kids eat free
Before I write this post I must thank two beings. The first is Emily who alerted me to the most annoying woman in the world and the second is God for making sure that woman has never sat in my section.
Emily sent me the link to a woman’s query that was posted on a website called What To Expect, which is a pregnancy forum. I now know where to look if I ever need inspiration for a venting blog post about pregnant ladies. Under the title of “Restaurant Etiquette” a woman named RLEllis decided that rather than pushing out a baby, she would push out this golden nugget instead:
Ok…so tonight, my husband and I go out to eat at a popular restaurant with my family. We have eaten out at this restaurant…but another location…and figured out the most economical way for is to eat without wasting food or money. I hate to spend money on food I don’t eat. So, if I order the entree that I like, and split it with my 3 kids, it’s more than enough food for us. It also comes with a bowl of soup…which my husband eats because I’m usually too full to eat it. Then I order a side of macaroni and cheese for my kids to share along with my food. Anyway, this location had all kinds of rules that would not allow us to share quite so easily, but we got it worked out. Anyway, my bil seemed offended by the way we ordered our food, and it occurred to me that he and my sister always order 2 entrees and 3 kids meals even though they don’t eat all their food. I don’t like reheating certain leftovers and we won’t take it home. So, although I’m sure our waiter would rather we order more food, does anyone else find it offensive to order food in this manner? Do you always order one meal per person regardless of portion size or do you share? Just curious what others do…
Whoa, whoa, whoa, let’s break this down, shall we? There are some key words that alert me to what kind of place this woman was eating. “Popular restaurant” and “another location” is telling me they were eating at Applebees, Olive Garden or the like. I am all for saving money and not being wasteful. How else would you explain my need to finish off any leftover wine that a customer may leave at a table? I hate waste. However, this woman seems to have taken it to an extreme. It’s walking the fine line between “frugal coupon cutting mom” and “cheap ass bitch.” Lemme get this straight. She orders one entree and one side for her, her husband and her three kids to share? She says in the comments section that her husband wasn’t that hungry and the soup that came with her entree was enough for him. Unless this is a family of black throated sparrows, it seems like not enough food. I can understand that three kids under the age of six may not want that much to eat, but if she is giving half of her food to them and her soup to her husband, is this woman even getting enough calories to survive on? Well, let’s be honest. Since a typical meal at the average chain restaurant is probably about 5,000 calories, she’s probably fine.
She says that her brother-in-law “seemed offended” at how they ordered. Offended is probably not the right word. I would venture to guess that the brother-in-law seemed” totally embarrassed and shocked that he was related by marriage to the cheapest woman in the world.” If he and his wife always order two entrees for themselves and one kids meals for each of their crotch droppings, I would say that’s what most people do. Sometimes families will order two kids meals for the three to share or two kids meals and a side, but I have never had a family of five order one side dish for thee kids and then just let them haggle over bites from the one entree at the table while the husband has a cup of free soup.
RLEllis wants to know if anyone else finds it offensive to order the way she does. I guess it all depends on how you treated your server, RLEllis. We are servers and it is our job is to serve you the food you request. No server worth his salt is going to openly complain to a table that ordered the way you did. You can bet your cheap ass socks though that he was talking about you in the kitchen. Yes, it sucks and no we won’t make any money at a table like yours, but we will smile and get through it. As long as the customer is friendly and polite, we can handle any situation. I would hope that you threw down a few extra bucks to make up for the fact that there were five people eating what one person would normally have. Someone in the comment section who had the screen name of boobshurt (I swear to god, I think my estrogen levels shot up a few points just by being on that freakin’ website) suggested you go to a “kids eat free” place. Yes, boobshurt, that’s a fine idea, but again, I hope that people who take their four or five kids to eat free can at least tip for the amount of service they received and not just the check total.
If you want to go read the post and all the comments I suggest you click here. Maybe you yourself would like to leave a comment. Warning, there are lots of entitled moms on that website, so be prepared for their wrath if you say something too negative. Good luck. And to you, RLEllis, please stay away from Queens and Manhattan. I do not want you in my section. Since I have already written a blog post about you and I don’t want your three dollars, I would get absolutely nothing out of it.
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Laura
Even if you go to a “kids eat free” place, you have to order one adult entree per free kids meal. Though If she ordered 2 entrees, got 2 free kids meal, and had everyone share with the third kid, that’d be a more reasonable amount of food to share. Or better yet, stay the fuck home.
Christie in Wesley Chapel
“Crotch droppings”… as a mother of 2 kids, 12 and 14, this made me laugh so hard I almost wet my pants. Love your posts BW. I’ve always been respectful to servers, tipped accordingly, and taught my kids to speak up and look at the server when ordering. It amazes me as to why that is not the norm!
melissa in houston
Yeah i went and read the original post and comments. She is just an air head horrible person. I feel bad for her entire family and whoever has to come in contact with her in life. She is so clueless. She makes a comment on how she doesn’t see it as being extra work for the server SMH. If she happens to find this site i would like to tell her to please stay home and stay out of the public. As for the BIL, i am sorry your brother married this crazy person. Please be there for him one day he will wake up iand decide he wants his balls back.
Allison
I waited on a family like this when I worked at my family’s Mexican restaurant. We had an entree with a taco, enchilada, mini burrito, tamale, and a huge side of rice and beans for $10.95. The mom ordered this, and 6 waters for her, her FOUR twat trophies, and her meat head husband. When I asked, “is that all??” She replies, “oh yeah, we’ll just eat a bunch of chips, they free, ain’t they?” I was thinking, freaking great, like I don’t have anything better to do than fill up your baskets of chips 27 times cause you’re too freaking cheap, or can’t afford to even be eating out in the first place.
euphoric_mania
Eating out is supposed to be a treat. It’s not just about the meal, but the feeling of being well-enough off to afford it and have a good time. It should be less stressful than cooking at home. This whole situation sounds 20x more stressful. If you couldn’t afford dinner out, then you should have politely declined. I get pride. Maybe you didn’t want to tell your family it wasn’t in your budget for the week. Fortunately enough you have 90 kids to make an excuse for you. “I can’t. Billy’s allergies are acting up. Tina had choir practice. Jimmy shit his pants. Dawn got in a fight. Brandon is pregnant again.” If you can’t afford it, stay home and make some hamburger helper.
sally
I certainly hope RLEllis’s BIL finds his way to this website because I have a message for him: STOP GOING OUT with this HORRIBLE woman!!! And tell her why! Tell her you are embarrassed and that it is beyond rude, tacky and insulting to be so cheap in a restaurant and that you won’t be a party to it. REFUSE to accompany her to any place other than a fast food drive thru. If more decent people actually stood up to losers like your SIL, maybe freaks like her would get the hint, learn to behave normally or stay home, and the restaurant world would be a better place. ☺
MrsMac
That is really tacky. I get not being a big eater. And I get not wanting to waste food. But one entrée and one side for a whole family?? When I take out my smaller nieces and nephews I will occasionally order one kids meal between the two, because they really do eat like birds. But my husband and I will order appetisers, he has a main, I usually have an entrée for my main unless I am really hungry, and I order dessert for myself (although hubby always steals half of it off my plate when I’m not looking). Having a taste of someone else’s dish, or stealing their chips when they aren’t looking is one thing, but dividing up one meal between a whole family is stupid.
Lauren
Good Lord. She should just order her food to go.
ShezAnEnigma
I Have had a family come into a restaurant that I worked at and the father ordered one meal for himself and his wife to share, and one kids meal for his 3 children to share. And our kids meals were not very big. The kids were age 4-8 at least. I thought ‘I know going out is a treat, but if you cant actually feed the kids, you might want to reconsider it.’ They were not lower incomed, they were decked out in expensive clothing. I was just curious as to why they ordered that way. But the lady in the article seems even more. But maybe it was her excuse to her brother in law as to why they only ordered one thing. They might have been out of money at the time, but were invited out and didnt want to say no. I mean, we dont know, we wern’t there. But – if it was because she is cheap, at least feed the kids, and you just sit back and say you are not hungry.
MrsMac
Yeah, I don’t really buy the not being able to say no to going out for dinner. If friends or family invite me out for dinner and I can’t afford it, I let them know money is tight this month and suggest them coming over to my house for dinner instead. If you aren’t too proud to order one entree for your whole family, you aren’t too proud to admit you can’t afford to eat out in the first place.
Robert
There was a steakhouse my parents liked to go to every once in a while when I was young. There was a McDonald’s across the street and at that time I would much rather a Filet-O-Fish than a steak (I’ve grown out of that!).
It wasn’t unusual for them to take me to McD’s, let me eat and then go across the street to the steakhouse where they would have meals and I would have nothing, happy reading a book.
You never know.
suburbanrockdoll
Sounds like she is making it seem like it is about the food waste and not the money. She is just cheap. The husband is either whipped or cheap as well because you know a man would order food….
If this was me, I would opt out of joining the family if I didn’t have the fund-age!
Sarah
The reason that she doesn’t go to a “kids eat free” place is because most of the time the fine print is kids eat free with the purchase of an adult entree. 1 adult meal = 1 kids meal, so she might have to actually let her husband eat.
Geoff Burkman
What a horrendous cheapskate! ‘Nuff said.
Karin Wolchko
Going out to eat to some people is an everyday occurrence. Most of which have restaurant etiquette down. But for many it is a “treat” to go out to eat. Some even consider it a luxury, because we all know cooking at home for a family is a lot less expensive. Now with that being said….When a “family” like the one described in the blog goes out & does that…It’s a real slap in the face for the server. ( who has to get drinks, with refills, bring extra dishes, silver ware & napkins and then bus the table and clean up the floor and the surrounding area). Hey and the what about the restaurant all those EXTRA dishes and silver has to be washed and put away, and if linen napkins are used ,..the restaurant pays for them. So the dish washer and the linen company has to be paid too. So don’t ever think it’s NO BIG DEAL. The restaurant or the server will never say anything to the customer, but in reality that particular family is doing no one any favors patronizing any restaurant. If you can not afford to eat out at a reasonably priced restaurant and order at the very least 2 adult meals and 1 for the 3 kids to share….you should save your pennies and go out when you can. If you feel you “don’t want to waste food”? Get it to go & do all that nonsense at your own table. OH and yes. It is Cheap, Tacky and very ignorant.
Mr. X
Reminds me of the party of 7 who ordered $85 worth of liquor and did not feed their 3 kids. I asked them several times if the kids needed anything and each time I was told “NO they are ok”
Lauren
as a server, I hate these kind of people. give the child food off your plate, they probably won’t eat any of it anyway. but to share an entree five ways is the cheapest thing I’ve heard of in ten years of serving. as one of six children, I see how expensive dinners out were for my parents and yes , my mother has a coupon for everything, but she would never deny any of us food and she not only tips on the original amount but she also finds herself a broom and butler when the kids make a big mess because she knows that $3 an hour is not enough to deal with what we deal with. it legitimately pains me to see people do things like this because it’s abuse to the server and it’s teaching her kids to be awful to future servers.
Malina
My restaurant has a $4 splitting fee 🙂 I use it rearly though – only on dushbags with attitude. If I like my customers, I’m not going to charge them, i just bring an extra plate.
Kristin D
When I was a server I didn’t mind splitting but this would have irritated me to no end. I often split an entree with my husband (but we usually order drinks, sometime an appetizer, add a soup or salad for the other person if it comes with 1, and generally dessert). Always tip as if it was 2 full meals. Her little process is tacky. Especially b/c she does not tip as if there were a full meal. Is it really that hard to just order 2 full meals for everyone to split? If her husband & 2 of her kids were not that hungry, maybe don’t go out? Of course they had water and she “cleans” up after her kids. Or go to one of the places that has the whole “kids eat free.”
Calindy
My grandmother tries to pull that crap…everyone splitting meals…using every coupon and discount she can get her hands on and loudly announcing that she wants to use them. No one can order a beverage other than water (she keeps powdered tea in her bag) No steak or seafood or other pricey items…and no rice “cause we can cook rice at home for 15cents!” Well, ya know what grams? We can cook any of this stuff at home for less than it would cost to eat here. The main part of eating out is the enjoyment of not having to prep/cook/serve/clean anything ourselves…and yes….those factors make the food items more expensive than at home. If spending money on restaurant food is such a financial burden…then lets just eat at home where we won’t be too embarrassed to even try eating those damn breadsticks.
Now, I have no problem with people splitting a meal if it’s at a place with notoriously large portions and/or the two diners aren’t very hungry/want the same thing/are dieting. But it should be those diners choice, not something implemented by another person at the table. And I have no problem with using coupons and/or discounts…they exist for a reason. But to remind the poor server five times about it, and keep bringing up how this or that should be free/cheaper…that’s just stingy and humiliating. Just politely ask to use coupon and/or discount when ordering.
Scargosun
Maybe she is trying to keep her kids and her husband thin/anorexic. That is BEYOND cheap. I mean, we are probably talking Olive Garden (soup thing).
Maegan
When my kids were younger I would do 1 meal for both kids.
I still ordered had an entree myself…as did my husband…and we frequently do appetizers.