Page 17 - AT

LOCAL Monday 28 october 2019
A17

Hotel

Hustle

Column by: Shanella Pantophlet
Family Vacation

ORANJESTAD — The other day I read a dear prudence article that
put me in mind of a situation we regularly encounter at our hotel,
due to the nature of our business being family oriented. The sub-
ject of the question were these parents who had taken their four
year old very active son to an upscale restaurant. As soon as I
read the words active four year old I started to cringe and think
where this may be going, but nothing prepared me for where it
actually went.

The gist of the story being these parents let on their side and had to explain to them that child or we are picking on their child, but we
their son wander around the restaurant, at unattended four year olds and people walk- are simply trying to keep them safe. We aren’t
first he was running and they told him to stop ing around with big trays loaded with hot food trying to be the anti-fun or anti relaxation po-
running, but allowed him to continue to roam don’t mix. lice, but we’d rather be yelled at than having
around. Their waitress in the process of check- Working in a hotel we tend to find ourselves a child end up at the hospital.
ing on her tables noted him walking around in similar situations, especially members of the We have parents who are fully understand-
and directed him back to his table and asked front office, activities and security staff. We ing and cooperative, but there are also those
him to sit down. The parents were upset about have a responsibility to ensure the safety and who take offense and will like the above men-
this, claiming the waitress should have talked well-being of everyone on our property from tioned restaurant couple, be upset with the
to them instead of their son. the youngest to the oldest. If we see misbehav- staff for the perceived slight. There are those
The next day they filed a complaint with her ing children, action must be taken. Obviously who have yelled and told us their kids are al-
manager. The manager according to them if the parents are close at hand, we try to ad- lowed to do whatever they want. In these in-
sided with his employee over them, so they dress the situation with them, but if they aren’t stances, we still have to point out that safety
did the next logical thing and went on Face- to be found then we need to address the child is our top priority and we will not compromise
book looking for support. Their Facebook com- directly before they hurt or injure themselves. that for anything.
munity apparently lashed out at them and It’s the latter action that usually causes a nega- As they say it takes a village to raise a child
called them out, so then they turned to Dear tive or defensive reaction from parents. Some and while on vacation, just consider the staff
Prudence. Needless to say Prudence was not may feel that we aren’t trying to parent their part of that village. q

Aruban born and bred Shanella Pantophlet is passionate about tour-
ism. That is the world she studied and works in, so we might as well call
her a specialist. Luckily for Aruba Today Shanella also loves to write.
And together with the fact that the majority of our readers are tourists,
we found ourselves a perfect combination for a column: Hotel Hustle.