Having to clean up your child’s vomit after they’ve been sick in public is hard enough, but imagine this mother’s shame after she was charged $10 at a restaurant to wipe away the mess.
Toowoomba mum Rebecca Harnett was out with her three kids at Glasshouse Bistro Montville in Queensland waiting for their lunch.
Her youngest son, Levi, 2, suddenly became sick and threw up on the floor.
She told Kidspot: “He was fine and showed no signs of being sick, but all of a sudden, he chucked a little bit near my foot, it wasn’t huge.”
She wanted to clean it up so she asked staff for paper towels and a wet cloth – to which she said they threw her a “wet, dirty towel”.
Rebecca cleaned it up well with no trace of the smell.
“I didn’t expect anyone to clean up, he’s my child, he’s my responsibility,” she said.
“They pulled out a plastic bag and told me I had to dispose of it myself because they couldn’t touch it. I still had no problem with that.”
“It was all gone, there was no smell. We then stayed and finished our lunch.”
The staff then told her they’d charge $30 to clean her ‘mess’ to their satisfaction.
“Management said ‘in any restaurant the standard charge for us to clean it is $30’. I had already cleaned it, but I didn’t want to pay, so I said fine I will do it,” Rebecca explained.
She then mopped up quickly because she was so humiliated.
“I was so embarrassed I couldn’t look at anyone.”
But it gets even more appalling. In paying for her food, an extra $10 was put on top because the mop now needed to be sterilised.
“I wasn’t given the option of, ‘if you clean it we will charge you $10’. I was avoiding paying the $30 by doing it myself but still ended up paying,” she said.
“I was so embarrassed and so taken aback. I had no words, and I am not one to sit back but I just wanted to get out of there. I had to pay to clean my child’s vomit. It still confuses me.”
A spokesman from the bistro told The Sunshine Coast Daily: “It was an unfortunate set of circumstances for the customers and their child and the embarrassment that it would have caused them.”
“It was an unfortunate set of circumstances for us too.”
“The incident caused us a loss of income because that section for the restaurant wasn’t able to be used for a period of time.”
“We thought at the time that our nominal charge of $10 was fair considering we had to allocate a staff member to clean up the mess to our satisfaction after they left – to make sure the area was properly sterilised.”
“The staff member who was designated to do that then had to sit outside because they felt ill afterwards.”
“The cost to us was far greater than $10.”
“If we were given that set of circumstances again, we probably wouldn’t charge $10 but just accept it as our lot.”
It caused outrage on their Facebook wall, with many customers appalled by the restaurant’s actions, while saying they’d never go there again.
A few hours ago, the bistro made an apology on Facebook.
But then followed it up with this completely insensitive photo, seeming to joke at the whole situation.
We can’t see why a staff member having to mop or clean a mop is any different to cleaning up spilt drinks or food. People aren’t charged for that, are they?
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