Server catches young boy drinking dad’s beer. Then the mom starts berating her for saying something: ‘I would’ve called the cops’

Niki Gardy (@healthyhospitality), a server in Alberta, Canada, says a shift turned sideways when she caught a boy drinking from his father's beer. The parents, not the kid, came after her.

Boy Drinks Beer When Back Is Turned

Gardy says she was coming in off the patio when she passed a table of four: mom, dad, and two sons she'd put at roughly 10 and 12. The older boy had his hand on the bottom of his dad's beer.

“So we're looking right at each other as he has his hand on his dad's beer,” she says. She kept walking. Then she looked back. “I make eye contact with the kid as he is sipping on his dad's beer.”

It wasn't even her table, per her account. She says she went over anyway.

“Hey, you can't do that,” she says she told the boy. The dad cut in, “No, no, no, it's OK. I told him it's okay,” she says. But Gardy says she held the line. “Well, no, it's not OK because he's a minor, and minors can't consume alcohol,” she reports saying.

Then the mom started in, she says, reaming her for addressing the son instead of the parents. Gardy concedes the point may be fair.

“But I look at it as, like, they told him it's OK, so someone has to tell him it's not,” she says. She adds that she dropped it, apologized, and walked away.

Gardy says the table's own server soon came back to the kitchen, asking to cancel the order. The family was leaving. The family, British by Gardy's telling, called the manager over to report that she'd been rude and unprofessional and made them uncomfortable, she says.

However, she says the table beside them, a Scottish couple, chimed in unprompted. They said she'd been professional and handled it perfectly. The family left, and by Gardy's account, the Scottish man and the British dad were still “yapping at each other at the door.”

‘Thats Actually Insane'

Viewers had mixed responses. Some noted that it's legal in some places in the U.S. (though U.S. laws do not apply in this case). Some said it's OK at home. Some said they took sips of their parents' drinks back in the day—and some said it's wrong no matter what.

“I would have called the cops on Dad! Especially if you have video! ACCOUNTABILITY,” one person commented.

“Yea, that was unprofessional,” said a second person. “If I was manager, you would have been sent home. You address the adults, not yell at kids.”

Gardy replied, “I calmly and politely said ‘Hey, you can't do that.' Never yelled. I don't think protecting the establishment's liquor [license] is unprofessional, so we'll agree to disagree.”

It appears that many commenters didn't understand the stake. “People don't understand how strict liquor laws are,” one person said. “The establishment would have lost its liquor license and it would have been this waitress's fault.”

Is Underage Drinking Ever Allowed?

Alberta's liquor authority, the AGLC, is blunt in its Licensee Handbook. A minor may not receive liquor service on any licensed premises under any circumstances. The Gaming, Liquor & Cannabis framework defines a “minor” as a person under 18.

The parents' “I told him it's OK” carries no legal weight, and the exposure isn't theirs. Under the statute, no person may permit any other person to supply liquor to a minor who is on licensed premises. The licensee and the staff bear the violation, not the dad who waived it off.

What About In the U.S.?

In the United States, the federal minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) is 21. However, there are certain cases where minors are allowed to possess, purchase, or consume alcohol.

One of these cases is the “family exception,” when an adult family member allows a minor to consume alcohol. Family exceptions may come with stipulations, such as that the family member must directly provide the alcohol, be present the entire time it's being consumed, or both.

There are no family exceptions that allow an adult who is not a direct family member to provide a minor with alcohol. Generally, a family member is considered to be a parent, guardian, or spouse.

“Much of the time, a state's exception to the MLDA when related to minors consuming alcohol provided by, or in the presence of, a family member is also location-specific, meaning that the alcohol must be consumed at a private residence or on private property,” according to Alcohol.org. “Some state laws only allow minors to legally consume alcohol at the home of a parent or guardian, while others only allow for minors to consume alcohol on licensed premises in the presence of their parent, guardian, or spouse. States like Texas allow minors to drink in places that are licensed to sell alcohol, like a restaurant or bar, if their parent is present and permits it.”

Here's the state-by-state breakdown of laws regarding minors consuming alcohol:

• Allowed with a “family exception” (with or without specific location restrictions): Washington, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Texas, Wisconsin, Ohio, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Alaska, Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and Maine.
• Not explicitly prohibited: California, Nevada, New Mexico, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Kentucky, Florida, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts.
• Allowed with specific location restrictions: New Jersey and Nebraska.

Subplot News reached out to Niki Gardy and to the AGLC for more information. We will update this story if they respond.

@healthyhospitality

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