Funny story from the other night:
A dad came into my cafe with his 3 year old daughter. He bought her a cookie and himself a coffee. They sit down, and I go back to my pre-closing cleaning. Three minutes later the dad walks up to the counter again, so I stop cleaning and walk over to greet him again.
As I’m in the middle of saying “hi” he cuts me off and says “Water.”
Not “Can I get a glass of water, please?” not “Where can I get water?” not even a confused “water?” like he’s not sure how to get water in this cafe. Just a single word demand.
I work in silicon valley, so I’m kind of used to techies talking to me like I’m Siri or Alexa, but it still always drives me crazy when they do this. Like, I don’t even care about the “please” anymore, I just want people to talk to me in complete sentences. So I get the guy a cup of water, and he sits back down.
As I’m about to go back to cleaning I hear his daughter go “Daddy, you did that WRONG. You have to say ’CAN I have a glass of water PLEASE’”
My jaw hit the ground. The dad suddenly became flustered and tried coming up with excuses “I-I said please…” “No you didn’t!” “Well she was busy…. I didn’t want to bother her…..” “You still got to be polite!”
When they were done eating the dad brought the dishes back to the counter and said “Thank you so much!” It’s amazing how fast someone’s manners can improve when a 3 year old calls them out.
Shout out to whoever is teaching that little girl manners, because you know it’s not her dad. I hope she never stops calling rude people out.
