Hunger Games: The Next Generation

(I’m busing a cluster of booths next to a woman and her young toddler.)

Mother: *plays on her phone*

Toddler: *screams*

Mother: *starts playing with the paper placemat and crayons and stickers we gave to her baby*

Toddler: *screams*

Mother: *receives her order and, as she shovels it down her throat, goes back to her phone*

Toddler: *screams louder*

(This goes on for over 20 minutes and she does nothing to acknowledge the baby, but many guests are complaining to the manager.)

Manager: “Ma’am, is your baby all right?”

Mother: “He does that a lot. Just ignore him. He’ll shut up.”

(I nearly drop my bus tub in shock. My manager sees the look on my face and signals me to just go back to the kitchen/dish pit. He comes back to talk to me a few minutes later, after the baby’s stopped crying.)

Me: “Did you ask her to leave?”

Manager: “No, I gave the baby a plate of cheese fries. He was just hungry.

Me: “I hate people.”

Manager: “Next time, don’t look like you’re going to hit her and you can stay and watch the show.”

(The kicker? Other than the fact that she hadn’t even ordered for her child, my workplace offers a weekend deal where children under four eat for free!)