Woman gets free bottle of wine after baby ruins fancy meal – and calls for policy change

When you go out for a posh meal with your family, the last thing you want is for anything to ruin it – that’s why one woman was fuming when her party were seated next to noisy children

If you go out with your family for a fancy meal and it’s disrupted, you probably wouldn’t be very impressed – especially if you’d paid a significant amount of money for the privilege. That’s what happened to one woman and her family after a family with several rowdy children were seated next to her.

She took to Mumsnet to express her anger about the behaviour of the kids that were at the next table, saying they were screaming and bashing their cutlery against the table. As a result, she put in a complaint and was given a free bottle of wine – but she wanted more.

Get the news you want straight to your inbox. Sign up for a Mirror newsletter here

She wrote: “Four of us booked a table in an expensive restaurant last night for 7.30pm.

“About 10 minutes after we’d sat down a couple came in pushing a buggy and with two other children in tow. They were seated at the table beside us.”

The Mumsnetter then went on to explain what antics the children were getting up to, writing: “One child kept bashing his spoon off the table, another kept crawling along the wide windowsill so that he was right behind my head, and the baby was kept amused by the father playing peek a boo while she screamed excitedly. This went on and on.

“We asked to be moved to another table. There were none available. Then the baby started crying loudly and the toddler got tired and cranky and joined the wailing.

“We left without dessert and complained on the way out. They knocked the price of a bottle of wine off our bill.

“Am I being unreasonable to think expensive restaurants, charging a fortune, should have a policy for dealing with situations like this? We paid a lot of money for a meal we couldn’t enjoy.”

People weren’t convinced the woman should’ve complained in the comments, as many thought she was making a mountain out of a molehill.

One wrote: “Sounds annoying but not the end of the world, just bad luck. You had a free bottle of wine. The family tried to keep their kids entertained, and I doubt they will take them out late again for a while.”

Another sympathised a bit more, writing: “A lot of nice restaurants don’t allow children at dinner seating times and I think that’s ok. They’ll allow ‘well-behaved children’ at lunch and I think this is a good policy as it would put me off taking a toddler or baby but now my kids are old enough to sit still for longer I could take them, so that’s fair enough.

“I’m sorry your meal was ruined. I would feel the same if I’d gone out with my husband on our own as it’s such a rare occasion.”

Others defended the kids, with one commenting: “So parents shouldn’t be entitled to a meal out? Babies cry and toddlers can make noise. You’re in a public restaurant.”

Someone pointed out that people are never happy, writing: “If these children had been sat silently at the table staring at screens people probably would have been complaining about that too. For some reason, we have a widespread assumption in the UK that children’s and adults’ spheres shouldn’t mix very much.”

Another mum pointed out that the opposite had happened to her and her family. She commented: “Sounds annoying but on the flip side, we booked a table for 5pm in a family-friendly restaurant that had a children’s menu too. We were literally surrounded by three Hen parties. Noisy, squealing women covered in plastic d****.

“My son literally cried from the noise and the staff wouldn’t seat us elsewhere. We tried to find another place to eat nearby but everywhere was fully booked. And we were far from home on a day out. We shrugged it off as one s**** meal. You should too.”

What would you do in this situation? Let us know in the comments.