Monday, January 20, 2014

When is it appropriate to ask someone for their seat?

Tonight, we were invited out by some good friends for dinner at Chick Fil A in Utah County. I have been to Chick Fil A multiple times in the Salt Lake Valley and it is generally fairly busy during dinner time, but there are always seats available. Tonight in AF, the place was out of control. If they weren't way over capacity I would be very surprised. There was a constant line of people waiting to place their orders, and when you got your order, there was standing room only.

We happened to get there at the perfect moment as a family was leaving, the booth had just enough for our little family of 5, and our friends along with their two little munchkins. The 4 of us adults were sitting there gabbing, like adults do from time to time, while the kids played on the playground with the other 30 kids. As many kids do when they go out to eat at a place like this, they would play for a minute, come back for a bite and a drink, and go back to playing. No harm right? Pretty normal?

In my peripheral, I see an older lady, about my parents' age with a fur coat on, she looked as though someone owed her something. Behind her were two of what seemed to be daughters, her husband, and a couple kids. The older lady reaches down to grab a chair that was sitting vacant for the moment, I looked up at her as "are these seats taken?" come demanding out of her mouth. "Yes, those are our kids' chairs". For the next 15 minutes, they hovered right next to our table, periodically muttering statements like "I guess we could just take our food and go".

They were standing there, waiting for us to gather our things and go so they would have a seat. It's not my fault that the place was packed. I got the memo to get there before 6, I guess she didn't. As


As I write this, it is coming out like I am a huge jerk for not allowing them to have our seats. Comments??

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