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@yoursilverlining: Exactly - it's not really supporting her case that she has a high tolerance for being annoyed and could wait 40 MINUTES before saying something to them... she claimed her griddle was "already full" before their order. It's all just really ridiculous.
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@yoursilverlining: @JoJoGirl: Those better have been some damn good pancakes to start so much drama!!
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@JoJoGirl: I sort of wondered if that was the case!!!!! Kids scream occasionally! 40 minutes - not ok. Screaming because they don't get that they have to wait a minute for pancakes? Understandable and could happen to anyone.
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@JoJoGirl: haha wow, thanks for that additional info. Sounds like i have the ability to cook a ton more pancakes at my house than she does at her restaurant!
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@JoJoGirl: And in one of her posts, she claims there are 75 other patrons. How does she have 75 people but her griddle is too small for 3 pancakes??
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HAHA. Like... how big are these pancakes? She sounds like a nut.
I have to wonder what owner would actually wait 40 minutes before freaking out that someone was screaming in their restaurant. Like... 10 mins of screaming and I'd be talking to the parents. 10 minutes is a LONG time if the kid is literally screaming (I mean, 2 minutes feels like FOREVER to me). So, I imagine this woman is full of shit.
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I agree - If this toddler was screaming for 40 minutes and the parents just ignored it, it's on them. Regardless... if a stranger yelled at my baby, it would not end well.
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That diner owner's a nutjob. She's amazed that people ordered 3 pancakes? STFU. I'll order what I want for my child when I'm paying for it. I think this meme (from Adira's link) says it all, lol.
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@yoursilverlining: yeah I would never let my kid yell like that but I also don't think I'll be going back!
Maine ftw! Haha
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If I just heard the story: kid yells for 40 minutes, business owner loses it and yells at her, I'd agree that while it's wrong to yell at a child, the parents were also wrong not to take care of it sooner.
BUT!
After reading the owner's insane and unhinged FB ramblings, (& the updated version of events) she loses ALL credibility and any sympathy from me! She sounds like a temperamental and violent person who needs therapy and an occupation outside the hospitality industry. The saddest part for me is how 90% of people online have jumped to her defense, as a society it seems like we've got some rage issues.
3 pancakes! 3 pancakes! STFU, crazy lady.
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@jedeve: @MoonMoon: I resent how society tends to view people (in this case the parents) as guilty until proven innocent, it should be the other way!
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@knittylady: Even more reason to just go to the Front Room for brunch! lol
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@Jess1483: Oops, you beat me to it
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@Greentea: seriously! To get kind of meta about it...it seems like since society has moved away from having kids to work your farm, now we view having kids as this selfish hobby and up for public criticism.
I just feel awful for these parents. There are a million posts on here about people being upset when their MIL criticizes them. Once a woman said something rude to my husband because our two year old was *talking* (not screaming) in the vestibule of a church. We stewed about it for weeks. But these people have had thousands of people commenting everywhere about how they are awful parents. That's no small thing.
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@Jess1483: After reading her side of the story and the original rants by the owner, I'm going to have to side 100% with the parents. It sounds like the owner is a complete nut job with a serious temper and the parents didn't do anything wrong! I imagine their child was probably fussing after the long wait for both the table and then the food, but I don't believe for a second she was screaming for 40 minutes while being ignored like the owner indicated!
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@Jess1483: Ugh. Makes the diner owner look even more ridiculous.
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The diner owner has lost all credibility with her ranting and raving.
All that said, I have a pretty strict policy around kids being disruptive when we're out eating. If it happens, one parent will take the disruptive kid outside right away. If they don't settle down while we're outside, then we take our food to go.
I don't know what her mom meant by "fussing" but I'm guessing her daughter was being more disruptive than she realized. The diner owner was ridiculously out of line for how she handled it though.
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I just hope that this incident doesn't drive a deeper wedge between parents and non parents.
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I totally agree that the owner sounds like a nut...but I guess now we're just going from automatically believing what the owner said to automatically believing what the parents say? Because I'm sorry, but stuff like this: "It was then that I turned to my daughter and said calmly, 'This is exactly how I’m raising you not to be'" also seems super unrealistic to me. At this point, I feel like this is just another incident that got blown way out of proportion and we'll never really know what happened (not that it even really matters I guess?) Mostly it seems like another consequence of the internet age, where stuff goes viral regardless of the veracity.
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yeah, I would *love* to hear some of the other patrons' POV at this point--probably this 2 year old was louder and more fussy than the parents are admitting. And obviously the owner is kind of crazy.
I feel like the truth is somewhere in the middle.
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@MrsSCB: EXACTLY. I'm not fully buying either story. I need a 3rd-party account.
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The diner owner was clearly unprofessional, but I'm not buying the mom's WashPo response either. I think it's weird she claims her child was merely "fussing," but then mentions a "tantrum" in the last paragraph. Also, she acknowledges that they didn't leave after the owner first asked them to and gave them take out boxes. And needlessly mentioning her husband's service did not earn any brownie points with me. Would love to read a third-party account!
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1. If a child is screaming in a restaurant, the parents need to step up. In this case, I don't think the child screamed for 40 minutes. No parent could tolerate that -- how many of us have failed at cry it out? 4 minutes is an eternity to listen to your kid cry, let alone 40. I just don't buy it.
2. The diner owner is completely insane - what professional cook is overwhelmed by 3 pancakes? what pancakes take 40 minutes to cook? If you have a diner that can hold 75 people, I'm assuming your griddle can hold more than 1 pancake at a time.
3. The facebook exchange was totally inappropriate by the diner owner. Business owners do not curse at people, even if you disagree with them.
4. You do NOT scream at other people's children. Ever. She's lucky mama bear didn't go postal on her! I would not have tolerated that.
ETA: I would love to hear a 3rd party account too...
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I actually live locally.....and of course rumors are flying....but the kid WAS screaming for the whole time and the parents did nothing. I mean, she should have yelled at the parents and not the kid, but I kind of don't blame her!
Our kids are really good when we are out to eat, fortunately. When they are not, we step outside immediately. The end.
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@winniebee: been lurking to see if you had been there!
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She had me until "but it was raining."
Too damn bad. My kid screams in a restaurant and it's raining....we're still going outside.
They all behaved poorly. -
@oliviaoblivia: I agree. She doesn't seem to say that her kid wasn't crying. Just that the crying should have been expected because her child had to wait a long time, and that everyone else should have been understanding because it was raining outside. No one was in the right here.
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The diner owner sounds like a nut job...
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I don't actually find it hard to believe that a parent would sit in a restaurant letting their kid scream for 40 minutes, because I have SEEN it happen myself - before we had kids my DH and I went out for a (late) dinner at around 8 pm, we were sat beside a table with a family with 4 kids. All 4 were yelling/screaming while they waited for food, and while the parents ate. Neither parent even acknowledged the kids behaviour and sat there calmly eating beside them. We asked to be moved, but we could literally hear them going on from the other side of the restaurant. This went on for at least 30 minutes when we left with our food in to-go containers because neither of us could take it anymore.
Yes, the diner owner seems like a nut job, but honestly, I am not buying the Mom's account either ...
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The other interesting thing (and I don't see it mentioned in the article) is that Marcy's Diner is a stones throw from the Children's museum. Kids and families eat there all the time. I'm sure kids have cried at her diner before but no story like this has ever been in the news. Because probably most parents handle the situation and don't let their kids just scream and scream.
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@winniebee: have you actually eaten there? Are their pancakes just really that big??
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Is anyone else curious why the couple ordered 3 pancakes for their toddler? I was hoping she would explain in her washington post article.
I want to guess that they were going to share the pancakes as a family?
I'm also curious why the owner seemed so upset about that too.
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@Raindrop: it doesn't seem like that much to me? Unless they are the weird dinner plate sized ones. Maybe that wasn't clear to the couple?
@sunny: yup.
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@jedeve: @Foodnerd81: they are enormous dinner plate sized ones
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@jedeve: Oh possible they thought they were normal size.
In the facebook thing it sounds like the waitress mentioned they were big to the couple and in the washington post thing the mother mentioned that her husband use to dine there, so they must have known they were large. Right?
edit: IDK I have a game plan of ordering two naans at Indian restaurants because I know my LO loves them and half the time he eats one all by himself no problems and the other half the time he eats like 10% of one and then gets excited about something and it flys out of his hands and lands on the floor and thus I give him the second (backup) one for him eat. If that flys way ward... tough luck LO. I wonder if that might be the reason for the 3 pancakes...
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@winniebee: well then it makes sense that it would seem like a lot for a kid, but certainly the parents could have been planning on sharing or bringing some home. But I looked at their menu online and they specifically sell pancakes by one, two, or three pancake servings. So I'm not sure why that made a big difference for the grill, whether it's for a big man or a little toddler.
But I'm sure it didn't go down exactly like either party is claiming. I do wish a bystander would post a real account of what happened!
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Seems like the owner wanted table turnover if there was a long line of people waiting. If the kid was really screaming that long why would she wait until right when their food was served to kick them out. thats odd timing. And complaining about them ordering from the menu is really weird. Even big pancakes don't take that long to cook, I'm sure that's not what backed them up. whiney toddlers aren't ideal but the restaurant owners explanation and behavior is very odd.
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@winniebee: You weren't kidding about the plate sized pancakes.
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