Beer Ettiquette question... (BeerForge Assemble!)

Why should it be on that guy to change anything at all? Why couldn't the parent switch seats with his child? If there is any inconvenience to be caused, it should be endured by the parent, the one who actually signed on for the burden of watching a kid.

How do you know the other cupholder was empty? More than likely the person in the other seat was using it, or maybe he was on the aisle with only one cupholder. Seems the guy was using the cupholder that belongs to his seat.

Absolutely. And at some point you expect them to grow up. This guy wasn't ready for it himself and his kids certainly hadn't been taught either.

Period.

Full Stop.


I did acknowledge that kids will be kids. I gave you that up front. But if a parent can't handle it then they don't need to be taking their kids out into public. This guy obviously couldn't handle the pressure of buying a beer he wasn't getting to drink himself because one of his own kids ruined it.

The guy shouldn't have any expectation for a new beer. The father inquired about his well being and he stopped on discussion by dismissing it as a non-issue. If I apologize for a mistake and the other party says to not worry about it, want to guess what I will do?

Not worry about it.

Most people say the same thing about both my boys - that they're well behaved, not that they're going to sick their dog on them. I'm just saying that kids are going to act like kids. And, at a hockey game? The kid was probably behaving better than most adults.

Now you're just making up excuses. There's no reason the guy couldn't just move his beer.

Perhaps. Or perhaps he just left it there so he could have something to bitch about.

No, no. Now we're arguing about Jenee's child-raising skills. Keep up, would you?

Then you're just looking for someone to hand you an excuse to shirk your responsibilities. It doesn't matter what the other guy said. He was just trying to be nice and refrain from making an ugly scene over it. Despite that, it's not right until you make it right.

It's a beer, not holy water. Buy another one and this time, keep it safe.

That's debatable. I would argue that there's no reason why he should be expected to move his beer. Any inconvenience should rest completely on the parent. Why not move the child?

Or maybe he didn't see it as his responsibility to adjust around someone else's child?

THE HELL YOU SAY!

Fine. I'll keep it safe by throwing a shoulder into the child every time he encroaches on my personal space.

I don't care if it's a bucket of piss. It's my bucket of piss, and there is absolutely no rightful obligation on me to accept that someone else's kid can just come and knock it over.

So, if instead of a child next to him, it was an adult fan who was was jumping up and down and yelling at the players and ... doing the same stuff any other person does at a hockey game and the beer got spilled, would anyone care?

Can't speak for anyone else, but I sure as fuck would. And I'm a lot less polite about it if I'm dealing with an adult. Especially if it's a male adult.

That would probably work.

I'm not saying the kid can "just come and knock it over," I'm saying shit happens.

In that situation, the person who caused the drink to spill should offer to pay for another one.

It happened to me at a basketball game and my beer got replaced by the guy who accidentally knocked it over.

And I'm saying that shit that happens should be the one and only focus of his dad's attention. I don't care if he doesn't get to enjoy one uninterrupted minute of the game.

That's the stuff that happens at sporting events.

This.

But, I would have reflexively eviscerated the child over whiskey.

But, it did happen.

And, I'm not entirely sold on the idea that just because someone else is stupid enough to pay $9 for a glass of beer and not keep it safe, I should have to pay to replace when the understandable happens.

The article doesn't say the guy wasn't paying attention to his kid, just that he didn't pay for another beer. And, because of that, how do we know he isn't exaggerating the entire situation to get sympathy?

Exactly. If you go to a place with 20,000 screaming maniacs (or 3,000 if it's a Tampa Bay Rays game) you have to expect to get jostled, spilled on, bumped and impeded. It's part of the experience. Ideally, everyone gets along and doesn't take things like having their beer knocked over personally.

At $9 a pop, you will either do whatever it takes to avoid spilling my beer, or you will replace it.



Truthfully, this is reason #394589834 why I don't attend sporting events.

At $9 a pop, if you don't do everything in your power to keep it from spilling, you deserve to have it spilled and not replaced at someone else's expense.

I'd rather watch a sporting event at the sporting event rather than on tv. There's energy in the air and everyone feels it - including little kids who forgot you just told them to watch out for that man's beer.

UA, you're lazy Libertarian! The dude saw the risk of spillage, and did NOTHING to prevent it. Where is HIS responsibility in this?

This!

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It is not my responsibility to provide for other peoples' negligence.

And you know goddamned well it'd end up a national scandal, with me portrayed as the deranged sports fan who got violent with a child, if I made any contact with him at all in protection of my beer.

The only thing necessary to protect the beer was to move it to the other side.

Actually, if you value your beer, it pretty much is... Sorry, that's just the reality of the situation.

Even if there are no other beer-holding options available (what, you can't use your hands?)...simply moving your foot into a beer-protective position would likely have sufficed. If you can't be bothered to put forth that little bit of effort, then the beer probably didn't mean that much to you.

And what if there's another unruly child on that side? At what point does the responsibility for a child's actions rest on the parent?

No, there are alternatives. It's just a matter of how much confrontation it is worth to you.

I should not have to lift one goddamned pinkie finger to protect my stuff from other peoples' negligence. And you don't want it to be worth taking action for me, because you'll find it a lot less pleasant than holding a child on your lap or *gasp* hiring a fucking babysitter.

Who the hell pays 9 bucks for a beer and then sets it on the ground? The beer should have been in the guys hand until it was gone.

Who the hell lets a child loose anywhere near a $9 beer?

For $9, that had better have been the tastiest fuckin' beer ever.

I call Bullshit. You're all talk, UA. You've got online bluster down pat, but put into the same situation IRL, you'd probably just mutter under your breath for the remainder of the event about how inconsiderate some people are. If you're SO set on making a point out of your first sentence, then I'm guessing that your life if chock-full of other people disappointing you.

If you care about that beer, you ought to be taking reasonable precautions to prevent it's spillage based on logical expectations. Seeing an energetic kid in close proximity to your beer, it is safe to assume a danger of spillage. Whining about a lack of parental crackdown doesn't absolve you of your failure for lack of preventative action.