Cleaning up After Yourself or Not

I always clean up after myself but when it comes to carts it is a different story. Before I had kids I would put my cart away no problem but now there is NO WAY I am going to leave two babies alone in my car while I walk clear across the parking lot to put a cart away. It is not safe and I think it is scary for the kids and can trigger abandonment fears. The grocery store should hire more baggers to help moms out. If there isn't a bagger helping me and there isn't a corral next to my car then the cart will stay in the lot.

I have heard a few people say that before jokingly..( I think) Although I myself have sometimes not put the cart where it belongs its not something i like to make a habit of. I think that whole thought process is a little crazy.

Bus your table at fast food restaurants and coffee shops. Return your cart. Pick up litter when you see it.

You want to help those in need? Donate to Goodwill, United Way, Salvation Army, etc. Vote. Volunteer.

Sounds like a crappy rationalization for being lazy! Would you let your kids do that at home....?
"Well, mom doesn't have anything to do while I am at school, so I leave my clothes on the floor so she has something to pick up!"
Come on.

well, dang! now it all makes sense! i'll start throwing my trash out the car window, making a mess of public restrooms and trash grocery store aisles as i go too! all in the interest of helping the economy!
seriously, i'm betting this elitist sort of attitude is coming from a middle-income or higher white woman (not you, gamma, but your friend.) that degree of warped rationalization almost always generates from a clueless perspective.
if she wants to help someone get a job, she should hire someone to do something for her that she doesn't want to do. she should insist that stores carry goods made in the USA. she should support industries that purchase and hire locally and don't send their manufacturing overseas and use foreign customer service pools. she should start a small business, use local goods, and hire a few people.
if we all cleaned up after ourselves the world would be a MUCH better place. and we could probably provide a few more jobs that aren't the soul-sucking wal-mart or scraping half-chewed food variety ones.
khairete
S.

Laura U- hahaha-

"Well, mom doesn't have anything to do while I am at school, so I leave my clothes on the floor so she has something to pick up!"

I think my kids already think that!
Thanks for the laugh! :)
btw- I think it's just common courtesy to pick up after yourself- you don't throw your trash out the window just for someone else to have a job.
~C.

That is a CRAZY thought process! I have no idea where a teacher would get that information and find it hard if she believed it. They would not have the garbage cans at Fast Food places if you were not suppose to clean up after yourself. If people are slobs it does not create more jobs for goodness sake, just more work for the onees that do work there. It is because of people like your friend that we have a big DENT on the side of one of our cars today. When I arrived back to my car, there was a shopping cart that had rolled into my car. When I pulled the cart away (TO PLACE IT IN THE PROPER PLACE); to my suprise there was a huge DENT! OMGoodness.... If the person had just returned the cart to the cart return!!! I am VERY helpful when it comes to situations like that. When going into a store, many times I will even bring a cart from the parking lot with me. When I am at a restaurant, I even scrap and stack our dishes when my family is done. It really does help the servers. When my kids were younger, we cleand up if they made a mess under the table to the best we could as well. I think it is just rude for people to act as if thy are place on this earth to be served. I even tell my kids, it is not my responsibility or the responsibility of a housekeeper to pick up after them. They should do that for themselves. I can so tell the little "Privilaged Prince & Princess" at my children's school. Some of them just get up after lunch and leave everything there. It is not ANYONE'S responsibility to clean up behind you; unless there are circumstances that keep you from doing it. It is not even proper to leave a mess in your hotel room or resort. Throw things away that should be, throw used towels in the tub, pick up your personal items off the floor. Do not over-fill the garbage can. I think your FRIEND needs a reality check.
Ok, I am climbing down off my soap box.

I think that is one of the most ridiculous things I've heard in awhile. Yes, I bus my table. The clean up people are there to wipe the table down, it's rude to leave your stuff on the table otherwise they wouldnt have all the trash bins everywhere for you to put your leavings in.
It's amazing how one statement heard at a certain age has so much influence on how you live your life. This is called "common sense", your friend heard that statement and applied it to her personal common sense for life. And this folks is why there is so much craziness in the world. Always think before you speak because you never know who is listening and how it will affect somebody long term.

You should take your trays to the trashcan and your carts to the corrals. You do not have to clean your table but you should throw away your trash. Employees will then clean the table, take the trash out, and wash and take the trays back. You don't have to take your cart back to the front of the store but definately confine it to the corrals. An employee will then take them back to the store but a loose cart causes damage to vehicles and blocks parking spots. You aren't taking someone's job by being courteous and respectful...when you were in school did you leave your lunch tray on the table for the custodial to pick up and return to be cleaned or did you throw away your trash and return the tray yourself? Same concept.

Shame on the teacher for being ignorant.

Yeah, your friend is crazy! LOL

I always pick up after myself. Even if I'm at a sit down nice restaurant, I will put my trash & silverware on top of the plates, even stack the plates, etc. and move them to the end of the table to make it easier for them to pickup and clean. They still have to come wipe the tables even if you don't leave your trash there! I think it's incredibly rude to leave your trash, even in McDonald's. Maybe if people didn't leave their trash like that, the employees would have more time to do a better job at keeping the floors, counters, etc. cleaner!!

And the carts, yeah they are going to damage people's cars, which is completely unnecessary. They still have to go out & collect the carts from the corrals, so they aren't going to lose their jobs. Perhaps if the carts weren't strewn all over the parking lot, they could do a better job at keeping plenty of the carts at the store for customer use?

Rude & lazy people annoy me... lol

Saying that cleaning up after yourself is putting someone out of a job is a lazy excuse for being a slob, seriously. For example, if you throw your trash away from your table at a McDonalds, someone who works there will still have to come over to wipe down the table, THAT is their job - not making things easy for you so you can be lazy. It's a terrible mindset to have, and I hope your friend will learn to give others the respect they deserve.

I always clean up after myself and make my children do the same. I do not believe that I am putting someone out of a job for doing it. Their job is not to collect the cart from where it is left in the parking lot nor is it to throw away your trash. I worked at McDonalds while in HS and can tell you that they would not have hired more people to clean up after the costumers....one person who would normally take a sweep through the "lobby" with broom and wash cloth would have been throwing away that trash as well, just making the food service part of their job take longer because they were not back in the grill where they belonged.
Clean up after yourself!

I always clean up after myself anywhere. I think it's incredibly rude not to. There are people who bus tables, yes, but those tables need to be washed, etc. It's not up to them to clean up your mess. As for carts, how hard is it really to put it in the little corral? Someone has to go out and get them from there, right? No job loss and possibly saving someone's car from being damaged. What has happend to common courtesy and manners? Geesh!

My apologies for bluntness but I have breakfast to finish making.

This is an amazing question as I'm not shocked you posed it but in disbelief your friend behaves in such way and has such a short sighted excuse for her down right laziness.

This is not about paying a few cents more across the board for goods as the store has to employee more persons and then up goes prices to offset profit/loss statement.

This is simply a lazy ignorant poor mannered person. Is she one of those too lazy to flush the toilet herself when using public facilities? Does she believe the building should employee a restroom attendant to flush the potties between persons and maybe even wipe her rear?

If I had a friend ever like that, I'd tell her "I'm sorry but your poor manners are too much for me to go anywhere in public with you." Your being by her side is only a signal that you approve of such foolishness.

I am shocked how she took one horrible adults take on life without further question and now lives by it.

Simply said, clean up after yourself and yours. It's not somebody else's job to tidy behind you. It gives horrible moral to see people be so inconsiderate. If you can't tidy behind yourself then don't go out. I bet if she came to your home and left a mess every time you wouldn't want her back. I have teen relatives that after riding in the car with me will exit with their drink empty or used still in my car. No thank you, I call them back to get it.

If your friend every becomes so wealthy that she can afford a maid, butler, door attendant, personal shopper and rear wiper then SHE can employ them and give jobs to society. Otherwise she should stay home or tidy behind self.

PS. There are plenty of jobs, check the classifieds. Few want good jobs that pay decent, even less would take such work at meager pay. Cart teams and table bussers are certainly minimum wage earners and we all know minimum wage doesn't feed a family. She isn't helping anyone, she is only harming us all. She fits all the criteria of a litter bug.
Shame shame shame on her.

return my cart and bus my table. IMO it's lazy not to. Besides, I could use the exercise.

I always pick up after myself at fast food restaurants and put my cart away. Once, I have left my stuff on the table at McDonalds only because my child was acting up, but I left a tip on the table and apologized as we left. What I will NOT do is use the self checkout at the store. Those checkout lanes took away people's jobs...if a store has 7 self checkout lanes, they only need one person to man them...what happened to the other 6 people who used to run the checkout lanes??

It is ridiculous and obsurd not to mention your friend is a jerk who is lazy and uneducated. When you are self served you are to clean up after yourself. Fast food resterraunts are not bused or have waitresses/waiters. It is your job to clean up after yourself. Cart are customer choice and returning them to the corral for the workers to pick them up all at once not dance in the parking lot chasing down carts my morons who leave them in parking spaces. It damages other peoples cars and blocks others from parking. Next time she does this I suggest you scold and slap her for such stupidity. I also slap yourself for thinking that these "jobs" pertain to cleaning up after your disgusting behavior of laziness. RIDICULOUS!! Try actually working a low end job and realize how it feels to be treated like a slave to consumers bad behaviors. You get a whole new perspective.

We bus our own tables, I also clean it with napkins so its' not gooey or sloppy. At nice restaurants we stack our finished dishes so the waiter can just pick them up. I always put my cart back, actually now the kids argue over which one gets the privilege to put the cart back.
I think there is a lot of common courtesy out there that is missing.
I also let people into the highway from on ramps when it is really busy and I allow people to turn into traffic. Many times I get a wave from the driver.
I ve had lunches bought for me and I have bought lunches.
It isn't hard to be nice, and it makes a better place for all of us.
And I don't think I am taking any one's job away form them, except those stupid self checkout lanes. I have probably just alienated many people, off my soap box.

.

Oh my goosh...

I think it's more a question of intergry. My son and I go to the movies and we always pick-up our trash. I once dated a guy that said that's why they have porters. If that were the case then someone please tell me why they have TRASH cans just outside the doors. More recently I noticed some moved inside next to the stairs as you're leaving the theater. Is there any question as to why they put them there? They were probably not hired as "porter" originally but because we Americans are SOOOO spoiled and typically inconsiderate, they had no other choice. Walmart hires greeters to welcome people not to pick-up after them and chase down carts after all, isn't that why they spent millions of dollar to make "cart return" slots available for us.

For the record, waitresses are paid to remove dirty dishes and trash from tables, last time I checked, I didn't see any waitresses at McDonalds.

omg thats nuts. that teacher was probably running late getting the kids back on the busses or something, and look where it lead! lol, nice to know that teachers' influence lives on, haha! no, i think that cleaning up after yourself is right up there with good manners. one of those little things that is at the root of how people think of and treat each other in general. very important, and especially in front of our kids, for goodness sake!

I think your friends philosophy is outdated. It is a different workforce and economy than it was 50 years ago.

Your friends philosophy can make sense at surface level....but let's dig deeper. If she continues to leave messes for employees to clean up she is really doing two things; a)putting extra work load on existing employees and b)creating a plug in the evolution of job duties.(if the need for people to clean up after slobs is always the demand, then that will always be what the supply meets. A lower level employee may never have the chance to attain new responsibilities or build other lateral skills that will help them move up the ladder.) I have worked at all sorts of food restaurants and retail...they do not hire "extra" people to clean up after her...the work is just piled onto existing employees who are hired for other responsibilities. I for one would rather clean-up after myself so that the employees have more time to do things that really matter to me, like keeping the kitchen squeaky clean. Plus, I also think leaving a mess is a poor reflection of yourself. I even pre-bus my table at places with servers; I stack everything nicely and neatly for the server to pick up. I was a server for many years, and am very conscious that this person will most likely not have any health benefits, sick days, vacation time or other perks in this position, and is most likely working full time and earning an income below the poverty level. This person, like your friend acknowledges, is working hard to put food on the table for her family. Cleaning up after yourself will not take this person's job away. The same goes for fast food employees.

Regarding the self-serve checkouts...that really does not "take away" jobs. In fact, it creates more jobs in the IT industry, and IT positions are linked to all industries. And one does not need a big fancy degree to work in the IT industry, there are all levels of positions from programming to product building, even office maintenance like human resourcing etc...it is endless the jobs that will be made available(I just finished a Computer Careers Exploration Course yesterday:) I am actually excited for the change in the work industry. Being a cashier is a mundane low paying job(I have done that before too)...it is exciting that better paying jobs with minimal training will be available when the low paying ones cease to exist due to technology.

UPDATE: Just wanted to respond to the leaving the cart in the parking lot because of putting a baby in the car.....I did this a couple of times and then realized there are several solutions to that as well: 1.Park next to the cart return 2.Ask a store employee to assist you out 3.Ask a passing shopper in the parking lot to take the cart back for you. I use #3 the most, and have never been told "no" by a passerby when I say I have my kid in the car and don't want to leave her alone:) I have also been known to carry the baby with me and put the cart away. Another way to avoid the hassle altogether is to only buy what you can carry without a cart, which is what I have been doing a lot of lately.(gave up driving last month to get into shape and save money) I have been getting my groceries in my daughter's wagon these days, Northwest rains and all:)

You're not taking anyones job. You should always clean up after yourself.

I agree with you its hard to know-I think I'm making someone's job harder because you are expected to clean up after yourself at a busy fast food place, but I leave the carts for others to move because people are employed to do that dont want to take away their job. and if I change my mind about clothes I leave the clothes for employees to put back
its hard to know which is the right thing to do

No clean up please. And please put carts away!!! The cart thing drives me nuts and the whole thing just sounds like a excuse to be lazy. I have 2 kids I still take back my cart. I park by the coral except when some butt head leaves their cart in the space!
Don't move to Riverhead NY.. home of litter, unreturned carts and unbussed tables! Blek

Ummmmm......WOW.......SPEECHLESS.

I don't think it is taking someone's job to put your cart in the cart corral, especially since all the signs in any parking lot I have ever been in tell you to put them away. I consider it horribly rude not to and glare viciously at people (or I just offer to take it for them if it looks like they might not--I like to think they were going to but who knows?). I wipe my kids' messes off the table a bit in restaurants most of the time because it is a lot more than a regular mess. I don't think they are going to fire my waitress because I tidied up. I think it is a courtesy. McDonald's also has places for your trays and trash to go in and someone comes around and wipes down the tables. I would probably have just raised my eyebrow at my teacher and cleaned up anyway. Does she walk around grocery stores putting items on the wrong shelves so they will have to hire someone to fix them? I have never heard of such an idea.

It's regional & cultural (ex: everyone knows you don't bus your own table at an *actual* restaurant) ((Your tips to your server, btw, also pay for the busser since a server depends on fast bussers, good seating, and timely food... the server tips out the kitchen, hosts, and bussers from the tips they receive)). In some areas of the country the same is true for fast food places and more casual dining (aka places without servers) and in some places, it's not. Whenever I move or am traveling I keep an eye on what others are doing (or ask) and follow suit. Although it's SO weird to not be able to pump my own gas in states like Oregon. But wherever I am, I try and follow local law and custom...When in Rome...

Carts, I ALWAYS return, otw... they can roll into someone's car. After 6 years worth of dings in my car from parking in college lots (over 40 dings and never a single note left I'm a little snarky about dings), I don't want MY cart dinging someone elses car.

Sigh. I'm old enough to remember elevator employes (3rd floor, better dresses), and doormen on buildings, and airplanes with legroom and good food (although not old enough for them to be the posh affairs they were at one time). Those have mostly gone as well.

It's an interesting question that I certainly don't have an answer for. No idea if there even is a right answer

I'm sorry, but I consider it laziness, and she says she's keeping people working to make herself feel better. Not saying she isn't wonderful and kind, but we all have our quirks, and I think this is hers.

If she wants to see the results of leaving your cart in the parking lot, I'll send her a picture of the huge dent in the driver's side door of my car that I can't afford to fix - put there from a shopping cart slamming into my car that was 6 months old at the time in the wind.

While I was standing there tearfully inspecting the damage to my new car, another shopping cart went barrelling towards a pickup truck. Fortunately, I ran out and stopped it in time (while the store employee just stood there, but that's another story, lol).

My car is now 6 years old, but I've never been able to afford to fix it and there is rust in the dent. Now I make a point to walk up and put up carts myself if someone leaves it by their car, and I try to do it before they can even drive off. I also offer to take other people's carts if I'm going into a store and they are finishing off putting their purchased items in their car. This is so they don't have to put it up, as well as in case they won't put it up.

And, btw, the ONLY excuse there is for not putting up a cart is having babies to put in the car. I have been there/done that. But you still do everything in your power to keep it from hitting other cars (the easiest way if you don't park next to a corral, is to make sure you park near a curb surrounding a tree, etc, and lifting the top wheels up onto that curb).

after working in a resturant I know most generally they dont hire people for just clean up. It would take alot of us not doing it to make a diffrence and people in general are clean. now the check yourself out registars I dont agree with I refuse to use them so they will hopefully hire more people specifically wal mart yours in general cause there is a lack of jobs there to begin with. as for the carts at wal mart if I thought it would mean more people getting hired I would leave them but not in a handicap zone they cant move them. in todays economy I would like to see all the buisness hire as many as possible. wal mart in paticular is not hurting they are an monopoloy and should hire more people.

but they are more worried about thier profit. for the big managers. than taking care of the small man.now I live in houston and have no problem after 11 using the self check outs so the cashiers dont get robbed. it depends on my area as to how I feel about it. in houston there are no night cashiers they are all self check outs after 11. if you leave the table messy at least tip the one who is working their can off for minimum wage. and if they need more they will hire them but the ones catching the brunt at least make more money.