The following is a transcript of Todd’s morning commentary – heard daily on hundreds of radio stations around the nation. Click here to subscribe to Todd’s daily podcast.
From Royersford, Pennsylvania comes word of a big problem at Chick-fil-A – the official chicken of our Lord.
Seems that teenage patrons have been acting like the devil.
The problems started when parents began dropping off their kids at Chick-fil-A on weekends. In effect – becoming an unpaid babysitter.
Ever since, rowdy minors have been disrespecting employees and vandalizing the restaurant. Among the issues:
- Volume. They are loud, and their conversation often contains a lot of explicit language. We are a family friendly restaurant where this is not tolerated.
- Mistreatment of property. Food and trash are often thrown around and left on the tables, chairs, and on the floor. Tables and restrooms are vandalized. Decorations are stolen.
- Disrespect of employees. Employees are laughed at, made fun of and treated rudely. Employees are cursed at and ignored when they ask the children and teens to either change their behavior or leave.
- Unsafe behaviors also occur walking through the parking lot and drive thru lanes.
Finally, the local franchise owner said enough!
“As you can imagine, this is not a pleasant experience. We want to provide a comfortable and safe environment for our guests and our staff, and also to protect our building. Therefore, we cannot allow this to continue. As a result, to dine in our restaurant, anyone under the age of 16 is required to be accompanied by an adult. If not accompanied by an adult, they may come in to purchase food, but must take it to go,” they wrote.
Kids can still order food – but they have to eat their waffle fries someplace else.
Chick-fil-A says they are a family-friendly restaurant and they want to ensure that all of their diners are comfortable and safe.
They went out of their way to assure parents they were not to blame.
“Parents, we are not blaming you. Children and teens are learning to navigate the world free from supervision and often push the boundaries. We simply can’t let them push those boundaries anymore at our restaurant. We encourage you to talk to your children and ask about behaviors they have seen and perhaps participated in,” Chick-fil-A said.
But that’s exactly who’s to blame. Parents need to start teaching their kids how to behave in public. Chick-fil-A is not your babysitter.
This is why so many shopping malls have had to shut down. Moms and dads are unleashing their hellions on all of us good and decent people. And it’s not right.
The good news is that this sort of behavior is nothing that a good switch or belt will remedy.