We went out to eat tonight and the service was terrible, but LO made a mess so I still left a larger than average tip.
I usually try to pick up the worst of it. Do you pick up the mess or let the restaurant do it? Do you leave a bigger tip to compensate?
wonderful cherry / 21504 posts
I leave a slightly bigger tip and try to clean up the worst of it. If the service was really bad I would probably just leave an average tip.
For clean up I pick up the biggest pieces. A lot of times they see me and tell me they will sweep it up anyway. I also usually bring food for c still, so I just bring food that's harder to make a giant mess with.
Meanwhile tonight we were the parents asking for our entrees to go since LO was just done. Oh well.
papaya / 10343 posts
Right now LO is just eating puffs or melts at a restaurant-- mostly to keep her busy so we can eat-- so it is really easy to use a napkin to just sweep them into a pile and pick them up off the floor. I always do that. But I do also generally leave a nicer tip, especially if the waiter was particularly nice to us about bringing a baby.
grapefruit / 4110 posts
Not typically unless I know the waiter/waitress is the one that cleans the mess. Typically it is someone else who gets the mess. I have directly tipped the bus boys who do the actual cleaning if it is really bad. I've tipped the waiter/tress if I know they clean up. But won't do much for bad service.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
Yes I try to clean up and I tip a little more. There's nothing I hated more than parents who received good service and then left giant messes and a standard 10% tip. And we're polite. It might surprise you how many aren't
nectarine / 2272 posts
We already tip pretty well I think (20%) but if LO was super difficult, yes I would tack on a little more. And I would make a serious attempt to clean up.
hostess / cantaloupe / 6486 posts
I usually wipe off the table and chair...they're on their own with the floor lol i do tend to tip a little larger and I always apologize for the mess if I get a chance.
cherry / 223 posts
As a server it used to irk me when parents wouldn't at least attempt to clean up a bit after their child. I'm not gonna lie, I would get pretty annoyed even more if they left a bad tip on top of not cleaning up. I worked in a restaurant where servers cleaned up their own tables and the floor in their sections. I had to clean up vomit multiple times from kids whose parents would just leave without letting me know what happened or try to help clean it up. Now that I have a LO I definitely try to clean up after her when we're out and tip more if there's still a mess.
kiwi / 566 posts
Yes! We gave a 30% tip at a buffet where the waiter barely visited recently: it was cheap and the mess was huge so we thought a big tip made sense.
kiwi / 566 posts
Oh and I missed the second part of the question but we definitely wipe off the table and try to pick the biggest pieces off the floor.
pomegranate / 3643 posts
@Beth24: OMG really?? My LO threw up in as napkin once. I wrapped it in other napkins (cloth) and told the waitress about it. I didn't want her grabbing a vomit-y napkin!
We haven't been out to eat in ages, but I usually try to pick up if there is anything on the floor. I know its not very effective, but it feels like an FU otherwise.
kiwi / 549 posts
Not really. I wipe off the table and chair but I'm not getting on the floor to clean up food. Sorry but that's not my job.
I notice at most restaurants we go too, there is someone eho has down time to is usually sweeping or whatever. I don't think it's really that hard to quick sweep the floor under one spot of a table.
persimmon / 1481 posts
This hasn't happened to me yet, but I work at a restaurant and I had a table once where the little girl literally flipped the table over and knocked everything on the floor; broken glass, everything. The parents sat there while we cleaned up and left 10%!
grapefruit / 4110 posts
@MrsHansen82: this is really only in the example of bad service. Good service gets a big tip since kids are rough in general (half juice/half water). But we have directly tipped the bus boy who has to clean our table if the service wasn't good but we left too much of a mess.
cherry / 168 posts
I tip bigger and I try to pick up any big pieces of food she's thrown. My husband used to be a server and all the crap he used to tell me about how people acted in restaurants and treated the staff makes me almost always want to leave a nice tip and try not to make their job difficult. Now if I get terrible service that's different.
nectarine / 2600 posts
@MrsHansen82: omg that's crazy!
I used to be a server, and yeah...I definitely appreciated it if a slightly bigger tip was left. One time, someone left a dirty diaper in my booth 
And generally, bus boys just bus (clear) the table, and wipe it. But it's the server's responsibility to clean their section at the end of their shift. That means sweeping, and getting in the cracks of the booths and what not.
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
@TheSwissWifeStyle: ugh I've had people used to leave me dirty diapers, too! So classless
grapefruit / 4823 posts
We do leave a larger tip if the kids made a big mess. I feel bad. I also try to pick up the big stuff, and contain the mess on the floor.
nectarine / 2521 posts
@TheSwissWifeStyle: @blackbird: Who on earth does these things?! Crazy.
20% automatically, even with bad service, because of the mess. Much more if I have good service. I had a waitress the other day that took LO and followed me to the salad bar area and occupied him so I could fill our plates - she was awesome and got a huge tip.
eggplant / 11716 posts
So far, our LO has never made a mess at a restaurant, but the few food pieces she's dropped, I've just picked up and tipped as normal (20%).
pomelo / 5469 posts
Not really. We try to do a good job of cleaning the highchair/floor ourselves and when possible stop LO making a mess in the first place by giving her less messy food.
wonderful olive / 19353 posts
Depends on the service, but like other mommies, I pick up the large chunks/as much as I can.
apricot / 391 posts
We will jokingly leave $1-5 right at the baby's place setting and say it's an apology from her. haha!
wonderful grape / 20453 posts
@TheSwissWifeStyle: @Tanjowen: Right?! People who have zero class, that's who. "hey, here's my kid's shit. Thanks". Once, i had a lady dump cottage cheese out on the table for her kid to draw in. It ended up all over the window, too. People are just....ugh, sometimes
hostess / wonderful watermelon / 39513 posts
I pick up as much as possible and I leave a better tip.
persimmon / 1420 posts
20% at minimum and I'm on my hands and knees on the floor, and I take home garbage like pouches and the like. I've been the server that has to clean up disgusting messes before, and that is NOT their job. It's a parent's job to make sure their kid leaves no more of a mess than an adult.
honeydew / 7444 posts
DD is pretty good at restaurants but I always clean up anything that she has dropped on the floor, and will leave a better tip.
pomelo / 5220 posts
I would definitely try to clean up and tip well if he made a huge mess... What is wrong with people? diapers, cottage cheese... gross.
grapefruit / 4712 posts
We clean up any mess and generally tip extra. I was a server before. Not my job to clean up huge mess, plus were I worked I had to tip out all my support staff. I think sometimes people forget that servers survive on their tips. Also when we go out I make a point to give things to my kids that make a big mess.
nectarine / 2765 posts
@meganmp: amen...and with twins its twice the mess. I'm not leaving that for someone else to take care of.
pomegranate / 3355 posts
I clean up the floor, it's not that difficult and if we were home I'd be doing it anyway. We tip normally unless there was a reason to tip more
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