When reviews don't make sense!

[Lamb]

I was looking at a review for a place and a mother gave the business a bad review saying it wasn't child friendly. It was for an antique store. Of course it's not a very child friendly place to take your children.

What made me mad when reading the review isn't that a woman told the children not to touch things, it was that the mother insisted her children weren't touching anything yet then went on later in the review to state she was coming down the stairs when she heard the woman. Obviously she wasn't on the same floor as her children!!!

Here is the review: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...t_Croix_Falls_Wisconsin.html#review_405288363

I'm so tempted to write a raving review and also make a little comment toward the mother. Should I?

 

[MarkFL]

LOL! Yes, it's kind of hard to be watching the kids "quite closely" when you are upstairs from them. Some people get their feathers ruffled so easily, especially when any criticism is directed towards their perfect little cherubs.

Hopefully most people will see this "review" as nothing more than an attempt to harm a business out of spite. It's a shame that there doesn't appear to be a means of critiquing the reviewers without rating the business yourself, but I do see a report feature, which could be a means of having a review taken down if enough people report it.

I did create an account and then reported the review as unfair and vindictive, citing the fact that one cannot be closely watching something from another floor.

 

[Lamb]

Your way is better than my method! LOL

 

[Stravinsk]

If you haven't been there - I wouldn't write a review - but I would comment on how unhelpful the bad review was and why. It could be that the mother was out of line but unless you've been there and seen the "older woman" in action for yourself or otherwise experience store hospitality or lack of it - it's not prudent to make something up.

 

[MarkFL]

Your way is better than my method! LOL

Your suggestion would be visible which would call to the attention of anyone reading the reviews how silly that review is. There is also a link to ask the reviewer about their experience, and one could also perhaps point out to this person how silly her review is...:scratchchin:

 

[Lamb]

We live in the age of "not my baby, my baby doesn't cause any trouble!"

 

[Rens]

I would just write a good review. People love to complain and they're spoiled. Saw reviews of a holiday park where I went. It was cheap. It was awesome. All they can do is complain. They want to sit on the first row for 10 cent, is a saying here.

 

[tango]

I was looking at a review for a place and a mother gave the business a bad review saying it wasn't child friendly. It was for an antique store. Of course it's not a very child friendly place to take your children.

What made me mad when reading the review isn't that a woman told the children not to touch things, it was that the mother insisted her children weren't touching anything yet then went on later in the review to state she was coming down the stairs when she heard the woman. Obviously she wasn't on the same floor as her children!!!

Here is the review: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attract...t_Croix_Falls_Wisconsin.html#review_405288363

I'm so tempted to write a raving review and also make a little comment toward the mother. Should I?

Sadly it seems to be the norm these days for people to expect to take their children everywhere, assuming that everybody else is fine with whatever their kids do. I get increasingly sick of parents who take small children into restaurants in the evening, spoiling the evening for everybody else as their brat screams and cries through their meal. There are some restaurants I just won't go to any more because I've had too many evenings ruined by someone else's screaming brat. Other times I've specifically asked the hostess to seat me away from small children, although the trouble is now that there's an expectation that everywhere must be "family friendly" it gets harder and harder to find a place where you can have any confidence you won't find 120dB of screaming coming from the next table.

Of course anyone who dares to want an unruly child reined in is worthy of the combined wrath of not only the parents but also an army of Faceache warriors who apparently have nothing better to do than listen to one side of a story and jump to conclusions, seeking to shame and destroy anyone who does anything less than fawn over even the worst behaved child.

What to do about it? If you haven't been there it's pointless to write a review because your review would be as useless as this one. Mark it unhelpful, flag it as inappropriate and, if you're thinking of going to the venue in question, figure what the other reviews are saying.

I don't know how Trip Advisor works but I've found that Amazon is appallingly bad at taking down inappropriate reviews. The trouble is the idiot who writes a one-star review to complain that it took a week to arrive, or that they got one that was broken in transit, distorts the average score especially when there aren't very many reviews.

 

[Rens]

I never went to fancy restairants with my kids when they were smaller or such sjops. I don't understand these people. I always stay away if there's quiet adults there. Always went to the scream department of the Mac. Now I can take them to a Chinese restaurant and when the 2 get wild I let them play outside where they make Chinese faces, oh well. In the train I can keep them quiet for an hour but after 3 hours I'm like: look I sit here especially in this stupid place behind so you people can sit quiet and one old guy started to bark at them to shut up. No problem. I don't respond. But then he said: look at that mother. She doesn't have it under control. OH REALLY? YOU SEE THAT? WOW! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP MAN. Please help or shut the ××× up barking idiot.

 

[tango]

I never went to fancy restairants with my kids when they were smaller or such sjops. I don't understand these people. I always stay away if there's quiet adults there. Always went to the scream department of the Mac. Now I can take them to a Chinese restaurant and when the 2 get wild I let them play outside where they make Chinese faces, oh well. In the train I can keep them quiet for an hour but after 3 hours I'm like: look I sit here especially in this stupid place behind so you people can sit quiet and one old guy started to bark at them to shut up. No problem. I don't respond. But then he said: look at that mother. She doesn't have it under control. OH REALLY? YOU SEE THAT? WOW! THANKS FOR YOUR HELP MAN. Please help or shut the ××× up barking idiot.

That's the thing, if you go to McDonalds on a Saturday afternoon you don't expect peace and quiet. Frankly you don't expect peace and quiet somewhere like McDonalds at any time. But if you go to a nice restaurant and want to sit down and enjoy a meal you don't want someone to just show up with a screaming brat and ruin it for you. Just like it's often said that if you can't afford to tip the waitress you can't afford to eat out, maybe we need a bit of social pressure that says if you can't afford a childminder you can't afford to eat out. Of course the ultimate irony is when the couple who did pay a childminder so they could have a quiet evening out have their quiet evening ruined by another couple who decided not to bother with a childminder.

One place I used to like where I used to live had a very simple policy. Children were welcome but they were expected to be quiet. If your child was making a noise you were expected to quiet it down and if it was inconsolable you would be asked to leave, for the benefit of everyone else. Most places it seems to just be accepted that the one customer gets to ruin it for everyone else and woe betide the person who complains.

 

[Rens]

Met a girl from church in the train once. I said: I had such a lovely holiday. It was all for kids. Restaurants for kids with a kids playground, hotel for kidss. Oh i look at that too, she said, when I book a holiday. If it's for kids I don't go there LOL.

 

[tango]

Met a girl from church in the train once. I said: I had such a lovely holiday. It was all for kids. Restaurants for kids with a kids playground, hotel for kidss. Oh i look at that too, she said, when I book a holiday. If it's for kids I don't go there LOL.

I guess that's the difference between those with small children and those without.

My wife and I avoid taking breaks at times and places that are likely to be crawling with children. Partly because I don't want to deal with the noise, partly because there seems little point in paying the extra to deal with the noise when that denies a parent the chance to take a break at a time and place that works for them.