Tips for Eating Out With Kids

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?