damnit...really folks?

On the weekends, I work for a luxury hotel in Houston, TX.  I am there from 11pm to 7am every Friday and Saturday night.  While the hours suck, I am generally provided with a large source of entertainment with out clientèle.  See, I get to deal with all of the drunks coming in form having fun in Downtown Houston.  Awesome!  Most of the time these people are funny, but as with any belligerent drunk they can be irritating.  Needless to say this shift affords me a great many entertaining stories to my friends.

This past weekend, I experienced something that straight up infuriated me.  I arrive Friday night at 11 pm, as I normally do.  About 5 minutes after settling into the evening the Front Desk phone rings.  It's a guest using the Courtesy Phone on the 5th floor.  They explain that there is a small child wandering the halls looking for their parents.  Again, it's about 11:15 pm...fucking late for a little kid to be up.  I ask the guest how small of a child (meaning how old).  They estimate the age between 2 and 3 as the child can not use whole sentences yet and walks like a toddler.  I explain what is going on to the other agents at the front desk.  One of them was just getting off of work and volunteered to go up and see what the deal was.  She calls me back from the courtesy phone and explains that this child is extremely young and FUCKING terrified (her exact words).  She proceeds to go Door to Door on the 5th asking if the child belongs to anyone.  She finally comes across someone who says that the child is theirs.  The agent asks if they have a photo of the child to verify that it is indeed theirs.  They provide one and the agent gives them the child and then proceeds to explain that the child was found by another guest on the opposite side of the floor and that it probably isn't a good idea to let a child of that young an age wander the halls of a hotel unattended.  They say Thank you and close the door.

So what if this concerned guest hadn't said anything...How long would that poor child have been wandering the halls?  How long until someone who isn't so nice stumbled across that child?  How long until that child made its way to the elevators or to the stairs?  See, I do not have children of my own, I can not begin to imagine what responsibilities that entails, but I can not think of ANYTHING that you are doing that warrants sending a 3 year old into the halls of a hotel at 11pm at night, let alone ANY hour of the day.

This experience caused me to formulate two opinions.

1:  There should a be a license required to have children...  You have to have one to operate a vehicle or a handgun, but fucking ANYONE can have a child?  Another Human being that you are responsible for its well being should instill some base emotion that says "this, above all else."

2:  You can work at a 4 star hotel and still have 1 star guests. 

This would have been considerably more acceptable.

Humanity...you make me so fucking sad sometimes.  At least someone with a decent couple of bones found this child and did the right thing.  We called the general manager of the hotel and explained what happened.  She immediately comp'd the full night's stay of the guest who found the child and called to the front desk.  She also had us make a note on the Parent's (term used loosely) room stating the situation and that we did not have to be nice to them in anyway shape or form.  Fucking A, Boss!  nice!

Thanks for stopping by, gentle reader.

Cheers and have a great fucking day,

Chet Chesterson