Leave your undisciplined child at home!

Working as a server in the restaurant tends to provide you a keen sense of observation of the endless types of people that you may encounter every single day. You meet people from all over the world, you hear their stories, you notice what they like to eat, what they don't like, their mannerisms, and at the end of it all, you ask yourself the most important question that has been looming over your head since that particular table has sat down. Will they leave me a good tip or will they stiff me? Whether all servers like to admit it or not, each of us senses who will tip and who will not tip, and usually, in my case, it is the people who are the most demanding who will leave the cheapest tip. However, that is a rant for another time. At this point, staring at my disheveled appearance, my sore feet and the make up that has run down my face, this particular Sunday has got me thinking about the LACK of parenting skills that people have. It's disheartening to see parents bring their bratty, undisciplined children out in public and let them run a muck in a restaurant. And while these particular brats make me want to never have children, I observe the parents and I realize that perhaps it's not entirely the childrens' fault, it's the lack of proper parenting that makes me sick to my stomach.




I state the obvious when I say that there are people in this world who shouldn't reproduce; however, it doesn't take that much time in the nine months that you are with child to pick up a parenting book and skim through the do's and don'ts. It doesn't even take that much time to sit your child down and explain how to behave at a restaurant. And it takes less time to smack your child's hand and tell them to stop misbehaving. Parents who let their children run around like monsters are REALLY embarrassing themselves and causing hardworking, underpaid servers like MYSELF tons of rage and agony. How on EARTH would you feel if you had to deal with obnoxious children who play with their utensils, use chopsticks as drumsticks and throw noodles all over the place? Just today, there was a disgusting display of terrible parenting when a mother, a father, grandparents and two children came to sit down and eat. They ordered one appetizer, two soups, two bowls of vermicelli and demanded 6 bowls, 6 plates 6 drinks to share everything. They had a 4 year old girl and a 1 and a half year old, both of which, ran around the restaurant for about an hour, dumped food all over the table and the floor and the 1 and a half year old dragged her booster seat all over the place. I also had to step over her a million times because I was carrying LARGE HOT bowls of soup. The parents NEVER once told their children to stay put and their bratty daughter screamed half the time. Adding a 20% gratuity charge was not even enough to suffice for what I had gone through to wipe down and clean off every bit of food off of the table and the floor. So here is my advice to you undereducated parents out there who think their child is an angel sent from heaven: take your ornery child, smack their bottoms and TEACH THEM TO BEHAVE IN PUBLIC. Otherwise, don't bother to go to ANY restaurant or ANY public place for that matter, because guess what, you're causing everyone misery!!





And remember one more thing: SERVERS MAKE $2.83 AN HOUR BEFORE TAXES AND THEY ARE TAXED ON THE TIPS THAT THEY REPORT. SERVERS ALSO HAVE TO TIP OUT TO THE MAITRE'D (HOST/HOSTESS), THE BARTENDER AND THE BUSSER. LASTLY, SERVERS WORK EXTREMELY LONG SHIFTS; I WORK 12 HOURS A DAY. SO BEFORE YOU DECIDE TO LEAVE THAT 10% TIP, YOU EITHER CONTINUE BEING THAT HEARTLESS PENNY PINCHER, AND I'LL TELL YOU TO GO TO MCDONALD'S NEXT TIME, OR YOU CAN ANTE UP THAT 18%-20% SUGGESTED GRATUITY AND LEARN TO APPRECIATE YOUR SERVER.