Server Criticizes Family Who Encouraged Their Kids To Make A Mess — 'People Do Not Parent Anymore'
The family left a major mess for the server to clean and didn't tip her for her work.
@krisswith / TikTok, cottonbro studio / Pexels Kristina Withers works as a server at a restaurant and often posts on TikTok about her experiences interacting with customers. She recently made a two-part post titled, “Rudest Table,” in which she explained how a family she waited on left her with the impression that “people do not parent anymore.”
The beleaguered server criticized a family who encouraged their kids to make a mess at a restaurant.
“I cannot believe how freaking rude this freaking table was that I had,” Withers started her story. She said there were 4 people at the table, 3 adults and one little girl.
“The lady orders a Long Island. She tells me it’s her birthday week and everyone else orders water. The little girl has a Shirley Temple. And then they order the little girl a single taco. It was Taco Tuesday, so we have... tacos for $2.50 each. It’s cheaper than the kids meal taco that comes with one taco and a side for like, 5 or 6 dollars. And I explain that to them, it doesn’t come with a side, it’s just one taco, and the lady said that was perfect,” she said.
“They asked me for a side of ranch. I bring it out," she continued. "They asked me for three more sides of ranch. I let them know that we charge for extra sides of ranch and we’d have to charge them for all three sides, and they said that was fine."
When Withers returned with the extra sides of ranch, she discovered an additional kid sitting at the table. “I don’t know where this kid came from. So now there’s 5 of them, 3 adults and 2 kids.”
At one point, the mom told her, "We made a mess... she looks at the little kid, and goes, ‘She threw her drink on the ground. You need to clean it up.’ I kind of just looked at her, like, okay.'"
One of the kids “tore up the Shirley Temple cup... Threw it on the ground and it was entirely wet. The entire ground was soaking wet and sticky.” Withers got a mop to clean the spill. When she came back, she waited for the mom to move her daughter’s chair back from the table so she could clean, but the mom told her, “You can move her yourself.”
“So, I grab the chair. I’m telling the little girl to hold on, I’m like, scooting the chair back. The little girl’s laughing and thinks it’s a game. I mop up the floor. We had just got some crayons... The kid had peeled all of the crayons and the box was wet and ruined because it had fallen on the floor in the puddle of Shirley Temple,” Withers said. “So I pick everything up. I get it mopped."
"I push the kid back in, who’s laughing again, thinking it’s a game. The mom’s laughing because the kid is laughing. She’s like, ‘Oh my god, she’s having so much fun.’ Like, lady, your kid just destroyed s--t, and you’re like, encouraging bad behavior,” Withers continued.
“Now the mom is playing with the kid by pushing her chair in and out and making the kid laugh. It is so loud, it’s scraping on the floor. And they’re just laughing and being obnoxious. It’s crazy. But that’s not all,” she said.
Withers was shocked by the extreme mess the kids made at dinner and the fact that the parents didn’t seem to care.
“They’re just like, destroying the table. They’re making such a mess. They’re throwing food everywhere,” she said in the second video in the saga. “The kids are wiping their greasy hands along the mirrors; we have like, a mirrored wall. They’re like wiping french fries and ketchup all over the mirror, and the mom’s just sitting there, like, talking with her friends.”
Withers left to finish up some side work, returning to find that her manager had brought them the bill.
“I heard the lady tell my manager that I told them that the taco, the kid’s taco, came with a side for $2.50, which is not true. I also overheard her saying that I told them I was not gonna charge them for sides of sauce and sides of ranch, which is also not true. And that I told them the price of the fries was different than it’s listed on the menu, which is also not true,” she stated.
Withers stood up for herself and told her manager exactly what really happened.
She and her manager left while the woman complained under her breath. As Withers reported, “She’s saying, like, ‘I can’t believe they didn’t do anything, it’s my birthday week.’”
The women paid with credit cards after Withers explained the credit card surcharge, “because we have to pay the credit card company, we charge a certain percentage. It usually ends up being like, 50 cents more. They complained about that, as well. I bring the cards back to them, tell them to have a nice day, and I walk away. They leave.”
“I walk back to the table and it is even more destroyed than it was in the first place. They tore up both cups, so there was more Shirley Temple everywhere. They had spilled the water. There was food littered on the ground. And I’m not talking like a normal mess. Like, they were tearing up food and throwing it on the ground. Again, they had smeared s--t all over the mirror, so I had to clean all of that. It was an obscene amount of mess that was completely unnecessary,” she said.
“I wasn’t expecting a tip from them anyway, because I could tell they didn’t like me. But they ended up taking both of the credit card receipts and I feel like that was just a slap in the face,” she finished. She said it was “probably one of the worst tables I’ve ever had and I will never forget them.”
Withers' experience sheds light on not only rude customers, but parents who take their children into public areas and refuse to, well... parent. There's no doubt that these parents seem to either be willingly blind or completely unaware of their bad behavior.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers parenting issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.