Some days are better than others

I love Chick-fil-A and the kids love it as well. The restaurant on Dale Mabry has an indoor play area and where else can you go have dinner, let the kids play, and get an ice cream all at the same place. The restrooms have handy wipes and there's even a guy who comes around with balloons for the kids. Chick-fil-A is truly the perfect family place.

Unfortunately, it seems that every family in Tampa has figured this out as well because the place is always packed with kids and other families. What frustrates me most is when parents let their kids run wild in the play area. It never fails that some kid is going to get hurt, make a mess, or just do something stupid that could have been avoided if a parent was around.

A few weeks ago we were in the play area and I was sitting there with the kids while they were playing. There are three benches for parents to sit and two little fat kids (a boy and a girl) were jumping from bench to bench. When my 2 year old daughter walked over to me, the boy nearly kicked my kid in the head. I snapped into angry daddy mode and using the same voice I used as a teacher to yell at high school age kids told him he needed to stop jumping around before he hurt someone. He cried and ran out of the room. Not sure if he told on me but he and his family left shortly after.

My kids went back to playing but his friend, the fat little girl kept jumping. Again I explained to her that she needed to stop jumping and the smart-ass told me she didn't have to listen to me. I said she did and pointed to the rules on the wall that said "no jumping on the furniture." I couldn't believe it when she put her face right up to the sign and said that it didn't say that. Sometimes you have to know when you're beat and since it wasn't my kid I couldn't beat her. The only thing I had left was to sit there and hope she fell.

If there's a God, he was on my side that day. No sooner had she turned around from reading the sign that she tried to jump to the bench I was sitting on. She missed the bench by a good foot and face planted head first into the glass wall. As she started to cry the spirit of my father took hold of me and as the blood started to trickle down her face I leaned over and said "see, that's why you don't jump on the furniture. Hurts don’t it." Her mother then raced in and asked what happened. I said I had no idea, that I was there watching my kids and not there to keep an eye on hers.

Some days at the Chick-fil-A are better than others.