A man has expressed fury at parents who fail to tidy up after their young children when eating out, opening up a heated discussion about restaurant etiquette, and who exactly is responsible for cleaning up the mess.
Taking to TikTok, content creator Beau shared footage taken inside a restaurant of an empty high chair surrounded by crumbs and various bits of food debris. It's a post-dinner scene many parents will no doubt be familiar with.
Expressing his anger on behalf of the wait staff, Beau, who lives in Queensland, Australia, remarked: "I don't care who you are as a parent. Leaving a f****** restaurant like that is disgusting".
Warning: the following video contains profanity:
Beau, who goes by the username @beau_the_legend, continued: "Surely it's not that hard to pick up after your kids?"
The video, captioned, "you gotta feel sorry for the wait staff", has since clocked up more than 24.1K likes and counting, triggering a range of wide range of opinions.
A number of people could understand Beau's frustration completely and felt that the onus was ultimately on the parent to tidy up after their little ones, out of respect for staff.
One person wrote: "I would be mortified. I always picked up after my kids in restaurants".
Another agreed: "I'm a waitress first and a mum second. I ALWAYS clean up after my kids in restaurants. Especially picking stuff up."
Others, however, including those who worked in restaurants, disagreed and felt dining out should be a break for families, not another chore to attend to.
A third person argued: "As a restaurant owner I want my customers to come make a mess and leave rested not cleaning, we are getting less and less customers lately.
"Something so minor as a bit of mess is nothing. We want people to have a night off when they come not clean, that's our job."
Another agreed: "I've worked as waitstaff for 10 years and it's quite literally our job to clean up after guests, of all ages. Kids make mess. simples".
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