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player ready...Maria Smith has asked me to expose what she says is blatant discrimination against children by a large business.
“It’s Dave and Buster’s,” says Maria, a Wheaton parent.
For those who have been there–myself included–Dave and Buster’s is a super-saloon and amusement joint in Addison. It’s part of a national chain that started in Texas.
About the size of a Wal-Mart, Dave and Buster’s has restaurants, bars, hundreds of video games, virtual reality games, golf games, basketball games, shuffleboard, pool tables and other diversions.
Recently Maria had a visit from her mother. “It was a Saturday, and my mother said she wanted to take my kids to lunch. My daughters are 8 and 13. And there was another boy, my daughter’s friend who is 8.
“So they left, and my two kids told grandma that they wanted to go to Dave and Buster’s. That’s because I had taken them there a few weeks ago and we had a very good time.
“But when they got there and started to walk in, someone said: `Is there another adult with you? Unless there is, you can’t come in.’
“They have a rule. If the children are under 16, there must be at least one adult for every two children. If they are 16 to 20, the ratio is one adult for four minors.
“So they wouldn’t let my mother and the three kids in, even though she assured them that she would keep an eye on them and they wouldn’t be a problem. After all, they aren’t babies.
“While she was talking to them, a woman showed up with an infant in her arms and she went in, even though the baby would probably cry and make noise.
“Naturally, my children were disappointed and upset. On the way there, they had talked the place up to the friend. So my daughter was sitting in the car crying.
“My mother was so angry that she called the manager of the place from the car phone. But he said that’s their policy.
“So when I got home, they were back and all sitting there with long faces.
“I called the manager and he told me the same thing. I told him that they are discriminating. What if a single parent with three kids came? Would he or she be turned away? He said they’d have to have another adult.
“So they say it isn’t discrimination, while they are clearly discriminating on the basis of how many kids you have.”
Well, it is not easy keeping up with new forms of discrimination, since the list grows almost daily, depending on the whims of Congress and various federal bureaucrats.
A call to the Dave and Buster’s chain brought this explanation from manager Kevin Hansen.
“The building that we’re in, like most of our facilities, is 53,000 square feet. We have open liquor in every room.
“It’s a supervision thing. There are 300 to 400 feet of separation between games. It’s adult entertainment, so we could have anything that comes with that. With unmonitored drinking, there can be fights.
“We try to keep it safe for the children, but if it’s more than the ratio it can be hard for parents to supervise. They might want to go to different games, or one has to go to the bathroom.
“Then one of them is unsupervised. If a fight breaks out and a kid is caught in the middle of it, they might not have the instinct to move away.
“Because we are as big as we are, we are trying to protect their interests.”
So is this discrimination, as Maria Smith alleges?
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I think not. It appears to be a reasonable and prudent policy. While it is enormous and has all sorts of games, and food is served, Dave and Buster’s is still a saloon.
And even old-fashioned, friendly neighborhood taverns have always had their own informal policies regarding children, which usually includes not bringing along too many little buggers and making sure they don’t cry, screech, require diaper changes on the bar, use foul language or otherwise disturb the serious drinkers.
In fact, if I were running a place the size of Dave and Buster’s, where kids could get lost and have to be hunted down, I’d probably have rules that are even more strict.
For example, I might require that all children under the age of 12 be required to wear dog collars around their necks attached to 8-foot leashes held by the responsible adults.
If the adults wanted to go to the bar or play one of the games, they could simply attach the leash to a table leg.
Of course, I’ve always believed that this should be a policy throughout our society, not just in bars.
But the do-gooders have always shouted me down. So maybe we should try to reach a compromise. Maybe shoulder harnesses instead of neck collars?