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.
Re: do you clean up your area after eating out?
Not perfectly, but I make an effort to get most of the mess up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Eleanor Noelle - 18/05/12 Claire Elisabeth - 16/-5/10
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.
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.
DD1, 1/5/2008 ~~~ DD2, 3/17/2010
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.
ok princess. i guess you're just taking your kid to really disgusting places, because the floor of most restaurants is not that bad.
DD2 8.22.13
MMC 1.4.17 at 16w
Expecting #3, EDD 1.29.18
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.
BFP #2 1/22/2012 ~ DS2 & DD ~ BIRTHday 9/13/2012 ~ unplanned C-section @ 38w1d
This.
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.
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.......
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.
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.
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.