Adult-Only Starbucks?
Today I had the opportunity to ESCAPE! (Yay for Chewydad!) I headed to Starbucks and ordered my favorite drink–venti, skinny, two-Splenda latte. I snuggled into a cozy chair in the corner and read. I had brought my iPod in, but I ended up enjoying the music they had playing in the store. I was so relaxed, reading my book, sipping my latte, listening to the music with the hum of conversation in the background. And then they walked in.
A young couple with a boy around the age of two and a girl who appeared to be about six. The woman went to the counter and stood in the long line for what seemed like forever and ordered a drink. The man stood in the space in front of my chair and proceeded to flip the girl upside and tickle her. She screamed! And then after he put her down, the two kids began climbing up and down off of barstools, ramming their heads into the man’s leg, yelling to each other, runing in circles, and generally making me dizzy.
I darned near picked up my stuff and headed home. I mean, if I wanted total chaos, I could read my book at home with three people trying to talk to me, a certain five-year-old girl screaming at her brothers and tattling, and the tv running, along with the sound of the Wii in the background.
And for a change in my usual “pro-kid” way of thinking, I decided that someone needs to have a restaurant or coffee shop in this town with a no kids area. I mean, when I want to take my kids with me, I’m all for kid-friendly. But sheesh, sometimes I just want a BREAK!
After what seemed like hours but was probably only twenty minutes, the noisy family left, and everyone in Starbucks relaxed. By then I had to go to the bathroom, so I just packed up and headed home. Where I am now, listening to the sound of two tvs, two boys annoying their sister who is screaming at them, and water running in the kitchen.
*This post was written last Sunday, but not posted until today. So I’m not literally, now, listening to tvs, etc. And I didn’t just now enjoy a Starbucks latte. Now I’m hitting “post” really quick before I take a kid to the doctor, and after I straightened the kitchen, wiped down the potty, sucked up a few cat hairballs with the vacuum, and threw a load of clothes into the wash.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:46 am
had the children not been loud and behaved themselves by not climbing all over everything would you have been bothered or even noticed them?
It’s sad, really. I totally understand your point and have been there myself, many times. What popped out at me as I read this was not that I understand and agree, but the true underlying problem as I “see” it: in general, parents are not teaching their children to behave properly in these situations. It seems like maybe there was a lack of discipline/instruction going on with these parents. If they were OK with the children behaving this way then they should have gone to McD’s or some place like that.
I posted pics of our library outing from earlier this week, we ended the outing with a trip to Starbucks, we were the only ones there: Hubby, me, the two oldest (12 & 10), the two youngest (3 & 15m). I let the baby get down a do a bit of wondering near me when he finished his muffin and juice. As soon as someone else came in and/or if he started to get loud I reigned him in to my lap again. I don’t let my children act that way when we are out, at some one else’s home, or in our home - that kind of behavior is for outside on a jungle gym.
February 29th, 2008 at 1:45 pm
Smocklady, You’re right. Actually, the way the kids were acting had a LOT more to do with the adults they were with. The man seemed to be almost…trying to show off for the patrons. Have you ever been around a parent like that? Where they talk too loudly to their kids, and you wonder if they are talking TO them or AT them? It was almost like he was trying to show off what a great, fun dad he was by being rowdy with them. i was clearly not impressed.
So yeah, it was definitely more of a parenting issue than a general kids-in-Starbucks issue. But in the moment, I was really wishing for a “no kids allowed” sign! LOL!
March 1st, 2008 at 11:25 am
I agree — it was the parents’ problem and not the kids. But I also agree that, since too many parents don’t teach their children how to behave, I have sometimes longed for adults-only coffee shops as well.
Mr. Overly Indulgent Fun Guy Dad may think his child’s antics are really cute, but he needs to get a clue that the rest of us don’t. And this is from someone who generally thinks all 2 year olds are pretty much wonderful, and that the very idea of “Terrible Twos” is a horrible smear campaign against our society’s best people.
Some years back, I ventured with the stair-step brigade into a local coffee/tea shop to buy a cute little teapot for my sister-in-law. Youngest Child was, at the time, an INTENSE TODDLER, and my attempts to decide on the perfect teapot were severely hampered by all the effort it took for me to make sure INTENSE TODDLER was not disruptive. Finally I selected my purchase and headed for the counter, questioning all the while the wisdom of bringing INTENSE TODDLER out in public before he turned…oh, 12 years old.
Now, in my defense, I have to say that most of my anxiety was over what I was afraid he might do, rather than over his actual behavior. I kept him from touching anything (and that wasn’t easy) and I kept him from attempting to make a run for freedom — and I managed to do all this without arousing loud protests. But the effort it took was exhausting for me, even though it seemed to energize him.
We were the only ones in the shop at the time, besides the owner, who had been observing us the entire time. So she had noticed what had seemed, to me, like an extended wrestling match. If I were her, I would have been tempted to suggest that maybe my child would do best kept at home, in a padded cell, along with his mother who was obviously a lunatic for thinking that toddlers should be brought into places that sold fragile china.
Instead, the shop owner praised the entire stair-step brigade for their exemplary behavior. She insisted on serving us free goodies. When my older children seemed bewildered as to why she was gushing about their amazing manners, etc. (afterwards they said to me, “But we didn’t DO ANYTHING. We were just being normal!”) she began regaling us with horror stories of children who broke her glass table tops, climbed up on her shelves, broke dishes, threw things, ran around, screamed, knocked things over, etc. — all while the parents stood by and did nothing.
It’s parents like that who give kids a bad name.