Restaurant High Chair = Fire Hazard? (family, move, child)
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While we use this exclusively at home, that would be difficult to bring to a restaurant in addition to everything else that we have to cart around with 3 little ones.
It seems to be the norm these days. All restaurants need to follow some safety standards before they can get their license approved/renewed. Unlike the olden days where people are a little bit less conscious about hire hazards, these days, the laws require us to adhere to certain rules (for our own safety).
Here where I live, there are specific strategic locations where a high chair can be placed. It has to be away from the direct walkway which leads to the fire exit door and it cannot be placed by the booth (keeping in mind the child's safety). Is it a pain for the parents? Yes. But its a safety standard which is there for the safety of the kids. You dont want someone to knock off the high chair with your baby strapped when heading for the fire exit right? Not when you have 3 kids, not when you have 2 or one.
Unless its spontaneous, we usually make reservations before heading and specifically tell them we will be needing a high chair. I am yet to come across a restaurant which didnt provide a high chair when I called ahead.
It seems to be the norm these days. All restaurants need to follow some safety standards before they can get their license approved/renewed. Unlike the olden days where people are a little bit less conscious about hire hazards, these days, the laws require us to adhere to certain rules (for our own safety).
Here where I live, there are specific strategic locations where a high chair can be placed. It has to be away from the direct walkway which leads to the fire exit door and it cannot be placed by the booth (keeping in mind the child's safety). Is it a pain for the parents? Yes. But its a safety standard which is there for the safety of the kids. You dont want someone to knock off the high chair with your baby strapped when heading for the fire exit right? Not when you have 3 kids, not when you have 2 or one.
Unless its spontaneous, we usually make reservations before heading and specifically tell them we will be needing a high chair. I am yet to come across a restaurant which didnt provide a high chair when I called ahead.
This is exactly the point of my original post. I'm not implying we shouldn't have fire safety regulations which everyone keeps attacking me for. I'm saying, in this scenario, it was a single booth, 20+ feet away from any sort of other table, door, walkway, or exit. A blanket rule of no highchairs at a booth is stupid, some level of common sense needed to be applied in this particular situation.
I've come to the conclusion fire departments are lazy! (They don't ever want to work - put out any fires, so go to extremes to be sure they never happen! [Or perhaps they do care and don't want to see anymore people hurt from fires?])
Anyway they take into account EVERY single situation you can imagine. That would include blind people exiting a building during a fire (might run into that high chair!). They now even want lighted EXIT signs at floor level! (That is so people crawling on the floor in a smoke filled hallway will be able to see where the exit is.)
A LOT of these excessive regulations are getting to be ridiculous. Cities and businesses can't afford to meet all these federal and state [unfunded] requirements. It is about time everyone stand up and say ENOUGH! WE CAN'T AFFORD ANY MORE REGULATIONS!
Actually, I've never understood why they don't have exit signs/lights at ground level because if the building is smokey, you will be crawling....
As for the high chair, a 2 year old can sit in a booth just fine...it was actually easier having them in the booth vs a high chair anyway...they were certainly less antsy that way. Not only do those chairs at the end of a booth block an egress, they are not ADA compliant so if someone in a wheelchair needed to get through you would have to take your child out, move the chair, etc. Just easier to skip the high chair at that stage.
This is exactly the point of my original post. I'm not implying we shouldn't have fire safety regulations which everyone keeps attacking me for. I'm saying, in this scenario, it was a single booth, 20+ feet away from any sort of other table, door, walkway, or exit. A blanket rule of no highchairs at a booth is stupid, some level of common sense needed to be applied in this particular situation.
Like I said in an earlier post, its also for the safety of the child. Especially if the staff thought you were going to be using both a sling and a high chair, I can see why they wouldn't want you sitting at a booth.
Did the restaurant only have booths? Was there no option to sit at a table where a high chair would be perfectly fine?
It just seems like you are complaining to complain when the restaurant most likely gave you other options and wasn't forcing you to leave the restaurant. I hope you didn't give the poor host too hard of a time as she was just following the rules her boss (or corporate depending on the restaurant) requires her to.
Like I said in an earlier post, its also for the safety of the child. Especially if the staff thought you were going to be using both a sling and a high chair, I can see why they wouldn't want you sitting at a booth.
They offered me a sling and refused me the high chair, what's the difference, one is just as much as an obstacle as the other. Blind following of some rule that didn't apply for the situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundaydrive00
Did the restaurant only have booths? Was there no option to sit at a table where a high chair would be perfectly fine?
We ended up sitting at a table, with a highchair and a sling in the middle of the restaurant, which is way more of a hinderance than the booth we were refused that was 20+ feet away from everything all by itself. Again, no common sense applied here.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sundaydrive00
It just seems like you are complaining to complain when the restaurant most likely gave you other options and wasn't forcing you to leave the restaurant. I hope you didn't give the poor host too hard of a time as she was just following the rules her boss (or corporate depending on the restaurant) requires her to.
They did? Does it sound like that were trying really hard or was the 15 yr girl blindly saying "high chairs aren't allowed at booths" because the manager told her that and applied little to any problem solving ability to offer an alternative solution. I'll give you a hint, that's exactly what happened. We ended up staying at regular table causing much more of an issue because of a stupid rule that made no logical sense in this very specific situation.
We ended up staying at regular table causing much more of an issue because of a stupid rule that made no logical sense in this very specific situation.
And I'm sure if you sat at a booth and someone tripped from having your high chair AND sling in their way or if something would have fallen on to your child, then you would have been suing the restaurant. Like I said, its a liability issue.
Its not a stupid rule, it makes perfect logical sense. Its a safety issue. I get that you felt inconvenienced by the fact that you couldn't sit in a booth and had to deal with the horrors of sitting at a regular table, but that doesn't make the hostess a "blithering idiot" for following the rules of the restaurant, a rule that just about every restaurant has.
Cause seriously, you thought it would just be perfectly okay to stick both a high chair AND a sling out in the restaurant walkway. That booth was not 20+ feet away from anything else in the restaurant. That is a lot of wasted space and there is no way that any restaurant that actually wanted to make a profit would allow that much wasted space. With a table, the sling and the high chair take the place of a chair, so it doesn't create any more of a traffic problem then "Fat Uncle George" would sitting at the same table.
And I'm sure if you sat at a booth and someone tripped from having your high chair AND sling in their way or if something would have fallen on to your child, then you would have been suing the restaurant. Like I said, its a liability issue.
Its not a stupid rule, it makes perfect logical sense. Its a safety issue. I get that you felt inconvenienced by the fact that you couldn't sit in a booth and had to deal with the horrors of sitting at a regular table, but that doesn't make the hostess a "blithering idiot" for following the rules of the restaurant, a rule that just about every restaurant has.
Cause seriously, you thought it would just be perfectly okay to stick both a high chair AND a sling out in the restaurant walkway. That booth was not 20+ feet away from anything else in the restaurant. That is a lot of wasted space and there is no way that any restaurant that actually wanted to make a profit would allow that much wasted space. With a table, the sling and the high chair take the place of a chair, so it doesn't create any more of a traffic problem then "Fat Uncle George" would sitting at the same table.
Sorry, if I knew you were there, I would have just discussed this with you in person...
I'm not argung the relevance of the rule, just the applicable nature of it in this case, and contridictory solution approved and used.
Sorry, if I knew you were there, I would have just discussed this with you in person...
I'm not argung the relevance of the rule, just the applicable nature of it in this case, and contridictory solution approved and used.
Sorry I've eaten/worked in restaurants before and know that booths aren't spaced 20+ feet away from anything else.
How was it a contradictory solution? High chairs are not allowed at booths, so they put you at a table where high chairs are allowed. At a table there is normally a chair where the high chair goes, so you are just replacing one seat for another. Tables don't usually have the main walk way around all four sides, so there wouldn't be a traffic flow problem like there would be when you stick something at the end of a booth.
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