Photo courtesy of drcorneilus

Few things are as intimidating to new parents as venturing out with a new baby.  The dreaded first restaurant trip usually goes smoothly, as long as there is adequate space for the baby carrier and a well-timed nap.  However, when kids outgrow the car seat and become mobile creatures, meals out take on a whole new experience!

Here are a few tips we’ve put into place to make dining out a more pleasurable experience for all involved (including fellow diners):

• Stick to family friendly restaurants.  It’s hard to apply a litmus test on family-friendliness from the parking lot, but generally speaking you should be able to tell whether the kids menu offers macaroni and cheese or es cargo.  Hint, you can’t go wrong with anywhere that serves mac and cheese and chicken fingers!

• Eat a light lunch in exchange for an early dinner.  This advice comes with the disclaimer that if the meal takes a long time to be delivered to your table you run the risk of a hunger-induced meltdown.  However, if you are confident in the server’s ability to pester the cooks for those kids meals, you might find succcess skipping lunch and/or snacks and opting for an early dinner.  An added benefit is crowd avoidance.

• Apologize to those around you, but don’t overdo it.  When both my kids were small they enjoyed the annoying habit of looking over the booth at the people behind us.  The first time it is cute, but the ninth time I can see the looks of exasperation on the faces of other diners.  Make a brief apology, give the kids a warning and let that be it.  If the behavior continues, work on disciplining the child, but don’t keep apologizing to the point that you also become annoying to your table neighbors.

• Give your kids attention.  My daughter and I have a tradition where I take her out for breakfast on her last day of school.  On her last day of kindergarten we saw another dad and daughter out sharing a similar experience.  I noticed that for the twenty or thirty minutes we sat there the father never spoke to his daughter.  They just sat there in an awkward silence, with him checking his Blackberry every couple minutes, and her playing with her food in boredom.  How sad.  Engage your kids in conversation.  Give them something to do–draw a picture, play tic-tac-toe, or count the packets of sugar in the condiment holder.

• Create a distraction.  Be sure to bring along a pack of crayons and some scrap paper, or a  coloring book.  Better yet, plan to eat at the kind of place that gives children their own menu with puzzles and a coloring page.  That’s a big selling point for us when deciding where to eat!

• Be a good tipper.  The funny thing about kids meals is that they are usually a little cheaper than adult meals, but they require more work for your server.  Kids are usually picky eaters and then order typically comes with special requests.  And there are all those kids-sized cups that require refilling and forty second of straw-sucking contests between siblings.  As a parting gift, kids are notorious for leaving most of their meals glued to the table, on the floor, and the crevices of surrounding booths.  Be generous with your tips to show appreciation for those left with the mess.  And be grateful that for at least one night, you won’t be the one sweeping the floors!

Do you have any restaurant survival tips to add to this list?

Photo courtesy of femaletrumpet02

After some time away to focus on more pressing personal/family matters, I’ve finally been able to work my way back around to getting Tip Dad up and running.  For now, I plan to post three times a week (MWF), with a roundup post similar to this on Saturdays.  Who knows, I may even sneak in something in between if an idea really jumps out at me!

Thanks to those of you who followed me here from Frugal Dad.  You’ll probably notice a slightly different posting style from me here at Tip Dad.  I plan to keep things very informal and simply share my thoughts on Dadhood.  I’ll try to keep things light, have some fun, and maybe every now and then insert a little controversy.  OK, so it won’t be that much different from Frugal Dad after all.

Occasionally, you might find some overlapping topics between the two sites–particularly when I discuss kids and money, allowances, etc.  I promise to deliver unique content to both sites, but since there is only one of me, I’m bound to overlap occasionally.

OK, that is enough disclaimers, let’s get on with this week’s roundup!

• Take Better Photos of Your Children-Use Window Light.  Great ideas here on getting that perfect picture of your precious little ones.  I wonder if Elliott also has some tricks for making my son sit still long enough to take advantage of that great lighting!

• 25 Things I Thought I Thought.  Sort of a hodgepodge of thoughts here, but many I agreed with.  Besides, how could I not include a post with an Atari 2600 reference?

• 2008 College Football Schedule:  See Who Your Team is Playing.  This one is for the guys (and the ladies who like football).  Believe it or not, my wife is a huge college football fan (eat your heart out, fellas!)

• It’s Been a While…Update! “Momma” shares some good news over at Dad Thing.  If you have been following their story, I think you will agree this is great news!

• Have Economic Pressures Affected Your Home? We’ve tried to shelter our kids from most of the bad news, and we’ve been fortunate not to have been personally affected by the downturn.  I can imagine the emotional toll it must take on little ones whose parents suddenly find themselves unemployed.  Even if we don’t explicitly share the bad news with kids, they are pretty good at detecting our anxiety and feel the stress themselves.

• What Grown Children Owe Their Parents.  This article really hit home for me as my own mom has been going through some serious health issues recently.

That’s all for this week’s roundup.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and returns Monday for another fresh post from Tip Dad!

Photo Courtesy of MNgilen

Might be time to pick up an early Christmas present for the kids.  Microsoft announced yesterday that it was reducing the cost of all three versions of the Xbox 360 video game system in an effort to promote sales of the struggling video game system.  I probably won’t be rushing out any time soon to pick up such an expensive toy, however the price reductions make the Xbox 360 much more competitive with the current video game king, the Nintendo Wii.

Here’s a look at the new Xbox 360 prices:

• The basic (arcade) model was reduced to $199
• The mid-level Xbox 260 pro, which features a 60-GB hard drive dropped from $349 to $299
• The Xbox 360 Elite, top of the line edition, which featured a 120-GB hard drive and is high-def compatible dropped from $449 to $399

Sales of the Xbox 360 have struggled to keep up with the Wii, largely due to the Wii’s ability to attract non-video game audiences, such as adults and older generations.  We bought a Wii a few months ago, and enjoy having family game nights of Wii sports.  My kids each have a couple additional games of their own, and I still have an original Xbox with exactly one game, college football.  No more than I play the Xbox, it would be tough to justify purchasing the Xbox 360 based on my playing time, but my kids are getting old enough to begin to enjoy some of the more popular titles.  With Christmas just three months away, this price reduction by Microsoft came at a pretty good time.

Photo courtesy of scott keddy

Can you believe someone actually took out an advertisement for a nanny with the opening line, “My kids are a pain.”  It’s actually quite sad when you think of all the loving would-be parents out there who are unable to have children.  Here is someone able to have children, physically, but is incapable of showing her children the love and affection they deserve.

If You Can’t Love Them, Don’t Have Them

It seems like more and more couples are so wrapped up in their own lives, or their own careers, that they simply don’t have time to parent their children.  I wish people like this wouldn’t even have kids, because it is obvious they can’t dedicate the amount of time required to be a loving parent.  In this case, the husband and wife had children, but the husband owns a store and the wife lists her career as a painter.  I’m not sure what being a “painter” entails, but I’m quite sure it could be done around parenting responsibilities.  So what is their answer?  Hire someone else to raise their kids.

If You Can’t Multitask, Don’t Have Them

Maybe this mom should take her own advice.  In the body of the online ad she stated, “If you cannot multitask…don’t even bother replying.”  Well, perhaps she should have considered her own abilities to multitask before having children and wanting to further her own career.  The bottom line?  Make your children a priority in your life, and never refer to them as a “pain.”  Children are a blessing.  They are our legacy.  If you cannot put them first in your life then you should not be a parent.

Photo courtesy of PhilipsPhotos

It is that time of year again–more sad news of the tragic deaths of high school football players.  These young players typically die of undetected heart problems, made worse by playing in extreme temperatures of the late summer months.  I played high school football myself, and often thought some of the conditions were made unnecessarily difficult by muscle-head coaches bent on “toughening” players when they were actually just feeding their own egos.  While it is not known if any of these deaths could have been prevented, there are some things we could be doing as parents, coaches and school administrators to reduce the risk of more players dying so tragically young.

Health Screenings

Often times high school football players die from an undetected heart condition that could have been found through more intensive screening.  Heart murmurs and irregular heartbeats are not likely to be detected during regular physicals without the use of an EKG or more sophisticated equipment.  If your child is preparing to play high school sports it may be a good idea to ask for this further level of screening, even if you have to pay for it out-of-pocket.

More Water, Less Heat

I remember in high school our coaches literally became angry at the mere mention of needing water.  It was thought to be a sign of weakness to want something to drink, when in fact it was simply a physiological response to being dehydrated.  I guess it is asking a lot for a high school football coach to understand that.  I’ve done a little youth soccer coaching and I’m always aware of the temperature and the level of activity I’m requiring of the kids.  I opt for frequent water breaks and err on the side of caution.  Perhaps if school administrators provided more oversight of practice times and duration, and the frequency of breaks, there were would be less incidence of heat-related problems.

Football is a tough sport, but one that when well-coached can teach many positive traits to our children, such as discipline, perseverance, and sportsmanship.  However, it is the responsibility of parents, coaches and school administrators to ensure the safety of high school football players.