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Parents Mad Cafe Won't Put Up With Their Annoying Kids
By
Jaya Saxena
Published Aug 18, 2010
Modified Aug 18, 2010
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By
Jaya Saxena
Published Aug 18, 2010
Modified Aug 18, 2010
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Windsor Terrace parents are throwing a tantrum at the Oak & the Iris Café, claiming that they have no right to cancel their weekly sing-a-longs just because their precious kids were breaking property. One miffed mom even threatened to burn the place down, writing, "To set yourself up as kid-friendly and then be appalled by a normal range of kid behavior seems bizarre to me." But owner Aleksandra Kameneva says if what she witnessed was "normal range," things sure have changed since when she was a kid.
Kameneva started the sing-a-longs two years ago, and attracted about 25 kids and their parents every week. But after finding broken chairs, shattered plates and bottled beverages pulled from the fridge, she posted a sign in her window saying the sing-along sessions would be no more. "I'm more surprised by the parents," she said. "There are playgrounds, and there are indoor places where you have to behave differently...Children could not act like this when I was growing up." And it's not like the place is banning children; one recent Yelp review said, "The staff here LOVE babies. One of the waitresses/counter people came over to my infant son and started playing with him. He loved it."
Parents argue their kids were doing nothing wrong. One mom said, "They were not running around or causing a ruckus. I didn't see anybody who truly neglected their kid or let them run wild." But dad Alexander Lagos reminded us that if there's one thing Brooklyn parents love, it's being told their little ones aren't welcome. "Brooklyn parents are really defensive. They don't like to hear any criticism of how they're raising their children." We'll say it: If your kids are breaking furniture at cafes, maybe they're not ready for the "adult world" quite yet.
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