.

Me: I am sorry, but unless you pay $2.14, I cannot get your order.

Kid: <Storms out cursing and restating his dad will sue>

I cannot tell you how many times that scenario played out - including the threats of law suits. I tried to get our manager to put up something stating tax would be added to all prices, but she wouldn't because that would have meant she had strayed from whatever Corporate had prescribed for the menu boards, and she was FAR too spineless to have done that.

.

[Broomjockey]

ST, sounds like your manager was the source of the suck there, and could have headed it off. I don't think I've ever been in a resturaunt, fast food or sit down, that didn't have some variant of "all prices + applicable taxes."

[chinashirtgirl]

You would be shocked how often people walk into my bar and, in absolute seriousness, say, "I'll have a beer."

Actually here in Sweden you can go into a bar and say "Give me a beer" and you will get one. The cheapest beer on the menu at the time. Usually a Swedish beer. If you want a Heineken or a Grolsh (yes I like Dutch beer) you do have to ask for it but if you just want a regular beer you get one.

[MystyGlyttyr]

I think I know what that reason is.

*snippies for reasons*

I was never either of those kids. My parents taught me to enjoy the hell out of my food. I usually only had to go through the menu twice, tops, to find something that OMG WANNA TRY IT MAMA. I'm actually a far pickier eater now in restaurants than I was as a kid. Back then it was pretty much a case of "if it looks vaguely foodish, I shall attempt to masticate it."

Of course, I also frequently knawed on the table or tried to eat the crayons and/or kids menu that the waiter gave me...so yeah...

[persephone]

Unfortunately, most parents do not deny such an experience, and teach their children in the process that it is perfectly acceptable to waste a server's time, and that they really don't have to make a decision. Then there are the parents I dearly love.

JESTER: "And what would you like?"
PARENT: (to child) "What do you want honey?"
(Child sits there playing video game or drawing with crayons. Ignores parent.)
PARENT: (Immediately snatches plaything from child, and is clearly irritated.) "I SAID, what do you WANT?"
CHILD: (Mumbles incoherently)
PARENT: "Tell him what you want RIGHT NOW, or you are NOT eating!"
CHILD: (to Jester, clearly terrified of either not eating or their parents' wrath....or both) "Burger, please."
JESTER: "Burger. Got it. Thank you."

I go through the first scenario shit above more often than you can possibly imagine. So does, I imagine, every single server from Maine to San Diego, on a daily basis. Yes, children are going to be children. It's how the parents deal with them that separates them.

We do something *like* that, but not that purely because of the "terrified of their parents' wrath" part. Your kids should NOT be scared of you.

But I give Daughter one chance. If she don't respond to the waiter, I say "Tell the waiter what you want or else I'm ordering for you." Usually, though, she responds to the waiter right away and if I have to say something it's because something distracted them. Son is younger and still a little shy around strangers so when the waiter asks him he'll lean over to whoever is sitting with him (be it Mommy, Daddy, Sister or any relative) tell THEM what he wants and they can convey it to the waiter. We're trying to break him of it, but he talks *extremely* quietly in public places and I don't want to waste the waiters time.