Toddlers: 12 - 24 Months

do you clean up your area after eating out?

When you're at a resturant, do you pick up food LO dropped or threw on the floor?

..I do. Mostly, not perfectly. But I just had dinner with my parents, SIL and nieces. (and me and LO) he dropped 3 noodles because he missed his mouth. I cleaned up the area he was eating. My neices were a MESS (and they are older then LO) dropped a whole cup of whatever drink they had on the ground and she just dropped napkins over it. I felt bad for the bus boy.

 

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Re: do you clean up your area after eating out?

  • My LO is pretty messy, so yes, we clean up after him. My SIL's baby eats like a Tasmanian devil and she leaves it a huge mess, that's just rude unless you tip extra IMO.
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  • I do. He can be a messy eater at times, and I feel awful for whoever has to clean up after him. 
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  • Oh yes! My son makes the BIGGEST mess under his chair. We try to just scoop up what we can!
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  • No, but I tip according to her mess. The bigger the mess the bigger the tip.
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  • Not perfectly, but I make an effort to get most of the mess up. 

    Hilary
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  • I do.  I feel bad leaving a huge mess. 

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  • yes as much   as possible and usually leave an extra tip and apologize to the staff. I think we are the minority what I see left by others at "kid friendly" places! :)
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  • We do because I don't think it's the job of the busboy or waitress to clean up my child's mess.  With that being said, we also clean up after ourselves too and stack plates if the server didn't take them earlier.  I just think it's polite. 
  • I try to scoop up the majority, but sometimes it's difficult if he's getting fussy from sitting so long, so then it's best if we make a quick getaway.  I do always tip accordingly, though, even at places that you don't usually tip.
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  • Yes, absolutely.  DS doesn't typically drop a ton of food, but I feel bad leaving it for the restaurant staff to clean up.
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  • We have a rubber thingy with suction cups on the back that we put on the table, so after we clean up that, the table is clean. Generally I'll clean out the high chair for the most part. 

    I don't clean up the floor unless it's ridiculous, and even then, it's just the big chunks. They have to sweep anyway.

    We also tip well.

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  • I do and I tip well. We don't go out often but I waitressed for eight years. I remember having to clean epic messes for a 15% tip.
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  • My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).
  • imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

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  • For the most part I do. They may have employees who have to clean up the areas but I see no reason why I should leave a disgusting mess for them. To me, leaving an area gross is a reflection on me. Plus, I don't want my kids growing up with the role model that is ok to leave a place dirty and messy.

  • imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    as they should be.

    i clean up as best i can and we also tip really well. i used to wait tables at tgi friday's, so i was on the other end for a while. on the one hand, i feel entitled because i cleaned up after a lot of other people's toddlers.

    on the other hand, i also know exactly how gross it is to clean up after someone else's toddler, so i can't just leave a huge mess. even if they do have people constantly cleaning, it's just rude. and disgusting.

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  • As much as I can, yes.  Even though it's true that the floors will need to be swept anyway, the next people at the table don't want to step in leftover food as they take their seats - yuck.  Plus I really want people to be more accommodating of little children in restaurants, so it seems like cleaning up after ourselves can only help the cause.
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  • imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    Having been a waitress/buser for 8 years all through highschool and college umm hell yeah I clean up my kid's mess.  And actually usually at most places you aren't going to have time to sweep or vacuum the floor between customers on a busy night so to say "they have to sweep the floor or vacuum anyway" is kinda bs.  Yeah obviously at the end of the night we swept and if someone made a huge mess then obviously we ended up having to do so.  But really it is rude and it does create more work for the staff, thus slowing down table turn overs, so yeah you should tip better if you are just gonna leave it.  And yeah it may have been my job to clean up your plates and crumbs, but seriously I had people who would let their kids smear spagetti all over the table, floor and chair or crush crackers to a pulp and then mix it with the applesauce that they let them spill everywhere who did nothing to even try to clean it up, that's just rude.

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  • I obviously don't clean it spotless, but I do pick up, the best i can.
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  • Not really, but DS isn't super messy though. He may drop a little bit on the floor but nothing crazy, and I still don't pick it up. Those floors are disgusting and I'm not busting my ass to crawl under a tiny table and pick up a bite or two of food. Isn't the point of eating out so you don't have to clean up when you're done? I could understand if DS or DH and I were messy eaters, but we aren't. 
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  • imagenumeria11:
    imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    Having been a waitress/buser for 8 years all through highschool and college umm hell yeah I clean up my kid's mess.  And actually usually at most places you aren't going to have time to sweep or vacuum the floor between customers on a busy night so to say "they have to sweep the floor or vacuum anyway" is kinda bs.  Yeah obviously at the end of the night we swept and if someone made a huge mess then obviously we ended up having to do so.  But really it is rude and it does create more work for the staff, thus slowing down table turn overs, so yeah you should tip better if you are just gonna leave it.  And yeah it may have been my job to clean up your plates and crumbs, but seriously I had people who would let their kids smear spagetti all over the table, floor and chair or crush crackers to a pulp and then mix it with the applesauce that they let them spill everywhere who did nothing to even try to clean it up, that's just rude.

    My daughter drops crumbs on the floor. I bring her own plate and utensils and sippy. If you can't pick up her crumbs then you should look into an alternative line of work. I would never let her smear food anywhere, table or wall.

    I'm not picking up food from a restaurant floor with my bare hands or even with a napkin. Restaurants should be sweeping up the crumbs between customers. They charge up to 600% markeup on their food and I tip the wait staff 25% for their service.

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  • imagekimberlyk921:
    Not really, but DS isn't super messy though. He may drop a little bit on the floor but nothing crazy, and I still don't pick it up. Those floors are disgusting and I'm not busting my ass to crawl under a tiny table and pick up a bite or two of food. Isn't the point of eating out so you don't have to clean up when you're done? I could understand if DS or DH and I were messy eaters, but we aren't. 

    I wonder of they sweep the hair from under the chair when they get a haircut or clean up the tech's table when they get a manicure or throw away the wax strips when they get a wax.  

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  • Definitely. We also tip extra if he's with us knowing that we probably missed something. I worked in a restaurant for eight years and oblivious parents were one of my biggest pet peeves.
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  • We clean up but we've always cleaned up after ourselves, even before LO.   Scoop all our waste into one dish, stack them, all the silverware in a cup, and wipe down the table.  Now with Joy we just have to wipe down the high chair and pick up the floor too.  




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  • I pick up the big chunks with a wet wipe and I wipe down the high chair, but I don't get down on my knees to clean the floor spotless or anything.  We tip accordingly.
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  • imagepiddlepaddle:
    imagenumeria11:
    imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    Having been a waitress/buser for 8 years all through highschool and college umm hell yeah I clean up my kid's mess.  And actually usually at most places you aren't going to have time to sweep or vacuum the floor between customers on a busy night so to say "they have to sweep the floor or vacuum anyway" is kinda bs.  Yeah obviously at the end of the night we swept and if someone made a huge mess then obviously we ended up having to do so.  But really it is rude and it does create more work for the staff, thus slowing down table turn overs, so yeah you should tip better if you are just gonna leave it.  And yeah it may have been my job to clean up your plates and crumbs, but seriously I had people who would let their kids smear spagetti all over the table, floor and chair or crush crackers to a pulp and then mix it with the applesauce that they let them spill everywhere who did nothing to even try to clean it up, that's just rude.

     

    My daughter drops crumbs on the floor. I bring her own plate and utensils and sippy. If you can't pick up her crumbs then you should look into an alternative line of work. I would never let her smear food anywhere, table or wall.

    I'm not picking up food from a restaurant floor with my bare hands or even with a napkin. Restaurants should be sweeping up the crumbs between customers. They charge up to 600% markeup on their food and I tip the wait staff 25% for their service.

     

    I have no idea what world you live in but clearly you have never worked in a restaurant.  Mark ups are never that high unless you are going some place like Craft Steak maybe (then I'm guessing you arent bringing your messy 2 year old with you).   See the link but here's a summary "At a fine-dining restaurant, the average cost of food is 38% to 42% of the menu price, says Kevin Moll, the CEO and president of National Food Service Advisors. In other words, most restaurants are making roughly 60% on anything they serve.

    It's not all gravy though. Restaurants keep only 4 cents of every dollar spent by a customer, says Hudson Riehle, the vice president of research and information services at the National Restaurant Association. The remainder of the money, he says, is divided among food and beverage purchases, payroll, occupancy and other overhead costs." 

    Why do you think so many restaurants go under with in the first year of business? There is actually very little profit in it.  And for you to make excuses about why you and your family get to be rude to the staff when going out is just silly.  Yeah they are there to clean up but next time you go out and there's a line that's 40 minutes long you can blame that in part on parents who dont bother to clean up to a reasonable level after their children because it does slow down the ablity to seat more people if the staff are busy scrapping up loads of crap from the floor and the table.  I;m not saying climb under the table and sweep it all up with your hands I'm saying be aware of what your kid did and pick up the big stuff or at least stop them from doing stuff you wouldnt let them do at your own table. Yeah crumbs are expected but so is courtsey.

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  • I do. I may not get every single piece of dropped food, but I definitely make an effort to reduce the amount of extra clean-up that the staff has to do and tip accordingly.

    I've actually had bus boys stop me while picking up food and say they'll take care of it, which is really nice of them. But I'd feel guilty if my kid made a huge mess and I didn't at least try to bring it down to the mess-level of your average adult diner. 

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  • I do the best I can.  I'm not a vaccum cleaner so some mess remains but I wipe things, pick up the big pieces, etc.

    I also tip well, to compensate for it.

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  • imagepiddlepaddle:
    imagenumeria11:
    imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    Having been a waitress/buser for 8 years all through highschool and college umm hell yeah I clean up my kid's mess.  And actually usually at most places you aren't going to have time to sweep or vacuum the floor between customers on a busy night so to say "they have to sweep the floor or vacuum anyway" is kinda bs.  Yeah obviously at the end of the night we swept and if someone made a huge mess then obviously we ended up having to do so.  But really it is rude and it does create more work for the staff, thus slowing down table turn overs, so yeah you should tip better if you are just gonna leave it.  And yeah it may have been my job to clean up your plates and crumbs, but seriously I had people who would let their kids smear spagetti all over the table, floor and chair or crush crackers to a pulp and then mix it with the applesauce that they let them spill everywhere who did nothing to even try to clean it up, that's just rude.

     

    My daughter drops crumbs on the floor. I bring her own plate and utensils and sippy. If you can't pick up her crumbs then you should look into an alternative line of work. I would never let her smear food anywhere, table or wall.

    I'm not picking up food from a restaurant floor with my bare hands or even with a napkin. Restaurants should be sweeping up the crumbs between customers. They charge up to 600% markeup on their food and I tip the wait staff 25% for their service.

     

    ok princess. i guess you're just taking your kid to really disgusting places, because the floor of most restaurants is not that bad.

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  • When DD was a newbie to feeding herself and made a huge mess I did, now I don't think to look under the table unless I see her throw something. 
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  • imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    It is just courteous and good manners to clean up, not to mention good modeling for your LO. I can't imagine not cleaning up, really. Even as a little kid, my mother taught me to clean up after myself at a restaurant. You come across as sounding very privileged. 

  • imagepiddlepaddle:
    No, but I tip according to her mess. The bigger the mess the bigger the tip.
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  • imagepiddlepaddle:
    No, but I tip according to her mess. The bigger the mess the bigger the tip.

    This.

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  • imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

     

    I'm not embarassed to say I don't clean up. I will get the chunks off the table but I'm not going to get on my hands and knees to scoop stuff up off the floor. They have brooms for that.

     

    I tip well, though.

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  • I don't pick up the floor either.  I have the little plastic place mats I stick on the table and I peel that up when he's done eating and voila! most of the mess is gone.  When he first started eating finger foods I would pick up because half the food would go on the floor and each time someone who worked in the restaurant would tell me I didn't have to do that, they'd clean it up so I figure it's pretty common practice for them to clean under the table.
  • imageJJ1973:
    imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:
    My guess is you aren't going to get tons of "No - I never clean up!" kinds of responses on this, because the people who don't are probably a little embarrassed. We try our best to clean up after our LO, and we also give a bigger tip. In learning what the norm is, though, I've watched tons of parents, and most of them do not clean up after their LO (on the floor).

    I'm not embarrassed in the least that I don't pick up the floor or the table. They have to sweep the floor or vacuum and they have to clean the table no matter what. If she was taking a dump in the middle of the dining area or threw up I would clean it up, no problem. 

    It is just courteous and good manners to clean up, not to mention good modeling for your LO. I can't imagine not cleaning up, really. Even as a little kid, my mother taught me to clean up after myself at a restaurant. You come across as sounding very privileged. 

    Can't slip anything past you! I'm actually a Rockefeller but didn't want to say anything for fear of being stalked. But now that the cat is out of the bag....... 

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  • imagebstrangely:
    imagepiddlepaddle:
    imagenumeria11:
    imagepiddlepaddle:

    imageJJ1973:

     

    ok princess. i guess you're just taking your kid to really disgusting places, because the floor of most restaurants is not that bad.

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    Nothing but the best for my baby girl! If they have curtains or a tablecloth or lacks a puddle of vomit under the table, it's too fancy for us.  

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  • We pick up any bigger things that have dropped on the floor, like pasta or french fries, but we don't go crazy. And we generally pick things off the table and put them on plates but don't wipe down the table unless it is really messy.

    I have to say though I don't know the last place I've been to that had people come out with a broom between customers. Having a dirty broom and dust pan around would gross me out more than using a napkin to pick up the bigger pieces of food off the floor myself.

  • imagepiddlepaddle:
    No, but I tip according to her mess. The bigger the mess the bigger the tip.

     

    Ditto.  I worked in restaurants and I paid my dues.  I tip them well, and I know it'a way easier to take those sweeper things over it than to pick it up.   

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