At a restaurant, do you pick up after your child?

[Rouge]

Yep I do it. But to be honest I wouldn't take my child to a restaurant other than maybe a fast food outlet if they were throwing food off the high chair. Its not just a messy problem its a food health safety issue. What if someone slipped on the food and burnt someone with coffee or hot food? I'd feel terrible. Crumbs, bits of this and that fine but I wouldn't let my child throw food off just for fun. Accidental mess is unavoidable.

[LadyRaven]

I pick up the chunks and a majority, i don't go crawling around for individual tiny bits of rice or anything though. I have offered to use their vacuum cleaner to clean. At Ryans first bday party we went nuts and offered to clean the lot up, the resturant refused so my dad tipped them $50 for cleaning because, well, bday cake went EVERYWHERE LOL

[amberj]

Yep I do it. But to be honest I wouldn't take my child to a restaurant other than maybe a fast food outlet if they were throwing food off the high chair. Its not just a messy problem its a food health safety issue. What if someone slipped on the food and burnt someone with coffee or hot food? I'd feel terrible. Crumbs, bits of this and that fine but I wouldn't let my child throw food off just for fun. Accidental mess is unavoidable.

Please don't think I allow my child to throw food off his high chair for fun, whether out or at home, although I understand how my post could have been read that way.

[Saffi]

Yeah, we pick up the larger chunks and wipe down the worst of it. Its not that DS is a food thrower its just all those bits that don't quite make it into his mouth and fall down onto his lap and then the floor. Most restaurant high chairs aren't adjustable to catch the spillages.

[Rouge]

Please don't think that was a judgement directed at you either As it certainly wasn't.

[Lolli]

I pick it up. I hate doing it, but I can only imagine the wait staff must hate it more....

[LadyRaven]

I went to a resturant in town that actually put down a plastic mat, set up his highchair and he got kiddie cutlery, it was a swish-ish place. They asked what the young master would be having that evening and cut his food up into little chunks for him, it was very cute! Some places are great with kids, others glare when they see you coming, I find if you go to the kid happy places they are usually used to mess and are happy to obligue the little ones rather than stare at you and make you feel awkward

[Ca Plane Pour Moi]

If it's big, I pick it up. If it's a couple of grains of rice or crumbs of bread, I don't. I would leave that mess and not pick up after me!

Last time DS and I were out for dinner, he dropped a grating of carrot, 2 pieces of sweetcorn and spilt some water on the table. I mopped up the water (the waitress brought more napkins for me). I didn't pick up the food as that's "normal" droppage and vacuumed up at the end of the night.

Half his dinner on the floor or a few chips, I would have picked up.

[amberj]

Please don't think that was a judgement directed at you either As it certainly wasn't.

Thanks, no worries

[JordieC]

I pick up the obvious stuff but not crumbs or anything minor. They have the tools to clean up, we don't.

[Visitor8]

depends. I always go to the counter and ask for a sponge or broom to clean it up and 99% of the time they tell me not to worry about it.

That way I feel that I've offered, they've said no so I leave feeling ok with the mess left behind

[Sammiejane]

I pick it up... But i also will go and ask for a dustpan/cloth etc and often am told not to worry.

It is disgusting the way some people leave their tables, especially the ones with Kids that should be able to eat without throwing food around... We were out not so long ago and there was a family with 2 kids probably about 6-8. they made more mess that MJ and honestly i reckon she had better cutlery skills than they did. I felt more embarressed for the kids than the parents... its just lazy not to teach your children how to have even moderate table manners...
I digress however

[rustygirl]

haha I did this the other night. We went out for dinner and Cohen threw chips all over the floor and I picked them all up. At the time I thought..."Is this normal" and I had a few glances....but I'd rather me do it than leave it a feel like a pig and have ppl look at me like I was rude.

[prama]

we clean up, he's our son and our responsibility. wait staff arent housekeeping. also, we feel it's important to instill in DS that you dont make other ppl clean up after you. He's only 17mths but I hope he knows that mess has to be cleaned up. (He copies me wiping the mess off our kitchen floor!)

[Inertia]

Always.

I think for me though it was just ingrained into me because I always watched mum do it and as I got older, helped her do it. There was one time before I was born though that mum needed to get the restaurants help - and mum almost never took any of us back to an eatery after it! My older sister decided to feed her fried rice to the fish in the fish tank and a chinese restaurant!

After that, mum got a chinese cook book and started cooking her own, lmao.

[Visitor8]

just for a laugh, wanted to share...

We went to the park the other day, Ashton sat on the foam ground with his curried egg sandwich, he made a mess, he crawled the couple of crawls to the pram and pulled out a facewasher all on his own then proceeded to wipe it all up (of course it was just getting spread everywhere) and it was soooooooooo cute!

[murraysmum]

me and dp went to the bakery last week and my son decided to choke on his pie was pretty scary well i scooped the offending food out with my fingers and chucked it ina bin well there was smooshed pie on the table where he had dropped it in shock so i started to clean up with his baby wipes the lady behind the counter came over and thanked me in front of everyone as apprently i was the first parent she has seen come in there actully bother to clean up

so dosent matter where i go i belive in cleaning up as i dont want to get germs i even wipe out the trolley befor ei put ds in it and after he gets out as he tends to get his juice everywhere and chewed up biscuit on the seat

its just curtisy my son dosent make a huge mess but they are toddlers they tend to make a lil mess that needs cleaning


and yeah wait staff arnt there to clean but its nice when they offer to help

[Indadhanu]

Yep, I grab a wipe and pick it all up, not that we eat out often for pretty much that reason