Dear Miss Manners:During a birthday party held at work, I began cutting into the cake. It had edible candy balloons on the icing and one of my co-workers asked if she “could have a balloon.”
This would require cutting into a section of the cake that was untouched, but we said all right go ahead, it’s a party. She then proceeded to scrape off only the balloon from the top of the piece of cake. This left the underlying piece of cake exposed with no frosting on it.
We were shocked and asked her why she didn’t take the entire piece of cake with the balloon on it. She said she only wanted the balloon. We feel she should have taken the entire piece of cake as no one wants a piece with no frosting on it. In addition, it is implied that when requesting certain items on the cake, you get the cake also. Who’s right?
Most in the wrong here is your employer, for breaking the child labor laws. Four-year-olds should not be put to work in offices. They should be going to birthday parties where their parents take them aside and teach them to accept what they are served, the good with the bad, even if it means the cake with the icing.
You cannot so instruct a co-worker, Miss Manners is afraid. If that lady were grown up, it would be pointed enough to pick up the knife, cut off the piece that she desecrated, and set it aside.
— Judith Martin (”Miss Manners”), 25 January 2006