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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Cleaning child mess in McDonalds?

38 replies

mom20182018 · 08/07/2018 08:55

I was with my daughter today in McDonlads and another child spilled her drink. Mom and daughter age around 9 just moved to another table and made no attempt to clean up. I always ask for a towel, broom and a mop to clean any big mess my daughter makes and almost never told no. Am i wrong in doing this? Seems like people just refuse to take responsibility or am i just wrong in thinking that my child mess, my job to clean up?

OP posts:

AnastasiaVonBeaverhausen · 08/07/2018 10:07

I always clean up after my kids, always have. To the point of wiping up the crud they leave all over the floor under the high chair with a wet wipe.
I have worked in many restaurants in my student days and appreciate that staff are busy enough without having to clear up the additional mess left by my kids. On the rare occasion that we have had to rush off and I've had to leave it, I've left a bigger tip (although appreciate this is not applicable in McDonald's)

Scabetty · 08/07/2018 10:19

When my kids mess their rooms I simply move house

I worked with a teacher who complained that ‘her’ year 6s had been asked to put their hands in the bin where they chucked their cutlery by mistake ( on purpose). It was ok for the middays to do it but not ‘her’ year 6s. They were a lovely year I recall

Aridane · 08/07/2018 10:33

I would not ask for broom, mop and towel. I would inform staff though and apologise. Possibly make a token offer to help

PortiaCastis · 08/07/2018 11:22

If it's your child's mess you clean it up!

UterusUterusGhali · 08/07/2018 11:43

I had a family make a right mess in my hospital clinic room the other day; crisps on the floor, rubbish left around etc. (From their toddler)

The amount of people who come into their appointment clutching coffe cups and leave them there is astonishing. They don't even ask to use the bin! I really can't understand the mentality.

MidnightAura · 08/07/2018 11:53

I used to work in McDonald’s. It’s one thing to leave a tray on the table with everything on it. Whole different ball game to leave a table covered in food, sauce, ice, pizza boxes (yes really) and to leave the wall covered in sauce where some wee cherub has decided to do some decorating.

I have a family member who thinks nothing of letting her kids make a mess in a restaurant and walking away. Her attitude is “it’s keeping someone in a job”

Mynameischocolate · 08/07/2018 11:55

Parents should clean their child's mess, I was in costa coffee one time and there was a couple and baby, there was food all over the floor when they left. It's laziness to leave the place like that, it's not someone else's job to clean up after your child.

Tringley · 08/07/2018 12:03

We went to a Japanese restaurant when DS was 16mo. He tucked into the noodles and vegetables but he he made more mess than he usually did at that age. There were bits of noodles and julienne vegetables all over the floor under his high chair. Before we left I got down on the floor and got it all up into a napkin but the waiting staff were mortified that I'd done it. A group of them surrounded me and tried to stop me (extremely politely) and told me they would clean up. I was mortified in turn and tried to explain that it wouldn't be fair for me to leave baby mess on the floor. It was all very, very polite but I couldn't help feeling I'd managed to insult their hospitality and commit some sort of cultural faux pas.

4 years on and nothing has changed with DS though. Yesterday we went for tacos and I still ended up under the table at the end sweeping up bits of cheese and sweetcorn into a napkin.

ilovvvvemud · 08/07/2018 12:04

I was in H&M a couple of weeks ago and there was a kid in a prim next to me while his mum and dad where looking at stuff.

He tipped his bottle of coke all over the floor I said wxscuse me and pointed at him to make the parents aware.

She looked at me laughed and said "oh he always does it".

Then just carried on with what they where doing. And eventually just walked along to the next aisle.

I was gobsmacked

HildaZelda · 08/07/2018 12:31

A few years ago I was in McDonalds with a friend and her DD who was about 2.5 at the time. DD knocked over her drink and her chips fell on the floor at my side. I went to clean them up and a staff member came along at the same time. Friend said to me (in front of the staff member) "What are you picking those up for? She's the cleaner. That's what she's there for"

We are no longer friends.

Original poster

mom20182018 · 08/07/2018 17:11

@Aridane

So you don't think that being it's your child that made a mess, it's your responsibility to clean it up? I understand when it's just few crumbs on the table and/or floor but a spill is not regular mess . I always ask myself how would i feel if someone else came over to my house and then made such mess and just "informed me"

OP posts:

Original poster

mom20182018 · 09/07/2018 05:29

Midnight Aura wow. Maybe it's time for restaurant, fast food etc have a sign that says, clean up your mess before leaving. If you need to borrow cleaning equipment let us know. I am betting they do not let kids get away with that at home. Why should it in public be any different?

OP posts:

strawberrisc · 09/07/2018 06:13

I always clear the table before I leave. But then I always make the bed before leaving a hotel too!

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