There are a number of posts that point to the idea that this involved a ‘small’ child. I think this is somewhat distracting. Without knowing for definite, we don’t know the size of the OP’s child. They may be small are they may be big for their age. There are certainly 8 year olds who are bigger than some ‘adults’. Size could therefore be irrelevant. Unless we are going to stop people entering the area who do not reach a certain height. Would we be using height as an excuse if this had happened to an adult who was short in stature?

Perhaps the comments relating to child are based on maturity and awareness levels? Maybe, but again there are a lot of older people who can be less aware of others around them than an 8 year old.

As for those demanding the child is supervised, let’s remember there are levels of supervision. Letting a child have free reign around the buffet is very different to them carrying something back to a table. I wonder if some of these comments are from people who have little experience of children or perhaps they simply have ‘angel’ children?

Ultimately, the responsibility for this has to rest with BA/Lounge. If the child had had an item spilt on them by a customer this would be a limited amount. However, we are talking about what could be a large quantity here which would only ever happen with staff. I wonder if perhaps the staff member was meant to use a trolley but for convenience sake choose not to. There are certainly trolleys in GF that could have been used.