AIBU to expect parents to tidy up in cafés?

No, I wouldn't make a complete disgusting mess in the first place.

Young man and older lady in my local McDs always tell me to leave it. She saw me clearing up last week and shouted out to me to leave it.

So you would walk away and leave a table a complete disgusting mess would you?

The staff are paid to clear the tables not clean up a total mess made by lazy entitled people (sounds like you are one of them)

I always clear up when I've taken GC out for food but generally a staff member comes over and tells me to leave it and they will do it. I still clear up but I wonder if they think I'm just a poor old souls who can't do it. I'm in my 70s.

YANBU in general but I think all the posters who do BLW in public are unreasonable.

Accidents happen but purposely putting a child in a high chair knowing they're going to throw food everywhere should be done at home whether you clean it up or not.

YABU. Part of what you're paying for in a cafe is not having to clear up your own mess. You can stay at home for that.

Loads of skanks there.

I would never leave a table or high chair (when mine were little) in such a state. It’s part of the reason I carried baby wipes!

I think the COVID years have done a lot to normalise poor customer service.

So I ran my business pre covid when you were expected to be nice to customers and deliver good customer service, if not then you would expect a bad review and yes that did include cleaning up after very messy customers without showing annoyance. Believe it or not, this new way of huffing and puffing and treating customers like they are the enemy is a relatively new phenomenon.

I dare say customers who knew they could leave your premises like a shit tip thought you were a brilliant business, because you were enabling their inconsiderate behaviour (and probably reinforcing it, if you had a lot of repeat business.) Your prerogative how you chose to run your business, but if every business did it the entitled attitudes and downright feraldom some people practise (e.g leaving shit and vomit for poorly paid staff to clean up, as people on this thread have witnessed) would become even more widespread. Just saying.

Sadly OP some people are just skanks. Entitled skanks.

BLW = baby led weaning. So more finger food baby can eat independently as opposed to spoon feeding them. BLW is messier.

What is BLW? Yes, I agree it is rank and inconsiderate when parents don't clean up their mess in cafes.

To be fair I never gave my toddlers free rein with ketchup and things like that. With bits of food everywhere I tend to pick up as we go rather than leave it to the end. As I've said I'd stack the plates and put everything on them but I wouldn't wipe or ask for a dustpan and brush. I'm not spending money on a service to do the work myself.

But what is your idea of a complete mess? It could be vastly different from the next person. I worked in hospitality when a student. The public in general are disgustingly and rude but parents take it to a whole new level. We once had a child VOMIT on the table. The parents and other children continued eating then got up and left. That was truly vile.

we never leave a cafe without tidying everything up, brushing any crumbs onto plates and either leaving crockery correctly stacked so staff can easily take it away or I’ll stack everything onto the tray and return it to staff if possible. Working in hospitality is thankless enough without adding to their workload.

I always ensure the table is left relatively tidy/sweeped into the plate etc but I won't be getting on the floor they have brooms for that I do leave a tip though if it's particularly bad.
My daughter is now to the point she cleans after herself in restaurants (by using half a bloody pack of baby wipes 😡)

Seen it quite a few times in makkies. Eat some , leave the rest , drinks, sauce pots spread all over the table , the staff have enough to do without having to clean up a table of mess

Like anything it’s a matter of proportionality.
A few crumbs fallen off a high chair and a a ripped up napkin -fine. It’s to be expected
Mashed up muffin, emptied sugar packets, bits of pasta and sauce everywhere, ketchup squeezed all over the table indicates youve allowed them to make more of a mess than is necessary. Expecting others to clean it up is disrespectful.
No one is expecting you to mop floors or be on your hands and knees picking up every tiny crumb. It is the staffs job to clean messes that are reasonably expected. When it’s excessive or unneccessary mess some attempt at clearing it and picking up chunks of food and not just leaving it is surely just common sense.

No excuse, it only takes a few seconds to use a serviette and brush crumbs/spillage into a bowl or plate. I had four kids and we always left it tidy and clean after us.
It’s the same shite attitude that dog owners who don’t up after their pooches.

Usually a dog isn't eating its meal in a café, though. Kids are horrifically messy eaters.. toddlers the worst. They just haven't learned fine motor skills yet not least table manners. That's normal of course. Parents should clear up the worst of it after them so that it's no more messy than if adults had been there.

Dogs aren't really a comparison here, because they do not eat their actual meals in cafés. It's very rare for a dog owner in a café to open a tin of pedigree chum and start unloading kibble into a dog bowl. Even if they did, dogs just eat. They don't play squeeze and explore their food like toddler humans naturally do.

You are the reason people would rather cater to dogs than children. Dogs are at least tied up and under control. It's not the kids, it's the few skanky parents who don't control their kids or clean up after them.

Why is it that most people on the thread disagree with you, then?

It's not a matter of a business expecting customers to clean (and it's not really cleaning is it?) it's a matter of decent customers not leaving an area where they sat and ate a disgusting mess.

If you are clean and tidy at home why would you suddenly decide that leaving a place looking like a bomb hit it is acceptable?

It's as automatic to me (and DH) to leave a place tidy and, not going overboard on cleaning, not disgustingly filthy whether it's a cafe, coffee shop, restaurant or holiday let

Mind you, having cleaned hotel rooms and holiday cottages in the past I know just what pigs so many people can be and they then expect someone else to clear up after them.