Children’s restaurant etiquette can be a divisive topic. However, as this TikTok demonstrates, it’s a conversation that absolutely needs to be had. In a viral video with 550,400 views, a child can be seen dipping what appears to be a straw into the water pitcher at a Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse. He then licks the straw and then dips it back in. He also dunks his hand into the water and eats a piece of ice.
The clip is accompanied by the viral Jet2 Holiday commercial sound. Giving his own twist on the meme, TikToker Blake (@bthareason) adds in the video description, “Nothing beats lunch at Ruth’s Chris.”
Blake didn’t immediately respond to the Mary Sue’s request for comment via TikTok comment.
Darden Restaurants didn’t immediately respond to The Mary Sue’s request for comment via email.
Commenters blamed the parents
In the comments, users were outraged by the behavior. One noted that two adults at the booth seemingly didn’t notice anything. A second added, “He’s RIGHT by her head? The hell?”
“He’s not a small child either so idk how she pretends she don’t see him,” a third wrote. While a fourth said, “It always amazes me how a parent blatantly ignores their child.”
However, a fifth commenter had a different perspective, writing: “Y’all acting like she don’t notice her kid up there. She knows, she just doesn’t care.”
How to dine with children at restaurants
A server writing for Food and Wine created a guide for parents on how to dine with children respectfully, offering a number of tips that they should keep in mind.
These tips include ordering for your child if the server can’t understand them, not letting them use crayons or pen on the wall or table and refraining from telling them “the waiter will be mad at you” if they don’t eat all their vegetables.
However, the two most crucial tips were to not let your child run around the restaurant and to not expect servers to babysit them for you.
@bthareason Nothing beats lunch at @ruthschris ???♂️ #jet2holidays #finedining #funnyvideos #explorepage✨ ♬ Jet2 Advert – ✈️A7-BBH | MAN ??
“It’s astonishing how many parents are willing to ask a server to ‘keep an eye’ on their children when they step away for a moment,” the author noted. “We keep our eyes on coffee pots, the level of water in glasses, spotty silverware, and food orders. What we don’t keep watch over is a child.”
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