My Kid Is A Tough Cookie

(We are grabbing lunch while we are out, and my four-year-old daughter asks for “sandwich and a cookie,” which is what she calls the kids pack from a large sub chain. We get her sub done, and we are at the register at the end of the counter.)

Employee: “And which cookie do you want today?”

Daughter: “Raspberry cheesecake!”

(The employee looks directly at me, shrugs, does not get the cookie. Thinking she didn’t hear her, I repeat it:)

Me: “Raspberry cheesecake, please.”

Employee: “Is this for you?”

Me: “No, it’s for her.”

Employee: “This isn’t chocolate.”

Me: *confused* “Yeah… I know.”

Employee: “It’s not really a children’s cookie.”

Me: “She likes that one.”

Employee: “Are you sure?”

Me: “Yes.”

Employee: “Sometimes people get that one confused with the M&Ms cookie.”

Me: “Yeah, we’re not.”

(There’s another awkward silence where she is not getting the cookie.)

Me: “Can we have the cookie?”

Employee: *takes a deep breath and shakes her head while getting the cookie*

Me: “Thank you.”

(When we sat down to eat my daughter got the cookie out, then asked me many questions about whether it was okay to eat the cookie. The lady didn’t want her to have it, so was there something wrong with it? I ended up emailing a complaint about the situation and got a phone call from the franchisee apologising. When he asked the employee about it, she specified to him which cookies were okay for children and which ones weren’t — turns out white chocolate and macadamia are also on the not-for-children list in her mind — and he emailed me a voucher for a free kids pack.)