Another post got me thinking...(cleaning up after your kids in public)

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• by
  • suzi960
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:24 AM

• i always clean up after ourselves and teaching my boys to do the same   you make the mess  u clean it up... whether its in a fast food joint or doc office or someone elses house..

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• by
  • BewitchedKisses
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:28 AM

• I was going to answer this, but then I realized since we've gotten custody of my husband's children, we have not all been out to a resturant at all. We don't have a car that will fit everybody so we don't go anywhere that we can't walk.

  Usually if a couple of us go out, I do make the kids clean up their own messes. They are at the age now where they know what's acceptable and what's not in public and they clean their areas after they eat at home, as well as out somewhere.
  

  
  

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  • tclizzle8507
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:32 AM

• Yes, I do clean up at restaurants. It's just polite.

  More important, I think is that I clean up after my child at other people's homes. It irks me to no end when people bring their children over to play with mine and their kids ransack my home and the parents leave the mess. I will pick up someone else's child's toys and leave their home better than it looked when I got there. My SIL is the worst about letting my nephew come over and pull DVDs off the shelves, take toys out of the toy box, and pull shoes out. Then, she says goodbye and leaves me to pick up the mess. It's her child and she should be polite enough to pick up the messes he made.
  

  
  

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  • babybull0601
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:38 AM

• I clean up no matter where we are.  Fast food places the table gets a wipe down with a wet wipe after we throw the food away.   At restaurants where we have a server I put all the food/trash on one plate all the utensils together I stack up everything so all they have to do is grab the stack of plates and the cups.  And again I wipe off the table a bit to get the crumbs my kids left behind up.  I used to work for a restaurant and I know how annoying it is having to clean up after nasty messy people. 

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  • willysmama
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:41 AM

• My son just learned to feed himself (special needs and he is 4 yrs old) so we haven't taken him out to a resturant yet. But at home he is helping to pick up his messes (food or other) or even at grandma's house he is learning to pick up after himself(or he is suppose too. Grandma generally does it).

  Before he learned to feed himself, we would go to resturants and clean up after him with his help and clean up the table and floor around us of the food that was dropped.

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  • jbhaleyrn
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:41 AM
• I always clean up after my son (and my husband!) at restaurants whether it's a fast food restaurant or a nicer place. I think it's so demeaning to a restaurant employee to expect them to clean up after me!! My mother, on the other hand, doesn't feel the same way. My 3 yr old son and I recently met my parents and my 2 yr old nephew at Chick-Fil-A for lunch and my mom bought the boys a milkshake to share. While pouring half of it into a cup for my son, she spilled some of it onto the table. My dad ran and got some napkins to clean it up and my mother said (loud enough for the employee who was walking by our table to hear) "Oh, just leave it. That's what the employees are here for." I was mortified!! My dad and I cleaned up the table while Queenie just sat there acting like she had nothing to do with it. I certainly didn't get my manners from her and I don't want my son to, either.

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  • Scarlett82
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:44 AM

• My son is only 17 months and is messy. Not crazy messy, but messy. Regardless, he is my child and I do clean up after him when he does throw things around anywhere. When he is a little older, he will learn to clean up after himself. It is only right since he made the mess.
  

                                 My Little Prince

  
  

  
  

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  • MandyOs
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:47 AM

• My husband always laughs at me when I'm stooping down to grab the crap off the floor. LOL I even wipe down the table with a napkin so there aren't any crumbs left. I'm so OCD when out to eat.

  I always clean the table and floor because I've worked in the food industry.

  

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• by
  • SitaStJames
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:53 AM

• my husband will clean up the table if we go out to a nice restraunt and we throw everything away at a fast food place. However if its just me and the kids at a sit down restraunt I usually don't clean up because all I want to do is pay the bill and get my kids out of there. (lol) My boys will stress me out so bad when we're out because thats when they are usually at their worst. There was one time my oldest threw food at people that were seated behind us and they ended up moving as far away from us as possible. I was so mortified and wasn't long after that I payed the bills and gathered the kids to leave. But I always leave a nice tip.

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• by
  • adulation
  on Jul. 4, 2009 at 9:54 AM

• when i take lila out to eat,  i leave a huge tip because i feel bad because of the mess she leaves on the floor.  these restaurants have carpet, and we spend at least $20 on one plate.  i'm not getting on the floor to clean it up.

  
  

                                  
  

  
  
  

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