Cafe owner defends asking family to leave over toddler tantrum despite online backlash

An Aussie cafe owner is defending his decision to ask a family to leave over a toddler tantrum after a woman posted a video of her angrily protesting his actions.

Co-owner of Adele’s Cafe in Horseshoe Bay on Magnetic Island, Adrian Dalloste, said it was the first time in his eight-and-half years of operating that he asked a family with children to leave his store.

Speaking to news.com.au, Dalloste said he “could count on one hand the number of bad customer incidents”.

“I’m lucky to get even one a year,” he said.

As first reported by the Townsville Bulletin, Dalloste said two children became upset when told they would be sharing a gelato between them, claiming one of the children swiped at decorations from the counter and threw a steel flask on the tile floor.

The tantrum lasted for about 15 minutes before Dalloste intervened.

“I only intervened because the children were vandalizing the shop and disrupting other customers,” he told the Townsville Bulletin.

In the video recorded earlier this month, mother Laura Edwards criticized the decision, deeming it “absolutely disgusting.”

“It wasn’t a meltdown or tantrum; my kids make more noise than these kids do. It was just a grizzly kid needing some help to sort through his emotions at the time,” Edwards told the Townsville Bulletin.

“The parents were sitting down with them; they weren’t running riot.”

Edwards entered the shop to address the matter with the cafe, leading to a heated argument audible throughout the entire establishment.

In the midst of the confrontation, she claims she was told, “We’re not a creche.”

As a mother-of-three and a customer, Edwards believed she had the right to intervene, expressing that the business could have handled the situation more effectively.

Dalloste expressed confusion over Edward’s intervention.

He said it wasn’t her concern and pointed out that she arrived after he had informed the parents they needed to leave.

He said the family refused to leave at first and that he eventually warned that he would need to call the police.

“Good on the business owner, I would of [sic] done the exact same thing. He has a duty to make sure everyone has an enjoyable experience. I have kids and when they were little, if they carried on like little brats I would of [sic] packed up and left out of the respect for others,” said one woman on the Townsville Bulletin Facebook page.

“Responsible parents should either have taught said children how to behave and show respect for others or remove them from annoying others,” added another commenter.