At some point, nearly every parent has to deal with a child blurting out a highly-inappropriate question -- like when a 4-year-old boy in a Connecticut doughnut shop recently asked a woman if she had a baby in her belly.
She wasn't pregnant.
Whoops.
"My response was, 'Oh my goodness, I'm so embarrassed, I'm so sorry,'" Rebecca Denham, mother of Justin Otero, told WFSB.
But Denham says what happened next went beyond mere embarrassment. When Denham returned to the Doughnut Inn in Monroe on Tuesday, she and her son got the boot.
"We were screamed at in front of the door, ‘He's not allowed in here, he's rude,'" Denham told the station.
Ironically, the woman who was questioned wasn't offended. Denham said she accepted the apology and added that she's heard it before at nursery school.
The doughnut shop declined to comment, and Denham says she will be getting her morning carbs elsewhere.
A Facebook page for the doughnut shop has been taken down since the incident, but a 2009 post from the store suggests that rudeness is perhaps not limited to curious 4-year-olds.
(WARNING: STRONG LANGUAGE)
Without a Facebook page, people have taken to Yelp to express their displeasure with the shop.
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Before You Go
Steer clear of this and its only slightly better cousin, "Where are you from?" If you want to know about somebody's ethnic background, try this: "What's your ethnic background?" Wasn't that easy?
No promises that this is a question anybody wants to answer, but it's better than the alternative.
Just offer up a sympathetic head nod and maybe say something like, "I'm sorry to hear that." If they want to expand upon it, they will.
Wait until it becomes very, very obvious that the woman is expecting and then by all means, congratulate away.
Social decorum means no talk of politics at the dinner table/bar/brunch gathering/pretty much anywhere that is not a politics class.
Does it matter if someone works out? Are you really dying to know? What purpose will this information serve you at this moment?
This kind of stuff usually reveals itself later in the conversation more naturally anyway, wait it out.
The one asking is usually the one who wants to spill their guts and brag about their fabulous job. In a day and age where we essentially ARE our jobs, we urge you to dig into the depths of your socializing skills and talk about something else.
"Are you seeing anybody right now?" is perfectly acceptable. Note: This is usually still not appropriate to ask after the first five minutes. Give it thirty, at least.
Let's talk about anything else in the world EXCEPT the reasons for being single.
Not after five minutes, not after thirty, not even after an hour. If someone doesn't know you like that, you will not be receiving this information. So don't ask, ever.