If your child vomited in a restaurant what would you do?

[TheTiredBartender]

Don't read this post if talking about vomit disturbs you.

I work FOH in a nice independent restaurant. It's expensive and quite formal. Not really a place for small children but we do have a lot of families eating with us during the holidays.

It's day 2 of half term here and I have had 2 different children vomit in my restaurant. I honestly can not believe how the parents involved have behaved. I need to get this off my chest.

The first one yesterday was dreadful. Poor child stood in the middle of the room, gagging and retching, and her parents just sat there! There was no way she would have made it to the loo so I ran over with the bin from my bar and instead of puking in to the bin the poor kid turned her head towards a table of four and let go. I was literally catching sick in my hands so it didn't land on this woman just trying to eat her lunch.
Her parents still did nothing, just carried on sitting there with their mouths hanging open. So I held the bin up under her chin and helped her to the bathroom. Finally her mum came in to help the poor girl and I returned to absolute chaos in the restaurant.
I got everything cleaned up, the vomit family came to pay their bill and asked for the gratuity to be removed. I don't ever expect tips, the gratuity is added to the bill automatically, I have no problem removing it normally but when I have literally just caught your child's vomit in my bare hands I think leaving that 10% tip is the least you can do. They didn't even say thank you.

Then today I have a table of 12 in my section, 8 adults and 4 children. They're enjoying their main courses when all of a sudden they stand up at once and start getting ready to leave, very suspicious behaviour. I start walking over when one of the mum's comes rushing up to me and tells me, in a very jolly manner, that one her of her children has just vomited a little bit but it's fine because she caught it on her plate and they just want to pay the bill and get the child home. I hand her over to another waitress to sort the bill and go over to their table.
She definitely managed to catch the vomit on her plate. And 6 other plates. It's in some glasses, on a cushion, and in the flowers. Oh, and the floor! There is no way that much sick came from one child. So, once again, I am left to clean up vomit. I have to give my customers to the other servers and close that section to deal with it all.
While I'm cleaning the waitress who dealt with their bill comes over to tell me that they removed the gratuity and also demanded a 50% discount since they didn't get to finish their meals before their child was sick. When that was refused they made a complaint that I had pulled a face and given a disgusted look and I should be more cheerful.

There is, of course, the knock-on effect of other customers being unhappy and complaining (understandable) and wanting discounts on their bills etc.

I have two children. We eat out often. If one of them were to be sick then I'd be cleaning it up myself and if for some reason I couldn't then I would be apologising to every staff member and customer nearby then I'd leave a huge tip.

YABU - Minimum wage waiting staff should clean up vomit without complaining.

YANBU - Of course I'd clean up my child's vomit and if I couldn't then I'd make sure the staff knew how grateful I am for their help.

I think it is doing the rounds. We all had it a couple of weeks ago and a lot of people I know have also had it - including my dad - who we hadn't mixed with.

Yanbu op. Some people are just rank.

You dealt with two very disgusting families and I would’ve told them exactly what I thought of them
The first family, I would’ve told you to clean up her childs sick because that’s not what you’re paid to do
but to answer your question, if my child was sick, I would offer to clean it

Ds was sick in a cafe last summer. He said "I'm going to be sick" and I just froze. I couldn't think what to do. I didn't have a bag, I couldn't see the toilet, there was a queue of people at the door so I wasn't sure he'd get there, I couldn't see a bin, I just stood there while he threw up all over the floor. I probably looked like I wasn't bothered but inside I was desperately trying and failing to think what to do.

So to answer your question I always imagined I'd efficiently pull out a carrier bag from my pocket or something but when it happened I just stood there like a rabbit in the headlights

The staff wouldn't let me clear anything up, they brought me something to eat outside and I gave them a £20 tip.

Is it? I was always under the impression food poisoning took a little longer. But yeah, two in two days seems a bit much - I worked in a theme park and never dealt with that much vomit!

I’ve not had a child vomit in a restaurant thankfully but if I did I would absolutely clean it up as best I could. My daughter was recently sick in a holiday cottage the night before we checked out and it was everywhere! We ended up checking out late because I stripped the bedding and washed it all and scrubbed the carpet as best I could. I explained what had happened to the owner and they were really nice about and said just to leave it but I couldn’t have left my child’s vomit for someone else to deal with!

I'm a nurse so well used to catching vomit. People always panic when they/their kids are about to be sick and try to run to the bathroom but in reality most kids won't make it. My eldest is spectacular at not making it. I'd catch it in his jacket then wrap it in to a ball, pay plus tip and GTFO before he whiteys again. If he did puke on the table/surroundings I would ask for supplies and clean it up as best as possible but in reality it would need bleach of some sort which I wouldn't imagine you would let me as a customer use and if I didn't have another adult with me it would probably be a better use of my time to remove him from the premises as I know if he's gone once he will go again so sadly there probably would be some part of the cleanup left to staff. I have worked in retail/healthcare for 15 years now so I feel your pain.

Awful OP, I can't believe they asked to remove the service charge! Not only would I have tipped more and cleaned up as much as I could myself, I can't imagine why they didn't want to leave as soon as possible rather than hanging round for an amended bill.

I worked in a cinema as a student, cleaning up sick was my least favourite bit, especially as people just seemed to throw up, carry on watching the film and leave us to find it when trying to get the screen ready for the next showing

Absolutely gobsmacked that anyone thinks this is acceptable behaviour. I could perhaps forgive being shocked or, if you were emetophobic, freaked out (I find the sight/sounds of people vomiting really triggering. But asking for the tip to be removed is unbelievable behaviour.

That is absolutely appalling behaviour! My daughter was once sick in an airport hotel at about 5am and let me tell you we were mortified. We scurried around cleaning everything, most of it was caught in her pushchair 🫣 but we used all our baby wipes clearing everything up and apologized profusely.

My son was sick in a restaurant when he was about 10. He'd been totally fine all day, said he felt a bit sick in the car on the way, but that was quite normal. We were ordering our food and he said he wasn't very hungry but wanted to order so we thought he was fine. Ordered, drinks arrived, and he said he was going to be sick literally about 2 seconds before it happened.

We managed to catch most of it on the tray the drinks came on, I offered to clean the tray myself but that was refused. There was no sick anywhere else except a tiny bit on him but I would 110% have cleaned it up myself if so.

We paid for our drinks and left, would have paid for any food that they'd started to prep but it wasn't necessary as they hadn't. We left a big tip.

That to me is how you should behave if your kid books in a restaurant. I'm horrified at your experience

One of my DC was sick in a nice restaurant once, because it turned out something they had eaten contained an ingredient to which they were allergic (our fault for not triple checking). I felt absolutely terrible. I managed to grab said child and run like hell with them to the loo as soon as it was clear that there was an allergic reaction, though some still went on the floor. The staff were absolutely lovely and helped me to clear up the loo (which was beyond the call of duty). and the fact that this was 20 years ago and I still remember it so clearly says how grateful I was to them.

I would be mortified and do anything I could to avoid anyone else having to deal with my child’s puke!!
saying that though, I remember clearly when my 4 year old niece was terminally ill and was sick in a pub and the staff looked at us like 🙄. I went over to ask for blue roll/spray/bucket etc so I could clean it up and they looked down their nose at me. I even said ‘She’s having chemo she’s terminally ill’ and they still looked like she was something they’d trodden in. It was a real shock.

The tip removal is absolutely the definition of being a CF.

My kids like to bus vomit and I've developed excellent skills at detecting the cough that precedes the puke.most recent caught it all in a cup which I had little option but to tip onto the gutter at the next stop (wed got a while to go and it was for a hospital appt) but when I've done a less impressive job and somes gone on the floor even then I look for newspapers etc to try and clean up what I can and take them off the bus when we leave.

Can't imagine having the audacity to leave the puke, remove the tip AND ask for a discount for not finishing my meal.

OP I'm so sorry that your customers were so disgustingly behaved

The first time we took 18mo Dd abroad, Spanish island, first night went to dinner in hotel restaurant strapped her into her high chair, ordered drinks and food, all lovely, then Dd puked filling the tray and covering herself and some of the floor, we were mortified. Staff were amazing, insisted on cleaning up, and told us all to go and change and come back and they'd keep our food warm. We returned, somewhat sheepish, and they were so kind, and then she did exactly the same thing again, I honestly could have died from shame but again the staff were fantastic, wouldn't let us do anything and said to go back to our room and they'd have our meal sent up.

We assumed flying didn't agree with her but alas she'd evidently been harbouring a bug and spent the next 36 hours puking, it was awful, but the hotel were epic and I still remember the chamber maid knocking super quietly and handing me a huge pile of cleaning kit and extra cot bedding to see us through the night. We were very grateful and left big tips!

This hasn’t happened to me but my dog was sick in a cafe once. Normally I can see the signs but this time he did it before I could rush him out. I insisted on clearing it up myself, despite the lovely waiter saying don’t worry. Mum took the dog outside, and I made them bring me the stuff to clean up the sick and I gave them a very generous tip.

My toddler did vomit in a cafe.

Having a bag full of wet wipes and nappy sacks, I cleared it up then left (had already paid).

That is grim. My kids always save it for the car in the way home, normally when I hit a bit of road with no stopping places.

They did once witness a man throwing up the 10 pints he had drunk when we ate at a pub. We did not ask for a discount as they were thoroughly entertained - little weirdos. Luckily it was outside so it got hosed down and no staff had to catch it in their hands.

Well that's just horrible and certainly NOT how I would have treated you.

Like I said in previous comments, the offer to help or even just a thank you goes such a long way.

If the customers in my OP had done either of those things I wouldn't have been quite so pissed off about it all. I was still polite and professional and yet they didn't show any gratitude or even apologise (not even to the woman the child was sick on!!), instead they just acted so unpleasantly.

That's never happened to me; closest I've ever come was when the dog had a wee in the pet shop (normally he's impeccable; I suspect another dog had been there before and we were seeing the 'lamp post effect').

I was mortified. I asked for cleaning materials, and the staff looked slightly shocked I'd asked!

Some people are utterly disgusting.

Dd puked on the floor while queuing for a McDonald’s once and I offered to clean it up, they wouldn’t let me. But I would have done so if they’d given me a bucket.

Presumably because even if your child is seriously ill, and vomiting multiple times for about a year suggests something more sinister than a stomach bug, you also want to live your life and if it’s assumed it might be the last year of your child’s life you want to make memories that aren’t just hospital or home based.
Takeaways and being at home isn’t the same.
I say that as someone who goes out with an empty plastic lined tote-bag just in case.

I posted above that I cleaned up when my DS vomited, but the staff would definitely have needed to clean afterwards, they just wouldn't have needed to scoop up handfuls of vomit off the floor. I assumed that they would mop/spray/bleach or whatever afterwards but I just wanted to make sure they didn't have to actually handle vomit.

When my son was sick in Costco they sprinkled special powder on it and then brushed it up. It was called a vomit kit.

My DS was also sick in Costco, he was having an eye examination and out of nowhere threw up over the chair, floor and the unfortunate optician who was doing a close up part of the examination at the time. I scooped him up (apologising profusely) and found a bin to catch anything else that came up. The staff wouldn’t let me clean up because they use a vomit kit, they also said they were more worried about poorly DS, which was kind of them.

We went back a few days later with flowers for the optician and asked if we could pay the cleaning bill for her coat, which caught most of the sick.

The staff were lovely, very helpful and reassuring to DS who was absolutely mortified.

OP I’d have tried to clean it up as best I could, given I’d obviously also have a poorly child to deal with - leaving a decent tip and sincere thanks for all help offered.

People are grim. I worked at a soft play place as a teenager and kids would puke all the time and 16 year old me would end up cleaning it up. A child once pooped himself, diarrhea, and left drops of it all around and up and down the slide and the parent sat there watching me clean it up.