Taking a little one out into “the wild” is always a gamble. The truth is, we never know what kids are going to say or do, especially when they are young. Now, according to People, one mom is going viral after her worst nightmare came true when she took her 76-year-old mom and 3-year-old daughter out for coffee and ice cream at Hazelnut Cafe in Ocean County, New Jersey.
According to the mom, the place was packed so she had her mother and daughter take a seat while she ordered and paid. While at the register, she heard a loud crash and turned around to discover her 3-year-old had knocked over a 600-pound pure stone table. After checking if everyone was OK, the mom says she turned to the staff to figure out how to handle the situation.
@beautihut Broken table: $1600 – shame, embarssement, and mean girls robbing your dignity: priceless. I know I wasn’t put together and dolled up, but couldnt you have been just a bit kind? #meangirls #badbusiness #embarrassing #kidsoftiktok #momsoftiktok #needadvice #venting #rant #momlife #fyp ♬ original sound – Beautihut
“I said, ‘Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to do. What could I do to make this right?’ ” she says in the TikTok. “My daughter, she’s not crying, she’s not reaching for Mommy, she’s just kinda’ frozen and scared and nervous.”
She said in the clip that all but one staff member glared at her and they were not being helpful. Eventually, she was put on the phone with the manager.
“When the owner got on the phone, I said, ‘Oh my god, I’m so sorry, we’re so embarrassed.’ My daughter even kept saying, ‘I’m so sorry,'” she adds. “The owner said, ‘Well, the table is almost $2,000 — it’s $1,600 — so you can’t leave until I have your license and a credit card.'”
The mom gave her both her and her husband’s contact information and told the owner that she was, of course, fine with paying for the damages but needed to leave to get her daughter looked at just to make sure she was OK. The mom then claimed the owner refused to let her leave and kept repeating, “You break it you pay for it.”
The humiliated mom said she was eventually able to leave and take her daughter to urgent care. Although the child was physically fine, the mom was reflecting on how at no point did the owner or staff inquire about whether anyone was hurt.
People who saw the video, which has reached almost 12 million views and well over 40,000 comments on TikTok, were appalled at how the situation was handled.
“Don’t pay for it,” warned one TikToker. “How could your 3 yr old push over a 600lb table? She could have been seriously injured. They have insurance.”
“I own a restaurant,” added another person. “The amount of stuff that breaks is insane…but YOU are NOT responsible for that. A restaurant is liable even if a person trips walking into the restaurant and they break their ankle…do not pay that woman! Call a lawyer.”
On August 13, 2025, the cafe, which has two locations, updated its Instagram page with a statement, claiming that it did not charge the mom for the table and waas only asking for her contact information to contact the insurance company. The post also noted that the restaurant removed the tables from the cafe to prevent future incidents.
The mom did follow up with an update on TikTok, noting that Hazelnut Cafe reached out to apologize and they decided to accept the apology and ultimately wished to “move on.”
“We wish to move forward peacefully and do not wish to comment on this matter any further,” she shares in the post.
