A café owner has had enough of screaming children throwing tantrums in her establishment. Kim Christofi vowed that she will discipline unruly kids herself if their parents won't do it.
Christofi, the owner of the South Kiosk at Martello Park in Suffolk, England, said that they will give parents "five lenient minutes" to ask their child to stop screaming. If that doesn't happen, the café's staff will step in and tell off the child themselves.
"If that means you too having a tantrum about our having to speak to your child and hurling threats about not returning -- that's really okay with us. We have a duty of care to the rest of our customers," the café's Facebook post added, as quoted by Mirror Online.
Customers Outraged
Plenty of parents are not happy with Christofi's decision. One mom said she has no right to judge other people's parenting style, while one parent called the café owner a "hideously insensitive and condescending" person, Mirror Online further reported. Another local mother, who has an autistic daughter, made sure that she will not visit South Kiosk again.
The seafront outdoor café sells drinks, homemade cakes, fruit smoothies, and ice cream, among others. Families commonly visit the establishment because of its location near Martello Park, which houses a children's play area, BBC wrote.
South Kiosk has a five-star rating fell to two stars after Christofi's post on Sunday, July 17. The post on the social media site has been deleted, though Christofi recently "restarted" the page. The original post was shared more than 500 times and was commented on 600 times.
Special Needs Kids
Some parents said that the café is insensitive to children with developmental disabilities like autism. One mother said having a tantrum is part of a special needs child's development.
Autistic children often have meltdowns, which makes them unable to calm down and control themselves because they are too overwhelmed or too upset, Care.com wrote. Aggressive and self-injurious behaviors are also common due to sensory overload or frustration of their inability to communicate their needs successfully.
Christofi said her post is specifically for unruly and destructive children. Usually, the café doesn't ask families with rowdy kids to leave and waits for the parents to discipline their child.
But when that doesn't happen, the café offers drinks and coloring books to the child until he/she calms down. Other people have supported Christofi's move, saying that it isn't unreasonable for someone to intervene when parents are chatting away and ignoring their unruly child.
