Panera Employee Refuses To Take Customer's Order At The Drive-Thru Because Of Her Screaming Child
Mom did not get the support she was expecting.
BaLL LunLa | Shutterstock The customer is always right — except when they’re not. Case in point: You're trying to take customer orders at the Panera drive-thru, and a mom pulls up trying to talk over her screaming toddler. Instead of getting her order wrong, you insist that she either place her order in person or wait until her little one quiets down. Makes sense, right? Not if you're the mom, apparently.
One customer caused an uproar on social media for this exact scenario. She posted a video of a Panera employee refusing her service because of her screaming toddler, thinking she would get sympathy, but most people sided with the employee.
A Panera employee refused to take the woman’s order since her toddler was screaming in the background.
In a TikTok video, the mom, who goes by leikerornot, filmed her encounter with a drive-thru employee at Panera who refused to take her order after he was distracted by her screaming toddler and had difficulty understanding her order.
After the employee refused service, the mom refused to leave and became irate, pressing him repeatedly on why he was denying her. “So you are gonna refuse to take my order because my child was screaming?” the woman asked.
“Yes, I have the right to do that,” the employee responded. He then offered the woman alternatives so she could still place her order.“You’re more than welcome to come inside, or you can place an order online and we can make it for you,” he informed her.
Instead of taking the high road, the customer responds with a threat to contact corporate.
The woman refused to take the employee up on his recommendations and threatened him by letting him know that she was capturing their entire interaction on camera. “I will be emailing corporate because that’s just like completely rude,” the woman added.
As to why she couldn't place her order in person, she claimed it was because her daughter wasn't wearing shoes. “I understand that, but you are also more than welcome to order through online as well,” the employee said calmly.
Still, the mom persisted. “So you want me to take an extra 20 minutes and order online?” she said. When she was met with silence, she continued arguing. “That’s not convenient to me. It’s your job to take orders, and stuff like this is ridiculous,” she said.
Unwilling to step outside her own sense of entitlement, the mom insisted yet again that he take her order, and he finally agreed with an important condition. “I will be happy to take your order as long as your daughter does not scream,” he said. “I think that’s a pretty good decision on your part,” the woman fired back, to which the employee called her out on her attitude.
The customer's sense of entitlement reflects research that suggests society has become more rude in the last five years.
Put yourself in this scenario for a moment as the employee. What do you think would happen if he got this woman's order wrong because he couldn't hear her properly? Do you think she would have been understanding based on her behavior? No, she would have been equally irate that he couldn't, in her estimation, do his job properly.
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Although this interaction might feel like an exception rather than the norm, it does still highlight the fact that society as a whole has become a lot less patient and kind in recent years, and research seems to back this up.
According to a Pew Research Center Survey from 2025, a whopping 47% of adults in the U.S. think that the way people behave in public has become ruder in the last five years since the pandemic. If it were just a few people saying the world is getting meaner, it might be deniable, but the fact that nearly half of Americans are crying foul when it comes to the lack of common decency is telling.
Slate's "Ask A Manager" advice columnist, Alison Green, shared back in 2022, "If you have the sense that we’re living in a ruder, more hostile world, you’re not alone." She added, "Workers in nearly every sector say they’ve experienced a dramatic increase in abusive behavior from the public."
In an effort to understand this increase in rudeness, which she attributed to everything from the political climate to unchecked mental health concerns stemming from the pandemic, she shared a message from a reader that offered a more reasonable explanation. One that might even make you feel some empathy toward drive-thru mom. The reader wrote, "I generally try to be as kind as possible — especially to those in IT or service jobs — but recently I have noticed frustration coming out in my interactions with people, particularly when I’m anxious about other things. Climate change, the pandemic, war, collapsing trust in government and institutions—it is all so large and outside of our control. So in the moment it feels not only ‘good,’ but that I’m entitled to feel and act with frustration. Obviously, this perception is untrue and harmful, but I have a sense that much of the aggression coming out in social interactions is an external manifestation of anxiety and feeling loss of control in our lives."
When looking at it from this reader's perspective, it kind of makes you realize that feeling anger at this mom's bad behavior is just as bad as the behavior to begin with. There is no denying that we are all more stressed, more worried, just plain more, and none of it ends in joy.
TikTokers in the comments appeared to agree with the Panera employee.
“What child doesn’t make noise??” the mom captioned her video. And in light of what we've been discussing, users didn't hold back in their criticisms.
“Team Panera guy on this one,” one user commented. “This guy needs a promotion!” another user wrote. “Dude handled this perfectly,” another added.
Others noted that drive-thru employees wear earphones to hear customers’ orders, and noises like a screaming child can be painful on their ears and extremely difficult for them to properly hear orders. “Keep in mind that employees have EARPHONES on,” one user pointed out. “It doesn’t matter how tough your ears are people screaming in the mic it’s gonna be unpleasant,” another user shared.
Ultimately, there's a lesson here on both sides of the drive-thru. If her baby was already fussy, maybe this mom could have just ordered online or skipped her coffee and muffin that day, and perhaps the employee could have explained to her that he was struggling to hear and didn't want to get her order wrong. Just like rudeness is contagious, kindness can have the same effect.
Megan Quinn is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in English and a minor in Creative Writing. She covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on justice in the workplace, personal relationships, parenting debates, and the human experience.
