Dining Out With Kids

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dining with kids restaurants Providence Moms Blog

 All right, I need a show of hands.  How many people enjoy going out to a restaurant with their kids?  Anyone? Anyone? Bueller…?

Going out for a meal with your family can be pleasant and uneventful, or it can be an experience of elevated blood pressure, raised voices, and headaches – all before the bread basket arrives.  Takeout can be an easy go-to if your main objective is simply not cooking, but there are times when going to a restaurant is necessary or just something you feel like doing.  We acclimated our kids to restaurants at very young ages and here are some suggestions for making the restaurant experience more pleasant:

  1. Figure out the best time of day for your kids.  Are they better at lunch, brunch, or dinner? Don’t force a toddler to sit through a 7 pm dinner if he typically go to bed at 8.  If your child naps at noon, brunch will most likely involve a meltdown.  If it is an “occasion” restaurant, I suggest eating early and getting out.
  2. Make sure you can occupy your kids.  If service is slow, is there an area nearby where you can take a quick walk?  Did you bring a book, crayons, etc.?  Are you OK with them using electronics for a few minutes when all else fails?  Nothing is worse than a half hour wait with an incredibly bored child.
  3. Don’t default to fast food.  I know that it can easy to go to the drive through at McDonald’s, but kids have long memories, and once they’ve had it a few times there is no turning back. We tend to steer clear of fast food and would rather go to a local, neighborhood place than a chain restaurant.  My daughter is a more adventurous eater because we exposed her to a wide variety of restaurants.  My son still puts ketchup on everything, but I have convinced myself that at some point taking him to different types of restaurants will pay off.
  4. Don’t be afraid to go “off menu.”  Not every restaurant has a kiddie menu, but most places will be accommodating.  My theory is that if a restaurant has bread and cheese they can make a grilled cheese sandwich.  If they have fancy pastas on the menu, someone can put some in a bowl with butter on it and bring it to your kids.  It can never hurt to ask and more often than not I have had success.
  5. Stay close to home if possible.  Nothing enhances a stressful meal like a 45 minute car ride home…said no one ever!  We are fortunate to live in a neighborhood with lots of options.

So the bottom line is: you do not have to fear a restaurant.  There will be some rocky experiences, but eventually your kids will get the hang of sitting and enjoying a meal and your restaurant-induced panic attacks will stop.  And, stay tuned for some local restaurant suggestions…

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Sara
Sara is a native Long Islander who has managed to shed much of the accent, but cannot get rid of her love of a good New York bagel, the Mets, and a decent pastrami sandwich. She moved to Providence in 2001, with stops along the way living in upstate New York, Baltimore, Washington, DC, and Pittsburgh. Sara has two fantastic, funny kids – a 14-year-old daughter and an 10-year-old son – who attend Providence Public Schools. She graduated from Cornell University with a degree in Psychology and has her Masters in Social Work from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. These degrees have served her well in her career working as a fundraiser (currently as the Chief Development Officer at the Jewish Alliance of Greater RI) and in her home life negotiating détente between her kids. In her copious amounts of spare time, Sara enjoys going to a museum or the theater, reading, listening to 80s music, cooking and piling everyone in the car for a day trip. She also admits to a love of funny and occasionally sophomoric movies and has been known to recite entire scenes from Monty Python or Mel Brooks. She tries to find the humor in all things which is necessary when juggling a household with two kids and a full time job. Her attitude can be summed up by a print she saw at Frog and Toad: When life hands you lemons, try to figure out something to do with those lemons.