When there is no wait staff in food courts ( except cleaners) are we allowed to keep our table dirty?

Question

I have trained my kids to clear the table and dump the waste.
We have been practising this since many years ofcourse not in restaurants.

Now my son disagrees with me he says those cleaning guys are there to clean our tables.

I have done my Hotel Mangement so I know the difference between wait staff and cleaners. Did I miss something or there is knowledge gap?

Giordios he is grown up child, he knows how to pack our grocery without any assitance, he is good cook too

I need anser from Professional not from mothers point of view

Answer 1

I personally dislike it and think it is rude when young people, or anyone for that matter tries to define and tell me or anyone what their job is. And I am a young person! Anyways, I believe that they are there more to wipe down the tables than to dispose of any garbage left on top of it. That's why trash cans are provided at food courts and not in restaurants.

If you do choose to leave waste as you would in a restaurant, your son should probably be leaving a tip at the food court as well if he really wanted to show that the two were so similar and equal.

Answer 2

I always leave a table as tidy as possible. I have two sons--3 years old and 2 years old--who make a terrible mess sometimes (dropping napkins on the floor, straw wrappers, stray french fries, etc. and I always clean up (I even pick stuff off the floor). If there are any wet spills, I wipe them with a napkin. I also push in the chairs when we're finished eating.

I think your son is correct to a point--those people are there to clean the tables, but they're not there to clean up a sloppy, horrible mess that someone left on purpose. Same with housekeepers at a hotel/motel. I always try to leave a room neat. I don't make the bed, but I do group all the dirty towels to one corner in the bathroom, throw away any trash (cup wrappers, papers, etc.), rinse hairs out of the sink, etc.) before I leave.

I don't agree with the mentality, "That's why there here--to clean up after us." It really bothers me to see people at the grocery store, clothing store, etc. have second thoughts about an item, and just dump it anywhere they happen to be at the time. I've seen gallons of milk in the bread aisle, deli meat (that an employee took the time to slice!), in freezer cases, womens sweaters in the shoe department, etc. I think it's just rude. You don't leave a horrible mess in your house--why should you anywhere else?

Answer 3

Yes, they are hired to, among other things, clean up your mess. That doesn't mean that it isn't polite to dump your own trays. They also put trash cans with clearly marked areas for trays and trash all over the food court for your convenience.

Teach your son to be nice. This is what being polite means. Teach him that even though they are paid to clean up his mess (as well as so much more: sweeping, mopping, making the food, etc...) It is still, simply, being a good and decent person not to make extra work for others when we can just as easily (if not more so) clean up after ourselves.

Why not just do the nice thing?

Answer 4

It sounds to me like your son just doesn't want to clean up after himself, despite your best efforts. Cleaning up your own messes is common courtesy, especially since the cleaning staff in a food-court setting isn't hovering around watching for someone to get up and leave their table. It's simply polite, in my opinion, to throw away your own debris so that the next person can use the table.

Answer 5

I'm not a professional, but as I see it is..... In order to keep the world a good place to live in we should always leave the place or thing we use better than we find it.

I used to be a cleaning person, there general job is to keep the area to a quality standard.

I mean sheesh, do you do that at home?

Answer 6

My Mistake.

I thought you were looking for an etiquette-based answer.

Now that I understand your question, I'll answer this way:

Yes. It is okay for you to accept your "kid's" values and assessments. Yes, you can leave as much trash as you want on the table and someone else IS responsible for cleaning up the mess.

This will free you up to have more quality time with your child, instead of wasting the precious moments that you have taking trash to the trash can.

I'm certain this is your child's motivation, so why not listen to your child and do what he says?

Be happy!

-----PREVIOUS ANSWER-----

It is not a "knowledge gap", it is a "semantics gap" between you and your child.

You have asked your question in "Etiquette", which could be described as "What we SHOULD do".

Your son is answering from the mindset of "What we MUST do".

Since there are no dirty tray police to arrest you, your son rationalizes that the cleaning crews will eventually be forced to clean up his mess.

Therefore, he sees no reason to change that ultimate chain of events.

Your education is irrelevant here. Your role as a parent is paramount.

You SHOULD find a way to pass on your VALUES from yourself to your child, explaining that we often do things we don't have to do because there is an ultimate good that comes from acting this way.

Teach him to open the door for people. That had a BIG impression on me as a little boy (Why can't they do that for themselves???)

Kindly,

G.E.T. RN
Registered Nurse

Answer 7

Your son is wrong. Clear the table of the things you used so the cleaning staff just has to wipe it clean.

Answer 8

u favor 2 have extra interest for human beings. in addition they positioned trash cans in nutrition court for trash to bypass in and the trays to bypass on proper of. there are dissimilar tables in a nutrition court for someone to be operating round clearing off each 5 minutes, n also evaluate how busy the mall is on the time.. dont u get pissed off even as u cant stumble on a table to sit down at becuz they are both grimy or everyone is sitting at them? they wont get fired becuz u cleared the table off, yet they could get fired in the experience that they cant sparkling the tables off to make due with the gang. merely pointing all that out.. type of obtrusive dontcha imagine

Answer 9

if there is no wait staff and there are public trash cans near the eating area, it is common courtesy to clean your trash off of your table. i'm pretty sure your son is the one mistaken here.

the cleaning guys are there to wipe the tables and to take the trays back to the various vendors in the food court, and to clean the floors.

Answer 10

They will clean the tables down but I think it is proper to clear your own mess. Especially when it is busy and there are people hunting for an empty table.