B2S... or... Starbucks Daycare?!

I don't know about what's going on in your part of the world, but here in Texas this is Back-To-School week... and that was apparent in Starbucks. I helped open the store Monday at 5 AM (actually, we open at 5:30), and by 6:30 or 7:00, in came the teachers wanting large doses of caffeine, frappuccinos and pastries for comfort food on the first day of students back in the classroom. And, along came the many police officers headed out to the school zones (hooray for them!) Soon, the high school girls came in (don't know where the boys were), all dressed in their new school clothes, needing one last treat (usually including chocolate) before the first day. It was interesting to watch them stealing glances at one another, gauging clothes, new hairstyles, and who-knows-what may have changed over the summer. The last group to come through were the parents with older elementary kids... parents needing caffeine, younger ones all dressed up, nervous, and needing a do-nut. It was really fun! (I was also glad I wasn't going back!)

However, about 9:00 we had another group of B2S visitors -- 5 moms with pre-schoolers, all under the age of 4... seven kids, at least. I surmise that they'd dropped off the older ones at school and were enjoying the first day of their school-year freedom. Soon the tables and chairs began to resemble either an uncontrolled daycare center, or a war zone... take your pick. There were a couple of "screamers" in the pre-school set, and my co-worker Dena nearly went crazy. I'm sure none of these moms were fans of Dare to Discipline, as the chaos seemed to increase during the 45 minutes to an hour they were there. As soon as I could after they left, I took broom, dustpan, and cleaning rag to the 'war zone.' There were at least 2 donuts crumbled and smashed on the floor, amid the goldfish crumbs and Cheerios. Tables, chairs, and highchairs were all covered and in disarray... and, some little tyke had up-chucked part of his breakfast on the floor, and no one had bothered to tell us! Sometimes Starbucks isn't the peaceful, coffee shop retreat that we'd like it to be.

So, if you're ever visiting your local Starbucks, and the atmosphere isn't all you'd wish, please don't blame it on the establishment. Just let someone know if there's something mysterious that needs to be cleaned up, and give us another chance! ;-)

PS - a couple of police officers came back through several hours later and reported that there were no 'incidents' on the first day -- hooray for them and all they do to keep our school zones safe!