A Long, Old Story

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nullipar-tay
Thanks for the fun responses. I'll go ahead and tell the restaurant story, though as much as a wuss as it makes me, it still makes me uncomfortable to think about.

Around the same time as I was getting ready to leave the lifeguarding job, I was hitting severe burnout (as any CF person might). My boyfriend (now husband) decided to take me out to my favorite restaurant one night after a really long day. I loved PF Chang's, and we only had one in our area. The wait without reservations or call-ahead seating could be 2 hours at times. I was exhausted, sun-cooked, and had listened to and held vigilance over 100+ kids that day. (Camps used to bus them to our pool)

We called ahead, so our wait would only be 10 - 15 mins. When we got there, it was a huge freaking zoo. There was no real 'lobby' to wait in - people were lined up on either side of the entry walls. Opposite my boyfriend and I was a huge family. Mom was a trophy wife, sporting giant bling and manicure, Dad was a tall, tanned CEO-type. They had another three adults with them... but there were also four kyds.

The kydz were already hyper, being loud and almost tripping the waiters coming out of the kitchen nearby. This part I own, here and now: The last thing I wanted to do was deal with fucking kids. I'm sure it was written all over my face, and I was probably scowling. The Moo laughs and says, "Would you like one?" (About the kids!) And I shook my head, managing a tense smile. "Nooooo thanks."

We ended up waiting 30-40 minutes. Right when we were being seated, so was the family -- near us. The parunts get the great idea that the adults will sit at one table, and the kids will sit at their own... closer to us than to their parents. This alone wasn't an issue. Honestly, the kids were calmer, and once seated, weren't loud or problematic. I'm trying to ignore them.

At one point, after our drinks had come, I look over. The waiters have brought the four brats their drinks with little paper umbrellas on them. The kids seemed to be in the range of 4 - 10 years, and one of the older ones takes his umbrella, and starts sticking into the candle on their table!

I started to sweat. I tried to look away, but that instinct to avert disaster was winning out, to the point that I couldn't take it anymore. A second child had joined in the fun. They hadn't caught the trinkets on fire yet, but it was only a matter of time. My boyfriend is irritated by it, and concerned, so after watching me twitching in my seat, he leaves the table, discreetly moves over to the Dud, kneels down beside his chair, to warn him about the kids and the fire.

No big deal, right, though the adults give us both looks afterward. The Dud doesn't do squat at first, but appetizers are coming out, and he goes over to 'check' on them, taking the the umbrellas to give the kids 'more room' to eat. He shoots us a look.

Five minutes after this, once the appetizers at the kids' table are devoured, the oldest brat reaches over, and starts to stick his plastic-lacquered chopstick in the candle flame. The adults are having drinks at their table, totally ignoring the kids. I start to twitch again. Here's where I made the mistake. When our mutual waiter came by, I quietly warned him that he may want to blow out the candle once the food comes for the children.

I don't know what the waiter said to the Dud, but he threw his napkin down on the table, stormed over to ours, jerked a chair out, turned it around, and plopped down, and proceeded to make a scene, snarling at us and ripping us a new one. What was our problem, we should mind our own business, etc.

I continued to eat and totally ignored him, but my poor boyfriend was the one getting the brunt of it, and he was like a deer in headlights. We were both shaken up. The asshole gets out of the chair, tells us to just eat our dinner, slams the chair against the table, and storms back.

The waiter tried to play it off, but we did end up finishing and leaving immediately. We didn't go back for over five years. NEVER again have I interfered when a child is about to get hurt, but their parunts are supposedly "supervising" them. The asshole did take the chopsticks away from the kids on his way back to his table.

I am still really embarrassed about it. There are a million things we wished we had said, later, but we hadn't managed to say a fucking word at the time. So, yeah, never again.