Minors and Caffeinated Drinks

Now, I don’t presume to tell you how to raise your children. I have several brothers and sisters, a couple of which I have technically helped raise, and I have worked extensively with the pre-teen age group, but I don’t have children, and so realize that I have very little actual parenting experience to share on the subject.

That being said, are you people crazy??

A woman recently drove through my shop and ordered an Americano. She requested that we add all kinds of sweetener to it. (several sugars and many, many pumps of flavored syrup)

As she came up to the window she apologized for being “such a pain” and adding all the sweeteners. She told me it was for her son, he didn’t like how bitter the espresso was. After glancing through the windows, there was only one person in the car, a small boy, in a car seat, couldn’t have been more than four-years-old.

But hey, maybe her son is at home and she’s taking the coffee to him right?

Wrong.

After I handed her the Americano, she turned right around and handed it to the little kid in the backseat.

Now I trust the majority of parents not to do this, but this is not the first time I have seen a little kid get a coffee beverage, and I’m sure it won’t be the last. (Though usually it’s a Mocha, not an Americano.)

But still, it begs the question, are you nuts??