Dressing down of society...

[DizBelle]

Wow, I guess I'm alone in thinking that people shouldn't show up to a nice restaurant dirty and sweaty. I'm not saying people should wear ties and dresses. I'm only asking for clean, real, undamaged clothes and not something you just spent 3 hours running on the field in. I am really surprised that so many people find that unreasonable too difficult to accomplish.

And, yes, Olive Garden would be in the category of "nice". It isn't fancy schmancy or high dollar but it is nice. You have cloth napkins, real silverware, and food served on real plates by a server.

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

 

[luvmy3]

Wow, I guess I'm alone in thinking that people shouldn't show up to a nice restaurant dirty and sweaty. I'm not saying people should wear ties and dresses. I'm only asking for clean, real, undamaged clothes and not something you just spent 3 hours running on the field in. I am really surprised that so many people find that unreasonable too difficult to accomplish.

And, yes, Olive Garden would be in the category of "nice". It isn't fancy schmancy or high dollar but it is nice. You have cloth napkins, real silverware, and food served on real plates by a server.

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

The only thing I find unreasonable is expecting others to dress in a way I would feel is appropriate for dinner at Olive Garden. Letting the way others dress effect my dining experience isn't the fault of the *inapproriate* dresser, it would be a fault within me. I would sing a different tune if a man was rubbing his dirty sweats, or his armpit hair in my face while I was trying to eat, but if they are just sitting there enjoying their own meal, why does it really matter

 

[BuffettFan]

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

The bolding is mine.....

So, when I show up at the Olive Garden with my teens in soccer uniforms, and their friends & their parents ...all looking like we've spent the afternoon at the fields, how am I perceived? Like a soccer mom? Like a family that enjoys spending the weekend doing fun things together? As people who live a healthy active lifestyle? I'll take that over being well dressed with screaming, obese children any day!

 

[Topper]

I don't think it's actually a worry as much as an observation. I just think there is a fine line between casual and down right nasty.

If you're jeans are so far down on you hips that I can see pubic hair, I don't consider that worrying about how you look as much as I really don't want to have your butt crack and your nastyword in my face while I'm eating. whether it's Mcdonalds or chateu brione.

If your top is so low cut that I can see the underside of your nipples, then Houston, we have a problem. I'll proudly wear the elitist label because I believe there are indecency laws on the books for a reason.

That's just me.

reported

 

[Mickey's Minion]

Wow, I guess I'm alone in thinking that people shouldn't show up to a nice restaurant dirty and sweaty. I'm not saying people should wear ties and dresses. I'm only asking for clean, real, undamaged clothes and not something you just spent 3 hours running on the field in. I am really surprised that so many people find that unreasonable too difficult to accomplish.

And, yes, Olive Garden would be in the category of "nice". It isn't fancy schmancy or high dollar but it is nice. You have cloth napkins, real silverware, and food served on real plates by a server.

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

Perhaps you could offer some solutions to sports teams in casual restaurants, such as where they can "clean up" when they are several hours away from home and hungry? Changing on the field is not an option, nor would it be appropriate to send players into the restaurant restroom to change. I am sure that would be quite frowned upon by the patrons. Many fields only have porta-potties with no running water, so that is not an option either.

Respect is a two way street. I was always taught that it is always earned, never demanded. By demanding that people adhere to one's own sensitivities, that is not the definition of respect. To earn respect, one must respect others themselves.

I respect those that choose to eat in a restaurant such as Olive Garden in white capris and pearls.

I also respect the sports teams dining there after a game, in turf-stained pads, cleats, sweat and grime because learning how to work as a team and sportsmanship teaches our youth way more about respect of others than trying to please somebody's own, and not majority, of what is proper attire in that type of restaurant.

Especially when management not only openly welcomes the sweaty, dirty sports teams, but often recruits their business by offering specials to the coaches, schools and sports organizations. If the chain deems it is proper and appropriate attire for the restaurant, then demanding a higher standard is not respect, but as one poster put it, smacks of elitism.

 

[FireDancer]

So, when I show up at the Olive Garden with my teens in soccer uniforms, and their friends & their parents ...all looking like we've spent the afternoon at the fields, how am I perceived? Like a soccer mom? Like a family that enjoys spending the weekend doing fun things together? As people who live a healthy active lifestyle? I'll take that over being well dressed with screaming, obese children any day!

That is exactly how I would perceive you, and good for you . Perhaps if more people spent time with their kids doing physical activities we would have well adjusted youth that don't see the Nintendo Wii as their only form of exercise and don't grow up to buy pants with the bigger number first.

 

[bicker]

By demanding that people adhere to one's own sensitivities, that is not the definition of respect. To earn respect, one must respect others themselves.

I really like you.

 

[monkey68]

Perhaps it was a school project for life and family class and they ran out of dolls? That would explain why she was changing two of them - hers and one of her friends. They probably had to log when they changed them, etc.

But how many people actually follow through on the assignment outside of school? When I was in high school, we would carry around our sack of flour in school, and then put it in a shopping bag on the way home and just pretend that we changed it 7 times, got up with it twice, etc. I thought that's what everyone did.

As to the OP, I actually agree and don't agree at the same time. It doesn't take away from my meal what other people are wearing, but at the same time, I enjoy it more when the people around me are dressed more sophisticatedly. As for me, I always try to dress nicer when I'm out in public, just because you never know who you might meet. You never know if you might meet some sort of fancy connection to help you in your future, or if you're going to meet the man of your dreams, and I don't want to be sweaty and dirty and looking schluppy if that happens.

 

[HoneyPooh]

So to sum it up: If we eat at olive garden in t-shirts, tanks, dirty sports clothes etc we are bringing about the downfall of society and we don't care about ourselves, our children or others in general.

Wow, I never knew that eating lousy lasagna needed so much thought process!

 

[jaminmd]

The bolding is mine.....

So, when I show up at the Olive Garden with my teens in soccer uniforms, and their friends & their parents ...all looking like we've spent the afternoon at the fields, how am I perceived? Like a soccer mom? Like a family that enjoys spending the weekend doing fun things together? As people who live a healthy active lifestyle? I'll take that over being well dressed with screaming, obese children any day!

I am one of those people that will run to the grocery store after my workout and I could care less how anyone perceives that.

If people want to be comfortable & "dress down" when they go out to eat, who cares? If you don't like it, you dress however you want. As long as you don't offend my sense of smell, wear what you want.

When you're on your deathbed, will anyone care how you dressed at Olive Garden?

 

[alexandria674]

So to sum it up: If we eat at olive garden in t-shirts, tanks, dirty sports clothes etc we are bringing about the downfall of society and we don't care about ourselves, our children or others in general.

Wow, I never knew that eating lousy lasagna needed so much thought process!

and the wallls came crumbling down!

 

[lillygator]

Wow, I guess I'm alone in thinking that people shouldn't show up to a nice restaurant dirty and sweaty. I'm not saying people should wear ties and dresses. I'm only asking for clean, real, undamaged clothes and not something you just spent 3 hours running on the field in. I am really surprised that so many people find that unreasonable too difficult to accomplish.

And, yes, Olive Garden would be in the category of "nice". It isn't fancy schmancy or high dollar but it is nice. You have cloth napkins, real silverware, and food served on real plates by a server.

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

In your opinion....I don't think it's "nice"....just take a walk back in the kitchen and see what they are wearing behind closed doors! I guess it's ok for a stained and dirty apron cooking your food as long as you don't have to see it!! And around here....many of the cooks, prep help etc ride their bikes to work so start their shift sweaty and stay that way in a hot and busy kitchen!

 

[Jennasis]

Wow, I guess I'm alone in thinking that people shouldn't show up to a nice restaurant dirty and sweaty. I'm not saying people should wear ties and dresses. I'm only asking for clean, real, undamaged clothes and not something you just spent 3 hours running on the field in. I am really surprised that so many people find that unreasonable too difficult to accomplish.

And, yes, Olive Garden would be in the category of "nice". It isn't fancy schmancy or high dollar but it is nice. You have cloth napkins, real silverware, and food served on real plates by a server.

Ember said it well. How you present yourself is a statement on how you think of others more than how you want to be perceived. I think people deserve better of me than dirty sweatpants with holes in them.

Yep.

If you could suggest somewhere my riding students can shower and change after a horse show before we go out to eat, I am all ears. Same for the soccer/baseball crowd. There isn't even a bathroom at the showgrounds...just a port-a-potty, and we are a good hour from home at best.

I think perhaps you should just mind your own family and meal and pay less attention to the offensive soccer teams and the like.

 

[PaddingtonBear]

I kinda see lfonatine's point (though I hate Olive Garden, yech) but I limit my expectations to myself and my children. We will always look presentable when we go out to dinner, 'cause that's how we roll. How others choose to dress has no impact on me whatsoever.

 

[BuffettFan]

I kinda see lfonatine's point (though I hate Olive Garden, yech) but I limit my expectations to myself and my children. We will always look presentable when we go out to dinner, 'cause that's how we roll. How others choose to dress has no impact on me whatsoever.

Presentable? I assume by that you mean dressed in your best?

I feel we look presentable all the time too.

Just sometimes we are "presenting" ourselves as a soccer family.
Other times we do get dressed up and go to nice restaurants....my son wears a tie a jacket more than probably all guys his age.
Most times we are dressed "normally" when we're in a place like Olive Garden, or Chilis or the like. (Pants, capris, polo shirts, etc. .....actually no one in my house ever wear jeans! haha)

 

[Liberty Belle]

reported

For?

I think the DIS board has filters in place for words the owners feel are inappropriate.

 

[jaminmd]

For?

I think the DIS board has filters in place for words the owners feel are inappropriate.

No, I read the original post. The poster used a filthy word for a woman's anatomy, that is why it was reported. I was surprised it got past the filter.

 

[Ember]

Just as a question to those who go out to eat after physical exertion without changing or showering: Has there every been a concern with smelling bad? This would be my major concern, not really a scuffed sports uniform. I've been in high school gyms... Teenagers can be very potent as their sweat dries. I would wonder about coming from horse riding, as well. Smelling horse droppings or excessive body odor would most definitely interfere with the ability of others to enjoy their meal.

For myself, seeing a sports team at a casual restaurant wouldn't bother me. (So long as there was no smell!) In fact, the only time I can remember being bothered by it was when the team was being overly rowdy and the adults weren't stepping in. If I really did have a concern I would speak to management. The manager could tell me what the restaurant's policies are and I could then make future decisions on whether to dine there again based on that. I think this is a case of adjusting my expectations rather then expecting a restaurant to live up to my expectations.

Unless it's extreme, I probably won't notice someone's dress anyway. I still do hold, though, that personal presentation matters.

 

[Jennasis]

Just as a question to those who go out to eat after physical exertion without changing or showering: Has there every been a concern with smelling bad? This would be my major concern, not really a scuffed sports uniform. I've been in high school gyms... Teenagers can be very potent as their sweat dries. I would wonder about coming from horse riding, as well. Smelling horse droppings or excessive body odor would most definitely interfere with the ability of others to enjoy their meal.

For myself, seeing a sports team at a casual restaurant wouldn't bother me. (So long as there was no smell!) In fact, the only time I can remember being bothered by it was when the team was being overly rowdy and the adults weren't stepping in. If I really did have a concern I would speak to management. The manager could tell me what the restaurant's policies are and I could then make future decisions on whether to dine there again based on that. I think this is a case of adjusting my expectations rather then expecting a restaurant to live up to my expectations.

Unless it's extreme, I probably won't notice someone's dress anyway. I still do hold, though, that personal presentation matters.

No worse than smelling stale smoke all over the diners sitting in the booth beside me. However, we equestrians do not go about wallowing in manure (or even walking in it in our very expensive riding boots), so no worries.

 

[Ember]

No worse than smelling stale smoke all over the diners sitting in the booth beside me. However, we equestrians do not go about wallowing in manure (or even walking in it in our very expensive riding boots), so no worries.

Fair enough. I have a friend with extreme allergies and have asked to be moved before because of excessive perfume on other diners. With no bad smell, riding attire wouldn't bother me at all.