To think you should pick up after your kids

[Rustycheeks]

Went for brunch today. Very busy cafe, quite new and heard waitress apologising to someone as it was their first BH weekend and busier than normal.
family of 4 sitting next to our table. Food comes out and a few minutes later I notice a whole fried egg on the floor under the bench the boy aged roughly 9/10 was sitting at. Didn’t think of it again as busy entertaining toddler while we waited for food.
family finishes and gets up to leave. I then hear the dad ask the son if he dropped his egg on the floor and is told yes. Then they just continue on to the till to pay and leave.
Surely you should be picking up a whole damn egg that you know your child has dropped, or better still make them pick it up.
But they didn’t even bother to mention it, and because of where it was there was a good chance the rushed waitress would not have seen it before someone else stuck their foot in it. I told her it was there when she was wiping down their table.

I do see this a surprising amount. People just leaving a huge mess of food on the floor and table for someone else to sort out. Some crumbs sure, but entire pieces of food is just pure laziness isn’t it?

YANBU

Yep. Disgusting, lazy parenting. I recently saw a large family get up and leave their pub table & floor around them in a disgusting mess, they had no shame. Years ago at a play place two women got up and said ‘sorry about the mess’ and then just walked off leaving crap all over the floor where they had fed their children. It was as if a chimps tea party had been going on.
No manners some people. They thing the staff are there to clear up their mess because ‘that’s what they get paid for’.

YANBU I always clean up as best as I can. What message does it teach the children if you walk away and leave it for staff?

Oh that’s grim! And 9/10 is really old for a whole egg on the floor! I know you can’t do much about crumbs armed only with a napkin but surely you pick up the big stuff??

Yes YANBU pure skanks. Anyone that leaves a mess in their wake is a shank. Probably walk out mumbling some such words as "it's their job"

Skanks

Yep that is disgusting behaviour from the people known as parents , I would guess they have always been foul people who think staff should clean after their children without telling them off for bad behaviour .

YANBU.

Yeah it’s gross. Some people really lean into the ‘we are being served’ attitude and think it means they can leave the table as a complete tip because someone is being paid to pick up after them.

It's lazy and grim. When I worked in a cafe, the manager gave parents a dust pan and brush if their kids had made a massive mess and the parents made no effort to clean it up themselves.

Yanbu but it doesn't surprise me. I work in a supermarket though so I'm probably quite jaded. People are lazy and gross.

I hate parents like this. I run restaurants and I always say would you like a dustpan and brush to make picking up the food easier? Most of the entitled idiots and v shocked I won’t let them leave disgusting mess for the waitresses to pick up.

And if you do it, fuck you!

YANBU. I have two toddlers and if we eat out with them I always pick up whatever I can grab off the floor before we leave. It's not perfect but at least we don't leave the place completely filthy. A fried egg on the floor is disgusting.

Also, when I worked in restaurants I always found that the parents with children who left a huge mess behind were lousy tippers, whereas the parents whose children behaved impeccably usually left a larger than average tip "for the trouble".

A few months ago we were in a hotel with a breakfast buffet and the family near us had twins about 1 yr old and another toddler about 2 yrs old. They were just heaping food onto the high chairs which all 3 kids were gleefully throwing onto the floor. Eggs, toast, cereal, fruit, the whole lot went onto the floor. At the end the mum said 'look what a mess you little monsters have made' put them in their pushchairs and walked off.

Not a word to the staff, no attempt to scoop it all up, literally trashed the place and wandered away. Disgusting and disrespectful behaviour in my opinion.

you are not wrong, I walk in a lovely open space , think country park, the number of times we find piles of left over picnic or drinking crap left for others to pick up. If you can carry it into the park you can bloody well carry it out again. I won’t even start on the disposable bbqs that are left…… what is so wrong with peoples heads that they don’t understand simple politeness and social skills.

Its awful, and you have to wonder what their homes are like.

It’s a good point about what message that sends to the children. One that says “these people are beneath us and here to clean up after us”.
Honestly it’s so scummy. They didn’t appear to be slobs on the face of it, but my first impression was wrong.
I’d love for the mum to be a mumsnetter and see this.

More than once have I asked for a dustpan and brush to clear up after us. I've not had to for a year or so, but when my dd was a toddler food went on the floor. Dp and I saw it as nobody's job to clear up but ours. A couple of times we were refused, but when allowed, we did. And I judge those who don't.

Sheer fucking piggery. What is that teaching the kid. People are utter cunts.

I work in a venue (not a restaurant) that sells food and drink. Most parents do not clear up. Not even when they bring their own food in. It never ceases to amaze me how much mess they leave behind. We have huge bins. Most people do not even put their empty crisp packets in the bin.

Totally agree. Disgusting. I am always scrabbling on the floor picking up my baby's mess. I would hate the serving staff to have to do it.

People are idiots.

I had to suffer through some awful children today. Two sisters (friends?) and their young kids climbing, banging their legs, flinging coats, spilled their babycino. The two women sat and said nothing. Cleaned the milk up at least.

Some people are selfish and don't care. Someone else will do it. Dropping an egg on the floor is next level. And the kid is too damn old for that.

Lots of us have (young) kids and we do alm we can to make sure they're pleasant and not disturbing anyone. Some people just have no shame. What will the children grow up to be like with parents like that?

It’s just laziness. The same people probably throw their litter on the floor, don’t pick up dog poo, etc etc I see it all the time sadly.

Our cinema asks us to leave our mess behind so that they can properly recycle. Not that I think that leaving a mess behind in any venue is ok.