Cafe Charges Mom To Heat Baby Bottle, This Is Why New Moms Never Leave The House”
It seems like everyday we hear a new tale of a parent being treated like garbage for having the gall to attempt feeding their baby in public. Usually, it’s shaming and a kerfuffle over nursing in public without adequate coverage because God forbid, anyone see a hint of boob that isn’t meant for sex. Sorry, that rant is for another day. Today, we need to get our pearls clutched over a mom at a European cafe being charged a small fee for having the cafe heat her baby’s bottle. For real? Yes, apparently.
According to Mirror UK, a mom asked for her 2-month old baby’s bottle to be heated up while dining at Rubens eaterie in Leuven, Belgium:
Furious mum Gitte Denteneer was stunned to discover she had to pay extra to feed her two-month old son Lucca at Rubens eaterie in Leuven, Belgium.
She told Het Laatste Nieuws daily: “We were flabbergasted. This is a very mean gesture.
The charge amounts to only around 50 cents in American currency but the cost isn’t really the point. Formula is expensive enough (or it could be breast milk, who knows?) and this just seems unnecessary and rude. I’m not sure I would have been outraged enough to take a photo of the receipt and post on social media as Denteneer did, but I’m not sure I’d patronize that establishment again.
The photo of the receipt garnered anger in the comments section with people defending Denteneer for being upset:
One wrote: “He is the meanest man in Europe.”
Another quipped: “How very petty. Hope the baby found it yummy.”
Obviously, there are bigger issues in the world and this is not really that terrible but it is pretty rude. When you come to a restaurant and pay for an entire meal, it is discourteous to charge a fee for something as simple as heating a baby’s milk. There are plenty of perks a restaurant offers it’s patrons that are not typically seen on the receipt (water refills, more napkins, clean-up of spills, etc.) so it does seem odd to make an issue of this in particular. It’s one more thing parents need to think about when taking their baby anywhere in public. From strangers on a plane complaining over your crying child to ridiculous surcharges for heating milk for 30 seconds — society can certainly be a bit unaccommodating toward parents at times. I wonder if there would have been a charge of an adult needed their meal reheated or wanted their coffee warmed a little? Somehow, I doubt it.
If this happened to me, as I said before, I would very likely not return. It’s hard enough bringing a baby out in public without having to worry about every little thing, from no changing tables in men’s restrooms to being shamed for public nursing to now, being subject to a fee for heating up a bottle. It’s easy to feel that parents aren’t welcome in certain places. Stories such as this do not help.
(Image: GettyImages)
