The cafe’s Facebook page is littered with posts from mothers who say they felt unwelcome.
But owner Eileen Potter has defended her actions, saying the cafe “is not a family establishment”. Lidia Kettenis, 37, from Chingford, visited the cafe on Wednesday with her son Stefanos, three, and described her experience as “absolutely disgusting” .
According to Ms Kettenis, a full-time mother of three, Ms Potter ordered her son not to touch anything.OH MY GOD! CUE THE OUTRAGE!!!
Ms Kettenis said: “It’s not a bar or a club - it’s a tea shop, for goodness’ sake! I felt so uncomfortable.
“I have been to many coffee shops in my time and never been treated this badly. She told me children are not welcome in the shop.”Children whose mothers let them run riot while they gossip on their phones probably aren’t, no.
Good luck to ‘em!
Ms Potter said she had spoken to Stefanos in a reasonable way. “I asked him not to dismantle our letterbox or the salt and pepper on the glass table-top,” she said. “I asked him very nicely.”If only his mother did the same, and gave the sticky-fingered little urchin a clip round the ear when he disobeyed…
I'm not sure where Winchmore Hill is, but I now feel the urge to go there and experience a food outlet that isn't full of squealing anti-social brats and their thick, gabbling, hair-chewing mums.
ReplyDeleteFriend of mine runs a cafe/bar/restaurant, and she has exactly the same attitude to prams/pushchairs and small children running amok as this lady does, though she doesn't put a card in the window to that effect. Luckily her establishment is slightly off the main thoroughfare and up a steep street, so she doesn't get many prams and kids anyway. She says that customers with small children are bad for business - they take up more space than adult customers, spend less, and put the other customers off. All in all they aren't worth the bother. As she's been trading very profitably for over 25 years I think she knows what she's talking about.
ReplyDeleteI nearly collided with two children riding a bicycle and a scooter in Marks and Spencer's recently. When I complained I was virtually assaulted by their mother. They were all well dressed and appeared to be rather well-heeled. These are the new "gentlefolk" of England. Yummy mummies, yuppy daddies, spoilt brat, and each carrying a total belief that they are God in their own personal universe. Come, oh friendly refugees, and descend on my town. A sharp dose of nasty reality may help them, and the rest of us out of the trance we seem to be in. Damn it, everything I say turns into a 'fugee rant. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteBoth ends of the spectrum, ignorant self entitled chav muvvers or arrogant self entitled moneyed mummies. Both as bad as each other.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand those parents who expect everywhere to be child-friendly, some places are not. What has shocked me as a new parent is what bar and restaurant staff are expected to put up with from children.
ReplyDeleteMy 10 month old son 'Laughing Boy' is at the stage where he sits in high-chair in a pub or restaurant with us and can be fed bits of what we are eating. He hasn't quite made the connection yet between food in hand and food in mouth (that will come later) and he ocassionally drops food items to the floor, which we pick up.
Laughing Boy has horrific table manners at the moment and when we first took him into a foodie pub for a meal I was horrified to see the three foot circle of salad related debris around Laughing Boy's chair. Being the good parent that I try to be, when it came time to pay the bill I asked for a dustpan and brush and a bin bag so I could clean up after my child, which si something I think I should do.
What I was told gave me some insight into what waiting staff put up with from other people's children. I was told not to worry about the mess or cleaning it up as Laughing Boy has made considerably less mess than other children of his age have done. What struck me was that she treated my request for cleaning materials to clean up after MY child as is my responsibility as an unusual request.
It seems that a lot of parents have a sense of entitlement when they take them out and expect other people to do nothing or say nothing about their children's behaviour or any mess they make. I assumed that I should clean up after my child, but it seems that many others think quite differently to me and believe that their child has the right to make the most godawful mess which other people should be expected to clean up and make good. I don't want to be a parent like that.
I will continue to ask restaurant staff in child friendly places for a post dining dustpan and brush at least for as long as Laughing Boy has the table manners of a curious but clumsy bear.
"...but I now feel the urge to go there and experience a food outlet that isn't full of squealing anti-social brats and their thick, gabbling, hair-chewing mums."
ReplyDeleteIt's a brilliant advert for the place, isn't it?
"She says that customers with small children are bad for business - they take up more space than adult customers, spend less, and put the other customers off."
They certainly do me, unless I can see that the children are well behaved and supervised. A rarity, these days.
"I nearly collided with two children riding a bicycle and a scooter in Marks and Spencer's recently."
I have seen this in ASDA (parent with nose in mobile phone, totally unconcerned) but would never expect it in M&S!
"I assumed that I should clean up after my child, but it seems that many others think quite differently to me and believe that their child has the right to make the most godawful mess which other people should be expected to clean up and make good. I don't want to be a parent like that."
Bingo! But, sadly, there's not enough like you.