Whining and Dining - Restaurant Eating with Toddlers |
Mother Wisdom:
"I usually bring a sippy cup full of milk to restaurants. It's cheaper to bring your own milk than to order a glass of milk there and it's much less messy to have your toddler drink from a sippy cup than a regular restaurant cup."
-Maria, 33, mother of two
More Mother Wisdom:
Buffet-style restaurants are a good bet because kids can start eating right away: there's no need to wait."
-Lori, 31, mom of five
Dining out with a toddler doesn't have to be a recipe for disaster-not if you know how to avoid some of the most pitfalls. Here's some from-the-trenches advice from parents who have taken their toddlers to restaurants and lived to tell:
- Choose the restaurant with care. You'll have plenty of time to hit the five-star restaurants after your kids are grown. For now, stick to spots that are 100% kid-friendly. According to Tanya, a 30-year-old mother of two, that means a restaurant with high chairs, booster seats, a good kids' menu, crayons and colouring books, and plenty of background noise! ("Noise is good because it's not so noticeable if your toddler ends up crying or making a lot of noise," she explains.) A special menu for kids is helpful, since there's no point spending $10 on an entrée for your toddler if he's likely to manage to eat only a mouthful or two. (Hint: If the restaurant you've chosen doesn't have a kids' menu, see if there's a suitable side dish or appetizer that could serve as your toddler's dinner. Or plan to share a few bites of your own dinner rather than ordering a separate dinner for your toddler.)
- Call ahead. If you have a large family or a toddler with a very limited attention span, call the restaurant ahead of time to see if they'll start preparing your order before you arrive, suggests Kerri, a 36-year-old mother of six. There's nothing worse than having your toddler run out of patience before your food has even arrived.
- Plan to hit the restaurant early. Not only will you beat the crowds, you'll also ensure that your toddler's dinner arrives before her blood sugar has a chance to hit rock bottom, triggering a major meltdown. "Plan to get to the restaurant at least half an hour before your toddler's regular mealtime, just in case it's busy and you have to wait," suggests Sue, a 35-year-old mother of three.
- Ask for a booth in a less crowded part of the restaurant so that you'll have more room for your toddler and her paraphernalia and won't feel quite as self-conscious about disturbing other diners. It's hard to enjoy your meal if every childless patron in the restaurant is shooting daggers your way.
- Let your server know that you're operating on "kid time." You may not have the luxury of waiting 20 minutes to place your order or for your bill to arrive! Anita, a 38-year-old mother of four, makes a point of asking for the bill as soon as she and her family have ordered. "That way, we can leave the restaurant quickly if we have to."
- When you order your toddler's dinner, hand the waitress your toddler's sippy cup and ask that the kitchen staff pour the drink directly into her cup. It'll save you the inevitable mess associated with trying to transfer liquids from cup to cup at the dinner table.
- Be sure to tote along everything you could possibly need: a bib for your child (restaurant bibs are always useless); baby wipes and/or a slightly soapy wet washcloth that you've sealed in a zip-lock bag (dry napkins won't do much when it comes time to clean up a ketchup-smeared toddler); a fully-stocked diaper bag (make sure you've got at least one spare outfit); a sippy cup (a more toddler-friendly alternative to breakable restaurant glasses); a non-breakable plate (to prevent a similar crisis if your toddler decides to use the restaurant plate as a Frisbee); a small snack, such as a box of raisins (to take the edge off your toddler's hunger in case her dinner is a little slow in showing up); and a couple of toys and activities to keep your toddler entertained until her dinner arrives (e.g., crayons, colouring books, and an assortment of small toys and household items such as measuring spoons that you reserve for such occasions). "Take playdough with you," adds Alyson, a 33-year-old mother of two. "It can be a real lifesaver when you're dining out in a restaurant with a toddler."
- Come up with fun ways of keeping your child entertained after you run through the bag of tricks you brought from home. "We take all the sugar packets out of the dish and let Sarah divide them into pink, white, and brown piles," says Jennifer, a 33-year-old mother of one. "Then we count them. Then we make them into patterns. This kills a lot of time while we're waiting for the food to arrive and it helps with her counting skills."
- Don't be afraid to get up and walk around while you're waiting for your dinner to arrive. "We order and then we take our toddler for a walk around the restaurant," says Kerri, a 36-year old mother of six. "We go to the bathroom and wash our hands, and sometimes we'll even go out into the parking lot for a bit of a break."
