How much cleaning up would you expect to do?

Luke unexpectedly vomitted tonight at a cafe at a local shopping mall - a large amount on the chair cushions (fabric) maybe 20cm by 15cm? Fortunately we had just finished eating.

I called the waitress over and said ""My son has just vomitted, do you have any cleaning spray or paper towels or gloves please?"She got the paper towel and spray and then walked away. I cleaned it up as best as I could (it was just me and Luke but he was OK), and then she came over and said "it is leaving a stain, I will see what else I can find" and came back with another spray and handed it to me. I said "what do you do when this unusally happens?"and she said "we haven't had this happen before"which I reckon was a lie (unless it was her first day working).

I used the second spray and then she came back and said "it hasn't all come off has it? That doesn't look very good for customers. We will have to get it dry cleaned" My husband came back at this stage and said "lets go, we have done all we can, we need to get him home for bed."

Would you have offered to pay for the dry cleaning? She seemed to be strongly hinting that it was my responsibility to make it clean again. But surely they have drinks, food etc spilt on their cushions all the time?

Lisa

I reckon if she was young and she probably wasn't trained to deal with it properly. It's the staff responsibility to clean it up. It's just part and parcel of the job description as a waitperson and she should have toughened up and cleaned it or at least helped you to clean it. It's the same as if someone spilled food or drink. And no you shouldn't have to pay for drycleaning its part of the restaurants expenses for wear and tear.

If it were in a food court it would be a bit different, I would say its the parent responsibility but in a restaurant they should take it under control. It's not like you deliberately vandalised their furniture!

dd1 accidentally wet herself in a food court once, and the cleaner was lovely, she came over as i was trying to mop it up (thankfully the chairs were all those hard wood ones) and she was like, dont worry about it, leave it and just sort her out, it happens all the time, dnt worry its ok' and she mopped it up for us. i was really thankful. dd2 recently wet herself in kmart at the layby counter and they just went and got a mop and mopped it up as well. i havent had the spew thing, or maybe i have, but not on fabric only on the floor and its ben minimal so i;ve used paper towels or baby wipes and cleaned it up. i dont think the waitress should have worried too much. if it was me i would take the chair outside, give it a good hose and sponge and i bet it would come off anyway

Yeah i agree with you Tara if DD vomited i would never expect somebody else to clean it! I would do it myself unless they insisted on cleaning it for me.
We eat out in restruants alot and even if DD makes a mess i will clean it before i leave.

If i was working in a cafe or restruant i honestly dont think i could clean another childs voimt. Even when DD was a little baby and would do a milk spew i would freak out and call DH to help

I HATE vomit but if it was my child i would do it.

We used have kind of a 'roster' of whose turn it was to clean it

I'm gonna go against the grain here as I don't think it was her resposnsibility to clean it. She's paid to serve food, not clean up vomit. I'd never expect anyone else to clean up after my child, just my opinion.