August 6th, 2013
03:45 PM ET
Don't mess with a military mom. A Lake Stevens, Washington, cafe owner learned that lesson the hard way this week after posting a photograph of the aftermath of a family's visit to the Rainy Days Caffé. According to CNN affiliate KCPQ, Rainy MacDuff asked two military wives and their children to leave her restaurant when one of the children had a screaming fit, then photographed the scone crumbs the group had left under a table. Rainy MacDuff's Facebook post captioned, "I’d like to take this time to thank our customers with small children who don’t make messes,” was intended to draw sympathy to restaurant staff forced to clean up after their young patrons. Instead, it backfired, going viral and eliciting comments threatening boycotts of the business and bodily harm to MacDuff after one of the mothers, Kellea Poore, shared the post with friends and called for an apology.
But MacDuff, a military wife, herself, found plenty of sympathy from restaurant patrons across the country, who agreed that the mothers should have kept their kids' detritus and decibels in check - or at least left a hefty tip. Commenters on the cafe's Facebook page said:
MacDuff apologized for the post writing, "It was not right to do that and I am deeply sorry for any embarrassment it might have caused anyone." She also sweetened the deal by offering to donate the price of a scone for every comment she received within a particular hour, and has raised $220 for a back-to-school fund for the Lake Stevens Family Center. MacDuff also noted that the moms in question were welcome back - but only if leave their kids at home. Previously: |
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"Hello business sustaining, money paying patron. Your children (also considered to be patrons) are making noise. This is offensive. Please cut your meal short, and take your brats with you. Oh, and will you please pick up the mess? Otherwise we'll have to take pictures of your mess and post them on Facebook, and disrespect you for what you are, a failure at life and a bad parent. Oh, did I mention for you to clean up this mess?".
Crumbs on the floor should definitely be the employees' cleanup work, since they have brooms, etc., for that purpose, and presumably they do not expect their customers to enter their restaurant carrying those types of cleaning instruments. In addition, in this case, the family was asked to leave. When you are asked to leave somewhere, are you supposed to delay your exit with extraneous actions (such as cleanup)? I don't think so, I'm betting that kind of delay would cause someone to threaten to call the police! When you ask someone to leave, it is ridiculous to expect them to then hang around and clean up. Seriously.
I will have to make a neutral stance on this. Yes the mother should have tried to keep the children quiet, but the business owner shouldnt have made such a big deal with the mess on the ground. When you are at a resturant, and especially with kids, you will have crumbs on the floor. But is it really that big of deal when you own a vaccum or broom?
As a restaurant worker let me tell you we all despise a family that takes its loud and messy children out in public. We do teams all the time and we kick out the ones where parents don't monitor their children. Restaurants are not playgrounds. They are there for families to get out of their houses and enjoy pleasant atmosphere, food, and company. If you are disrupting someone else's family or even the way a business runs itself by imposing your self proclaimed rights as more important than anyone elses, you dont deserve to be in public. We WILL shun you, and you will become famous for being moronic, not for changing the world.
and we laugh when the ACLU shuts your restuarant down.
You're not condoning kids' poor behavior are you? (even though I agree kids can't be perfect) and I also hope that you are not condoning irresponsible parents are you?,besides,it's rude of parents to act irresponsibly.
I'm a mom. When I go out to eat with my kids, I expect them to be on their best behavior. I clean up their messes (if they make any.) It's called parenting. Although often there are parents of kids with conditions such as autism where this is an exception – however they should clean up excessive messes. There are some people out there – with AND without kids – that feel the rules don't apply to them. People need to stop acting like jerks, parent their kids, and keep their opinions to themselves unless it's appropriate.