Pizzeria meltdown: Customer berates mum for son's tantrum until staff step in

Any parent who has stood helpless as their child melted down in public knows the last thing one needs at that moment is criticism from a stranger.

So when another restaurant patron screamed at Jennie Nilsson about her three-year-old’s temper tantrum, the mother was delighted staff moved in, turning an embarrassing situation into a positive one.

Nilsson had taken her two boys to a Boston Pizza restaurant in Langford, B.C. on Wednesday night, for her older son’s seventh birthday. As they were being seated, her three-year-old began to throw a tantrum and wouldn’t budge from the front door.

“He was screaming and I moved him a little bit closer to the door to be out of the restaurant area,” Nilsson told CTV Vancouver Island's Jeff Lawrence on Thursday.

“He wouldn’t move and the more I talked to him, the louder he screamed.”

Her seven-year-old took his seat at the table, but within moments, a man sitting nearby decided to let loose, yelling at Nilsson from across the restaurant.

“He really screamed very loudly,” she said. “He said ‘Take your kid outside! God!’ I couldn’t take him outside because my other son was by himself.”

Nilsson said she felt “really embarrassed” because her son was being disruptive, but she says she was trying to do her best.

“I thought that everybody felt that way. Like the whole restaurant was feeling like I should get out of there,” she said.

But instead, staff at the restaurant quickly stepped in.

The hostess went to sit and talk with her older son, who was still by himself, while another staff member came over to comfort Nillson and her younger son.

“She sat next to me and said it was okay, people here have kids and they understand how kids are,” she said.

Meanwhile, the manager went over to talk to the man who had yelled. That man was soon asked to leave, and walked out the restaurant to cheers from the other patrons, Nilsson says.

At the end of the meal, Nilsson says the manager told her the restaurant would take care of the family’s bill.

“They went above and beyond anything that was necessary,” said Nilsson. “It started out as an awful experience and turned into a positive one.”

Nilsson shared the story on her Facebook, where the post has since attracted hundreds of ‘Likes.’

With a report from CTV Vancouver Island's Jeff Lawrence