Cafe owner steps in to calm unruly children

A CAFE owner has warned parents that she will step in if they are “too scared” to discipline their child while it is having a tantrum.

Kim Christofi said children “are very much at the heart” of her seafront business but some parents left her “with no option but to have a quiet word”.

In a message on the Facebook page for South Kiosk in Felixstowe, Ms Christofi said she gives parents “five lenient minutes to ask the child to stop screaming” before acting. The post received 600 comments and was shared 500 times before the page was deleted.

One mother commented: “Having a tantrum is part of their development, the parents may be ignoring the child for a reason and I strongly suggest you just let them get on with it.”

Another parent said: “I would never bring my child with special needs anywhere near here.”

But Ms Christofi stood by her mes- sage and said she believed it had been misunderstood. She told the BBC: “We hope the parent will step in, but in the latest incident that didn’t happen and the child was really embarrassing herself. The parents left me no option but to have a quiet word.

“We ask them ‘would they stop screaming, would they like a drink and colouring book?’ ”

She said other customers often thank her once the offending family has left.