A man with a facial disfigurement says he was asked to leave a restaurant in south London because staff said he was “scaring the customers”.
Oliver Bromley has Neurofibromatosis Type 1, a genetic condition that causes non-cancerous tumours to grow on his nerves.
Speaking to the BBC, he said when he had gone to place an order at a restaurant in Camberwell, staff told him there had been complaints about him.
“It’s a horrible thing to happen. I took it very personally on the day,” he said.
I’ll take a restaurant full of disfigured people over 1 misbehaving toddler.
As someone who formerly worked at a restaurant, I agree.
We were located in a fenced off area owned by the same company that had a string of bars/clubs, so after 8pm only 21+ were allowed in, but on Saturday afternoons the stroller crowd would roll through and let their kids run around making a mess of all the tables.
I’m not against parents bringing their kids out for a meal, but if they’re just sitting there pounding beer after beer and ignoring their chaotic unleashed children then it gets really old really fast.
As a parent of younger kids, we’re sorry. We come armed with as many activities as possible and will take our kids outside if they’re too excited until food gets to the table. That will help them focus on eating.
We very rarely went out to eat when they were toddlers due to fear of our kids bothering others and understand that our desire to experience some level of normalcy shouldn’t come at the expense of others.
All that said, if the parents are trying to keep their kids occupied, please extend some grace. Being a parent can be extremely isolating and we’re simply trying to pretend like we still get to do normal things once in a while.
If you’re trying, the ire isn’t for you. It’s for the shitty parents that feel entitled to not teach their children to behave, don’t feel it’s their job to or act like they are a victim of a life choice and take it out on the child or others. There are plenty of those type out there and I’m sure you don’t want to be lumped in with those ones, you also don’t have to defend them.
This is fine, and we thank you for your efforts.
What were talking about here is a rogue crotch spawn running around or under tables, occupied or not, and generally acting like they’re in their own living room rather than a shared community space.
Honestly IMO if you can keep them at the table, I can put up with the noise. Sure, it’s annoying, but so are kids. It’s a package deal. And everyone was a kid at one point in time and therefore has no excuse to complain too loudly. That’s reserved for when I have to drag a screeching rug rodent out from under my chair and haul it back to the absentee sperm and egg donors.
Haha, our kids do go under our table at times but they know not to go under other people’s tables.
I don’t have much tolerance for absentee parenting either, especially if the kids wind up seeking attention from others, by say going under someone else’s table, because they’re not getting enough attention from their own parents.
