Imagine working as a hostess at a busy restaurant where parents often bring their kids.

What would you do if a kid was wandering around getting into mischief when the parents weren’t paying close enough attention?

Would you ignore the situation, track down the parents, or pull the children to safety?

In this story, one hostess tries all of these approaches.

Let’s see how the story plays out.

Please watch your kids.

So, lately, I’ve discovered a new epidemic in the wake of the holiday crush: people don’t watch their damn kids–or even better, they expect me to do it.

This is nothing new, but during the holiday season, they just become completely stupid to the point that it’s overkill.

Here’s a couple of stories from the hostess view.

The first story starts with a frantic parent looking for a child.

**TALE 1:**So, it’s a couple of days after Christmas, and the restaurant is super busy, can’t walk anywhere without nearly tripping over a small child, or their equally oblivious parent not paying attention to the fact that no, the kitchen is not the bathroom.

So, I have a guy come up the stairs during a momentary lull in seating, and immediately point at me.

Frantic Parent: Have you seen a two-year-old in a blue shirt run past here?

Me:No, but I only just got back here, I’m not sure?

That’s not the only reason it would be hard for her to notice a child wandering around.

FP:How did you not see him?! It was less than a minute ago!

Maybe because I can’t even see over this podium because it’s directly at eye-level when I’m on the platform, it’s actually taller than me when I’m not, and your toddler is most definitely below that line of sight.?

Luckily, we had a manager right there, who helped him locate the missing child in question–who was two steps from running into the kitchen.

I’d like to say this event was an uncommon one, but it actually isn’t.

This is crazy!

People get so lost looking around that they don’t pay attention to what their kids are doing, and I’m surprised more kids don’t get kidnapped out of the area tbh.

(At one point during the summer, we had a kid wander in from a restaurant two blocks down during the height of the lunch rush, and we assumed his parents were inside the restaurant until the managers took him outside of the retail shop and found the area swarming with cops).

A second story involves a family.

Tale 2: This one happened a day or two after New Year’s, everyone enjoying their last days of vacation and swarming the restaurant.

Family comes in, three adults and two kids. We tell the parents that it’ll be about an hour and ask them to wait downstairs.

Classic response is “Oh, we’ll go right now, we just wanna look for a couple of minutes.” This translates to “We’re going to go to the bathroom, and then come back and be ticked off that only five minutes have passed and stare at you until you do something.”

Unfortunately for them, I’m a veteran of ignoring awkward guest stares.

Now, there’s a new problem.

So, the parents and third adult are all taking photos, while the kids swing their balloon swords at anything and everything, but mostly whoever walks up to the host stand.

It’s getting real old, real damn fast.

Then, the little girl drops her balloon into the fountain behind the host stand, and her dad fishes it out eventually.

Having discovered a new game, she drops it back in, only to climb on top of the ledge surrounding it and attempting to fish it out.

This sounds dangerous!

Yo, I’m not a lifeguard.

I flag down her dad and he retrieves his wayward daughter and her balloon, before going back to ignoring her.

Now, her brother joins in, and both of them are leaning over the ledge trying to touch the water and dangerously close to going in head first.

I actually have to break one of my own rules, which is to not physically touch any kids just in case their parents freak out, to grab this kid by the back of his jacket cause he’s over-balancing.

Babysitting isn’t part of the job description.

75% of the time when I’m at the host stand, my attention is focused primarily on the seating system, not what’s going on behind me, but a lull in seating and my doing a bit of clean-up work was the only thing that actually made me notice this kid about to drown himself.

Generally speaking, this area isn’t off-limits to guests, as long as they aren’t directly on the platform, and we let kids look around, or guests wait a few minutes, if they’re not being disruptive.

This is not the case.

They’re not listening to me when I ask them to wait downstairs, and I ask a manager to ask them, because if their kid tips over into the fountain, I’m not going down with that ship because I am not paid enough to watch after children, nor is it part of my job description.

I wonder what restaurant this is. It definitely sounds like it must be geared towards families, but it sounds like a really stressful place to work due to the parents not paying close enough attention to their kids.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

Stores are not babysitters.

This person knows how bad it can be to get burned as a child.

A sign like this might make a difference.

Here’s a story about a waiter.

A parent weighs in.

Parents really need to keep an eye on their children.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a customer who insists that their credit card works, and finds out that isn’t the case.