Restaurant employee calls out mom customer for blocking off half of the space in the establishment because their children can't behave or sit still: ‘She yelled at me for “being in their space," even though it doesn’t have any restriction or reservation’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Jul 26, 2025 7:00 AM EDT

A busy day at the restaurant for hospitality workers is great if they're trying to make some big bucks and let their time slip away from them. The downside, obviously, is never having a chance to sit down, relax, and take a breather before another rush comes through like a tornado.

On top of a rush of customers, they also have to worry about difficult customers who come off as if they want to make employees' lives miserable. You know them as Karens or Kevins, but I think no name holds the weight of an entitled customer the same way calling someone a—well—entitled customer does. They think they own the establishment, swear they know the manager (they don't), and will take it upon themselves to make the restaurant their personal living room. Forget about the rules, they're here!

This next story illustrates just how unhospitable an entitled customer can be, even when staff try to do their best in accommodating all customers equally. The first rule of the industry: Keep your expectations low to the ground—you'll learn soon enough that there's a beast in everyone. However, some beasts are larger than others…

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  • "The mom decides to block off the walkway to get into this secluded area of our restaurant and block it from other people coming in..."
    via Nathan Dumlao for Unsplash

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • "Am I the *****le for telling a customer that they can’t take half the restaurant for their kid"

    For some context, I work at a pizza restaurant (st. Louis style pizza) and there is an area where our wall is and there's half wall and a little walkway to get into
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  • this more secluded part of our restaurant usually bigger groups go back there cause there's more space to put tables together to have bigger groups (there's also a TV back there
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  • So this group comes in and it's a big family and they push some tables together, which is not a big deal, but then one of the children
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  • start screaming their head off and running around so the mom decides to block off the walkway to get into this secluded area of
    via AdAmbitious7227
  • our restaurant and block it from other people coming in (there were still space for other people to sit in that area) making it
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  • where their family were the only people back there even though everywhere else in the restaurant was pretty full and there were
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  • people still needing to sit so her children started running in the back area and are making a lot of noise to where other people are getting sort of annoyed so I
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  • walked back there and I move the chairs out of the way so then people can sit back there and then she yelled at me for "being
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  • in their space" even though it doesn't have any restriction on reservation or anything like that so she also said to me that that
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  • was an area for her kids that she needed because she didn't want them running around everywhere and then I told her well. If you
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  • don't want your kids running around then maybe you shouldn't take them to a restaurant and let them run around and then she told me to get my manager and
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  • my manager pretty much said the same thing and said that she couldn't do that and she said to us that we were "idiot lowlifes at
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  • a low paying job" and we just told her to leave and she took all of her pizza and pretty much screamed at us that we were terrible. So I am asking was that an a hole move or no?
    via AdAmbitious7227
  • Cheezburger Image 10533848320
    via Euan Cameron for Unsplash

    The image does not depict the actual subjects of the story. Subjects are models.

  • dontk Imysoul NTA. Thank you for stopping those a hats. You're a hero.
    via dontk**lmysoul
  • NYCStoryteller NTA. If you need to eat somewhere that your children can run around, please go to the McDonald's with a playplace, ma'am.
    via NYCStoryteller
  • BakerB921 Parents that don't keep their kids under control in restaurants need to be escorted out the door. Just wait until the kid trips a server and gets hurt-there will be a lawsuit. Patrons need to understand that they don't run the place. The least they could have done is ask about closing off the space, and listened when you told them you were too busy to allow it. You did good!
    via BakerB921
  • Inevitable_Speed_710 Oh. My apologies ma'am. I didn't know you wanted to reserve the entire room. Hold on one second, I'll go get my manager as he handles the party bookings which start at $400 for 2 hours.
    via Inevitable_Speed_710
  • FaeWhimsyGlow NTA. She doesn't get to claim an entire section of a public restaurant just because her kids can't sit still.
    via FaeWhimsyGlow
  • macontac NTA. Unless she reserved the room she can't do that. And if she wants to let her kids run around screaming while eating pizza, then she should have ordered to go and taken them to a park
    via macontac
  • Southern-Tourist599 NTA! Glad you told her to leave. She had no right to do that or speak to you as she did. Good job! I hope she paid before leaving!
    via Southern-Tourist599

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customer service karens entitlement karen put in her place karen-customer customers karen-customers reddit karen reddit story entitled customers karens in the wild entitled reddit thread r-entitled Reddit karen story karen entitled people
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