Parents of 'well-behaved kids' get discount at Wash. restaurant
SEATTLE (AP) - To Laura King, her three children were acting normal while enjoying dinner at an Italian restaurant in their hometown in Washington state.
But staffers of the restaurant Sogno di Vino in Kingston were so impressed with her children's table manners during their Feb. 1 dinner that they thanked her kids and gave the family of five a bowl of ice cream.
It wasn't until King got home that that she noticed a $4 "well behaved kids" discount on her receipt to cover the dessert. A friend posted a picture of the receipt on the website Reddit, and the story took off.
"The server said staff didn't even know there were kids at the table," said King, whose children are 2, 3, and 8 years old.
King said it's been entertaining to see all the attention her story has gotten, and she plans to dine at Sogno di Vino again soon.
Sogno di Vino owner Rob Scott said servers have the discretion to offer a discount to customers, adding that this wasn't the first time well-behaved kids have been rewarded. What was different this time was that one of the staffers wrote it out in the receipt.
"It was just an act of kindness," Scott said.
Scott said the restaurant was packed the night Laura's family came in, which can be challenging to families with small children. But he said he was impressed with the way the family was interacting with each other and that even the 2-year-old on a high chair seemed to be having a good time.
Rowdy children are an issue all restaurant customers have encountered at one point or another, Scott said.
"You can tell when a (family) had a rough ride to the restaurant," Scott said. "There tends to be sometimes activities where children get out of the chair or stand on chairs or get loud, as they get loud, it upsets other patrons, and they paid for a baby sitter."
Scott said he's been asked if he would charge more to customers who have unruly children. That's not something he does, he said.
"Everybody in my generation was raised to behave in restaurants," he said. "That parenting skills have been forgotten in some cases."
King said she has worked in the restaurant industry before and knows that families aren't the easiest customers to serve. She said that at the restaurant, her kids apply the table etiquette used at her dining table.
But staffers of the restaurant Sogno di Vino in Kingston were so impressed with her children's table manners during their Feb. 1 dinner that they thanked her kids and gave the family of five a bowl of ice cream.
It wasn't until King got home that that she noticed a $4 "well behaved kids" discount on her receipt to cover the dessert. A friend posted a picture of the receipt on the website Reddit, and the story took off.
"The server said staff didn't even know there were kids at the table," said King, whose children are 2, 3, and 8 years old.
King said it's been entertaining to see all the attention her story has gotten, and she plans to dine at Sogno di Vino again soon.
Sogno di Vino owner Rob Scott said servers have the discretion to offer a discount to customers, adding that this wasn't the first time well-behaved kids have been rewarded. What was different this time was that one of the staffers wrote it out in the receipt.
"It was just an act of kindness," Scott said.
Scott said the restaurant was packed the night Laura's family came in, which can be challenging to families with small children. But he said he was impressed with the way the family was interacting with each other and that even the 2-year-old on a high chair seemed to be having a good time.
Rowdy children are an issue all restaurant customers have encountered at one point or another, Scott said.
"You can tell when a (family) had a rough ride to the restaurant," Scott said. "There tends to be sometimes activities where children get out of the chair or stand on chairs or get loud, as they get loud, it upsets other patrons, and they paid for a baby sitter."
Scott said he's been asked if he would charge more to customers who have unruly children. That's not something he does, he said.
"Everybody in my generation was raised to behave in restaurants," he said. "That parenting skills have been forgotten in some cases."
King said she has worked in the restaurant industry before and knows that families aren't the easiest customers to serve. She said that at the restaurant, her kids apply the table etiquette used at her dining table.
What I like about this story is not only did the kids get ice cream for behaving, but the parents were rewarded for teaching their children how to behave in public. Well done King family and Sogno di Vino.
I was once in a restaurant and near a table with the opposite family. Four kids from about 6 to 12 all of whom had received absolutely no social training based on their conduct and the lack of even an intent to control by the 'parents'. They completely trashed the booth in the process. As I was leaving and the harrassed waitstaff was cleaning up the mess they left behind, I felt compelled to leave a $10.00 tip and a "Hope the rest of your day is better", comment.Â
 @hewhoo Good for you! My husband and I did the same thing once when we watched two women with several small children totally trash a table at a local pizza restaurant. It's often not just the kids who have no social training; the apple never falls far from the tree.
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@hewhoo ---So nice to pay it forward, I am sure it really made the waitstaff's day. I wish the family were around to hear it. I just don't want to know what the family's house looks like.
I have seen such at the Denny's in Roseburg. They have some children eat breakfast for free campaign and the waitstaff don't always clean it up so well.
Just go over the bridge and turn right on Pine and eat at McMennimens, not so many kids there.
Positive Reinforcement works for children and adults. I love it. To those that do not want to breed, well thank you, we must all be better for it.
It is nice to be rewarded for good behavior and good deeds, instead of only getting punished for bad deeds. All of the credentials and medals and awards I have received for good behavior throughout my better days, are just pot medal and parchment paper, so I don't even know where they are anymore. They are certainly no source of pride, more so a source of humiliation, because I never got COLD CASH in return. And, on the slim occasion I did a bad, bad thing, I sure as hell had to fork over lots of my hard earned cash to avoid incarceration.
Sure would be nice if authority would give us some money for our lifetime of perpetual good deeds, instead of just extorting from us on the rare occasion that we screw up.
For example: the DMV should put a gold bar on my driver's license AND give me a kilo bar of real gold for driving over 30 years w/o so much as even a fender bender, speeding ticket, or even a parking ticket.
I know, I am a dreamer.
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@peace Hey Good job=0) My mother drove for 45 years with nothing at all on her record. I'll give ya a cookie you just might like it .hehehehe=))
@IAMHIGH ---Then your mother should get a diamond studded kilo bar of platinum, and I will put on my bib for a mary jane chocolate chip cookie with port wine.
@peace Hey!! can I have your cookie recipe it sounds soooooo good:)
So how about those of us who either don't have kids or don't bring them to the restaurant in the first place? Do we not get a discount for being well-behaved, or is that just reserved for breeders who act like they are supposed to act?Â
@Jerry Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Look out you might drown on all the tears your crying. No discount for you !!!!