Who knew having children could be so expensive in the most bizarre ways? A restaurant in Georgia is taking things to the extreme by including a $50 surcharge on bills of families whose children don’t behave during the meal.
The owner of Toccoa Riverside Restaurant, Tim Richter, in Blue Ridge, Georgia, said that the charge isn’t actually new. It began during the COVID-19 pandemic and can be seen at the bottom of the restaurant’s menu, reading: “Adult surcharge: For adults unable to parent $$$.”
Richter said he has never had to use the surcharge as a threat to control kids until recently when a family came in with children who he said were “running all over the restaurant.” The parent involved in that incident was Lyndsey Landmann, who thought Richter was joking when he told her of the charge.
Landmann, from Florida, was at the restaurant with her husband and four other families. In all, there were 11 children aged three to eight years old. “The kids were sitting at one end of the table and they were being so good,” Landmann said. “I even commented halfway through the meal, ‘I can’t believe how well-behaved they are.'”
After the meal, some of the adults took the children to the river to play around. That’s when Richter approached the table and told Landmann about the extra charge. Richter said that the children were being “too loud” and that they were “running around outside,” despite having adults watching them.
According to Richter, he only gave a warning about the surcharge and never actually put the $50 on their final bills.