Restaurant Charges Mommy a Baby Tax
What if you were at your favorite restaurant and they charged you an extra $5 for dining with a baby? Maybe their reasoning was that your baby left an excessive mess or their stroller took up too much space. How would you respond?
This is a new trend at a popular British restaurant chain and happened to a mom with a new 6-week-old baby.
For real. They said the stroller took up too much space.
What are your thoughts? Would you still dine there? Do you feel this is necessary or do you feel this is what your tip should cover?
Here are my thoughts. If a restaurant chain here in the US started doing this I would not eat there. I clean up after my children when we are done and if for some reason we are unable to clean up before we leave, I would leave a heftier tip. But that is my choice to leave more of a tip. That being said, I always tip waiters for their service to me. Do not impose a forced fee on me. (Forced gratuity makes me mad as well.)
Any restaurant that would charge a tax or an inconvenience fee for my children is not what I would consider a family friendly restaurant.
If we went to a restaurant and this fee showed up without notice, I would be on the phone with their corporate office before leaving the facility. And family friendly is who gets my business.
In my opinion, being charged an extra fee for my children is honestly down right rude.
I would love for you to chime in.
Disclosure: This is a topic that was covered in this months issue of babytalk magazine. You too can get a free subscription by filling out this form.
as a disabled mom I find this horrible, would they charge me a fee because my wheelchair took up too much space?
Wonders and Dreams- I wondered the same exact thing. How far could they take this?
Thanks for your input.
Wow! I can’t believe this is a real thing! If any restaurant chain in the U.S started a “Baby Tax”, I’m sure many people would avoid going there… There are too many babies…too many toddlers to impose such fees. That’s not fair. I would definitely refuse to go because I bring my baby everywhere with me. I don’t want to be charged extra for having a kid! When she makes a mess, I clean most of it up.. :/ I can’t believe that happened to a new mom with a 6 week old! There is already too much stress/hard work that goes along with having a newborn. I can’t believe a restaurant would charge a mom $5 to bring her baby out to eat with her. Sorry kinda repeated myself a bit– but what an interesting idea.
Monica- I could not agree with you more!
I think it would really depend on what type of place it is. If it’s a restaurant that is going for a nicer ambiance, a dress up classy date night type of place, than I can see why they might do it to discourage kids.
Now if it’s a run of the mill “family friendly” restaurant, than it’s going to drive away customers.
So, I can’t quite decide if I’d eat there again or not. It’s a hard one.
Ticia-
The place we are in life right now, if we’re eating out, we likely have kids with us. That being said, on the slim chance we go somewhere fancy, we likely have a sitter. But fancy rarely happens for us.
And I like one of the comments left over on Facebook… if they have high chairs we should be able to consider them a kid friendly establishment. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150718062388602&set=a.375937893601.155744.188484568601&type=1
I saw this a few months ago and I think it’s a discusting tax. I am glad it isn’t in the US. As someone who worked in the food industry for several years it is YOUR job to clean up the mess after your partons. That’s what the company pays you to do. I know it sucks cleaning up a bigger mess than expected but if you don’t live on this planet and don’t know that babies and kids makes messes then your in the wrong job. I don’t know about paraliment but if it happened here wouldn’t that be breaking one of our consititional rights as that would be deemed discrimination? I also believe if it did happen it should be at “high class” resturants where children aren’t usually accustomed to be at not casual dining. However, a parent(s) deserve a night out if they have their child/ren along or not.
Absolutely not. I would also make it known to the home office if this chain how I felt. I might even go so far as to send a petition with all my mom with baby friend’s signatures. This is absurd!
I always clean up after Zachery when we eat out, but I also avoid restaurants that aren’t family friendly. I think that as a parent you need to be mindful of where you take your children. I think it’d be rude to take them to a fine dining establishment just like it’d rude to take babies and toddlers to movie theaters (unless it’s a kids movie where all the other kids are talking/screaming/out of their seats/etc). But, if any restaurant family-oriented or not charged me a baby tax that I wasn’t aware of prior to going there I can tell you I’d be leaving the restaurant getting my entire meal for free and the waiter no tip, if they didn’t let me know prior to eating that there’d be an extra charge for baby so that I can make a decision to leave or not before we order.
As someone who worked in the industry for almost 10 years, it isn’t the waiters fault. Most rules are but in place well above their head, please don’t punish them. People remember always tip your server, it is how they live. Most only make 2.15 and hour even at buffet restaurants where all they do is clear plates and get drinks.
Also my opinion is depends on the restaurant.
I agree with you! I would be mad! I also don’t like when they charge an extra plate fee of $5 when my toddler eats off my plate. The restaurant gives me too much food of course I will just give some to my child. Don’t charge me extra for that! I also don’t like the gratuity is added to your check when you have 8 or more people. I always tip based on service and food temp, quality. When we get a server that is really nice and just a great server I call over the manager and tell them right away! They get so many bad calls a night I like to give them a good one! I do let them know if we had a bad server also.
Lewann- a $5 extra plate charge? You have got to be kidding me? That is nuts! You’ve already paid for the food, who cares who eats it. Did they tell you in advance their would be an extra plate charge?
Our three littlest ones waste so much food. So we buy one or two kids meals (based on how large they are) and divvy them up. I should not be charged extra for that. I would be livid.
WOW! Why are there resturants out there that just openly discriminate against children?As if an adult would never make a mess or be too loud. Haven’t they ever seen a drunk person at a resturant that gets out of control? Of course that person is worse than a crying baby but I guess it’s OK since they are paying a fortune for alcohol and the resturant is making more money off of them than the family with the kid.
I would never eat there again and I would feel the need to FB, tweet, and blog about my experience so my outrage could be felt.
That sounds like suicide for restaurants here in the US! I don’t have kids, but I think that’s ridiculous, and I’d stop going there too.
I agree that if a restaurant has highchairs/boosters they should be accommodating to kids. But nowhere should ever charge a fee! That is discrimination.
I do feel strongly that people should NOT bring their kids to a fancy restaurant. Go to Chili’s or something if you want to bring your little kids out, please don’t let them scream in my ear and poop their pants next to me on the ONE night a month we fork over cash for a babysitter and go eat a $200 dinner!
I would be the minority voice here. Pillage me if you must.
Obviously the place in England doesn’t want the kiddie crowd. They would love to know that you and your mommy friends will avoid their chain. For every family that stays away someone that doesn’t want to dine out amongst children will patronize the restaurant and will probably spend more on food and booze than the family crowd which translates into bigger profits for the restaurant. That’s their choice of business model.
I find the extra plate charge reasonable. The child is often using plates, napkins, glassware and highchairs/booster seats. They might require the use of a restroom. All of those have an overhead cost: cleaning, dishwashing, labor costs, insurance liability cost, replacement due to wear and tear are some that come to mind. You may tip more but that doesn’t mean the server is keeping all of that tip. Most restaurants often make very little in profit – especially new ones or small owner-operated ones. Don’t begrudge them $5
Umm. Any charges like that need to be assessed upfront, so you can decide whether to eat there or not. Child charge… that is ridiculous. I personally would NOT be eating there. They are probably trying to weed out families with kids.
That’s just ridiculous. I wouldn’t dine there.
I have been put in a separate room that they throw all the families with children. My children do not act up in restaurants. If they do, we ask for our meal as take out, leave a nice tip and we are on our way. We have only needed to do that a couple of times. I will not put up with my child screaming, standing, walking around or behaving in any way unlike an adult in a restaurant. My child was well behaved that day and kept looking at the other’s wondering why they weren’t sitting in their seats. The next time we went to this particular restaurant we asked to sit in general seating, not in the family section. They seemed a little put out but were surprised by the fact that our child behaved like a human being. As for the tax….that is absurd. Even for those that do make a mess. I was a waitress for over 10 years and I understood (pre-children) that a mess is sometimes inevitable and was prepared to do the clean-up after they left. It is just “part of the job”. Only once did a mom literally get on her hands and knees to clean-up before she left. I told her she didn’t have to do that, but she insisted that it was her child who made the mess, therefor she should be responsible to clean it. Very nice indeed, but very rare! I would not go to a restaurant who charged me extra for bringing my child especially since I know my child would not be making the mess. As far as strollers and wheelchairs. Where does it end? Everyone has the right to enjoy a nice meal and if it means a child in a stroller or wheelchair then the restaurant needs to accommodate not discriminate.
Sorry so long, just my 2 cents! : )
Emmma
How interesting–and awful. It’ll be interesting to hear if they can get by with this–if people will stop eating there. Of course, that may be their goal, to get rid of parents with young kids. Your boycott may be exactly what they’re hoping for.
You say this is in England. Remember that it is not typical for anyone in England to leave a tip – it’s just not a British thing.
I’ve lived in England all my life and have eaten in many restaurants and unfortuantely it’s all too common for people with children to leave a right mess behind. Not everyone, but it’s not a rare occurrence by a long shot.
Do I agree with a fee to eat with your children? No, not really but at the same time I don’t agree with the attitude of some diners to ignore the food their children have thrown all over the floor and seats and expect that the staff should have to clean up after them.
Maybe there should be some form of notice that if you don’t leave your table in a reasonable condition (with or without children) then you get charged a clean up fee? And follow it up with a discount if there isn’t a clean table for you to sit at – y’know a works both ways kind of fee?