Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
I don’t know what’s wrong with these restaurants nowadays. Some of them have lost their minds. When you go to a restaurant, you should feel like you’ve been welcomed into someone’s home, or some world they’ve created. You should feel at home. The restaurant is there to take care of you. When I saw all of The Real Milk & Honey’s many, many rules for diners I was offended on behalf of people who would be willing to go there. That ain’t right. But far worse than that long list of rules is a single rule at a restaurant in rural Georgia called Toccoa Riverside Restaurant.
They printed it right on the menu: “Adult surcharge: For adults unable to parent $$$.” The world found out about this a few days ago after five families went there for dinner with their children. It was like nine adults and 11 kids. Each of the three families got hit with a $50 charge because, according to the restaurant, the kids were being “too loud” and were “running around outside.” The parents completely dispute this characterization of the children’s behavior. “The kids were sitting at one end of the table, and they were being so good,” one of the parents told the “Today” show. “I even commented halfway through the meal, ‘I can’t believe how well-behaved they are.’” [Author’s note: the families in this conflagration are white. Do whatever you want with that information.]
I don’t know what really happened here, but the restaurant’s rule is incredibly offensive. The central idea is that parents should be punished and fined for being “unable to parent” which, in this context, means being unable to force children to sit still and be quiet on command. In this mindset, parents are expected to restrain kids the same way dog…
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