Katie Leach was glad to get out of the house and go to Texas Roadhouse for dinner with her family. The popular chain of restaurants is known for having a fun atmosphere that families and other groups can enjoy. But Leach was shocked when other people at the restaurant came to her table and put a note on the table saying that Leach’s 10-month-old son had “ruined” their dinner by crying, screaming, and making a lot of noise.
Mom said that her son liked to yell, which she said was his “new thing.” At 10 months, the boy is learning to talk and use his voice to communicate, just like every other baby.
Leach lives in Nampa, Idaho, and she usually feels that her community is open and friendly. But this thing that happened at the Texas Roadhouse made her feel bad, so she wrote about it on Facebook. Since then, her message has been shared thousands of times over.
She wrote, “He will yell at me when I tell him no, especially when he’s very happy and excited or for no reason at all. I’m doing my best to teach him how to talk quietly inside and not yell back when I tell him no, etc. But he’s only 10 (almost 11 months) and LEARNING.”
The family was at the Texas Roadhouse in Nampa, Idaho, when her baby Drew started crying all the time, which had become his new habit. Leach didn’t think anyone was bothered by her noisy son because the restaurant was busy and loud. She made a mistake.
“Everyone was singing “Happy Birthday,” and he was yelling every now and then. “When one of the waitresses came up, he would yell at her to say hello,” she said. “We all tried to calm him down, and most of the time he did, but he was so happy to be in the middle of all the noise. He wasn’t yelling to be rude or because he was angry; he was just excited and happy.
Halfway through the Leach family’s meal, two people in “their late 50s or early 60s” slammed a note on the table near baby Drew.
The note was written by hand and said, “Thank you for making our dinner awful by letting your child scream. Sincerely, the people sitting behind you.”
The woman was sitting near Leach, so his mother went up to her and told her that he was still young and didn’t know what he was doing. The angry woman told Leach that she has grandchildren, but none of them are as bad as Drew…
“He’s so young,” she said. He just about gets it now. I mean, he’s starting to learn that when we tell him no, it means to calm down, which is what he was doing.”
Leach thinks the people at the restaurant were rude and could have dealt with the situation better. The manager of the restaurant said yes. They paid for Leach’s meal and told his family they could come back to Texas Roadhouse whenever they liked.
A spokesman for Texas Roadhouse, Travis Doster, said this about the situation: “We’re in the hospitality business. We want everyone who stays with us to have a great time. Consumer Reports said that we were one of the restaurants with the most noise. We’re proud of how loud we are. If you want to hear wine glasses and forks hitting each other, this is probably not the place for you.'”