Was this acceptable cafe behaviour or a big faux pas??

[AHardDaysWrite]

We're having lunch in a busy cafe (me, DH, two dcs). We ordered a main meal each plus two sides of chips to share. All the chips were soon polished off. On the next table was a woman and her son. She ordered chips for him, but when they arrived he only ate a couple and refused the rest. They left soon afterwards. My DS wanted more chips, so I gave him the (largely untouched) portion from that table. DH was aghast but my reasoning was that the waiter was only going to bin them anyway - why waste food? Was I BU?

That's awful. I would never do that. I feel nauseous just thinking about it.

It reminds me of a time when I was about 7 years old and we were having lunch in a cafe. There was a bomb scare and we were evacuated for a short while. The family on the table next to us didn't return and my mum and sister were umming and aahing about whether to eat the families fresh cream cakes which hadn't been touched. Eventually temptation got the better of them and they tucked in. The family returned. I wanted the ground to swallow me up
and I wasn't even guilty.

usualsuspectt

The child may not have been starving, but the point is that it feels wrong to be so prissy and wasteful about food when there are so many people who don't have enough.

I did the same thing at Ikea recently. DH asked DD if he could have her chips as she hadn't eaten them yet. She said no. Then I took her to the toilet and when we came back he had eaten her chips. Cue the 3-year-old outrage. I gave her a couple of chips from the (looked untouched) tray left on the table next to us.
DH wasn't impressed, but he'd just stolen his daughter's food, so what was he gonna say? ;)

arctic, I'm sorry, but you have made me laugh...that poor family.

No, I was a manager at a learndirect centre where they taught maths, english and IT courses before I had my daughter. I am a SAHM for now.

I have worked in a lot of restaurants and hotels and pubs though. I remember when I was in highschool I was told that because I had been excluded from school for 3 days (for fighting with a boy) that I would not be allowed to go in for the 2 weeks work experience placement.

I had to laugh at my guidance teacher then, I had 3 jobs at the time. I worked in my mothers health shop after school, waited breakfasts at a poncey golfing hotel and did evening waiting at a local restaurant. Didn't need any bloody work experience!

YANBU

Personally, I wouldn't have the guts but that's because I've absorbed what society thinks and wouldn't dare. There's logically nothing wrong with it at all.

And I also agree with redruby - we're squeamish out of luxury. I've seen street and favela children in Brazil swarm around a delivery of rotten fruit and massively out of date yogurts in delight - huge treat for them. Which my daughters turned down. I couldn't blame them but it was embarrassing.

Arctic....

Bomb scare = Cake coming with me!

I would do it if nobody was looking. I may have done it in the past.

Old student trick was 'mine sweeping' abandoned looking drinks as the night wore on, but I drew the line at that.

I think.

My friend used to work at Wimpy.

They used to chuck all the leftover chips back into the fryer

I don't know why people are bringing starving children from other countries into this.

The OP (I assume) is in Britain.

Her child had just eaten a main meal and half a portion of chips.

The two are not comparable

One is starvation and the other is greed.

Family and friends on the same table - ok to eat their left overs.

Random people who left stuff on another table - not ok unless you're starving or something.

Thanks for saying what I was thinking Worra-didn't know how to say it.

Wouldn't have done it personally - but out of embarrassment, not the bleugh factor. After all, at weddings and parties everyone helps themselves from the same plates at the buffet table don't they?

Don't get MN'ers started on buffets thistle..

Can of worms right there.

Yes they do Thistle, double dipping and everything.

I ate a piece of scone off DP's plate at the weekend and then asked why he'd left it.
'Because it had fallen on the floor' he says....
I am still alive and well.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/_chat/2009665-What-are-the-worst-crimes-you-have-seen-committed-at-a-buffet-Or-any-communal-food-situation?msgid=45422874

Here you go Thistle.

If the OP would otherwise have ordered some more chips because the portions were small and her children were hungry then why is it greedy? This was food that was otherwise going in the bin.

My mother was a post war baby brought up during rationing and to her waste was a cardinal sin. We waste a huge amount of food. I think that is a much bigger issue.

I wonder if any of the previous posters who say the OP is BU have ever experienced real hunger?

Just saying ...

Bit irrelevant Sergeant. Nobody in the OP was experiencing 'real hunger' were they? The DS had already eaten one meal.....

The child may not have been starving, but the point is that it feels wrong to be so prissy and wasteful about food when there are so many people who don't have enough.

Love it. This is gonna be my new excuse for eating ten meals a day.

"I'm just eating it for the starving Africans"

Ooh, I see. Thanks Sparkling ......

Ewww....I would never do it, I would rather buy enough food for my kids to eat and if I couldn't afford to, then I wouldn't eat out.