It takes bravery to walk into a fancy restaurant with a three year old trailing behind you. I always get a lovely smile and a warm hello, then Justin still smiling, and then THE look of horror. OMG, you just brought a child into this restaurant??? Well, yes, yes we did. My son has been taught restaurant manners from 12 months on and we are strict with discipline. I should, also, add he is a naturally slow eater, but even on the best of days young people can be unpredictable. We do three things which we both agree help us to have a long, pleasant dining experience free of stress for both us and the wait staff....90% of time. The other 10% percent allows us to survive without embarrassment, but hey I'll take 90 percent!
Restaurant toys. We have tiny, lightweight (purse size) toys that Colt only sees after we enter a nice restaurant and get settled. He is never allowed to play with them at home. Occasionally, I utilize them for trains, planes or public travel, but they are definitely reserved for special occasions when I need impeccable behavior. This works for us because they are novel to him. I rotate about 4 sets of small micro cars, tiny trains, etc. After we are seated, he says, "restaurant toys, please" and rubs his hands together because he has been asking for them all morning. He is now so used to this that after we returned from London he brought me a train toy and said, "Oops, I found a restaurant toy in with my cars, you better pack it away."
Lunch not Dinner. I have about as much energy and patience as Colt by 7:00 PM. which is absolutely zero. When we are on holiday, we make our dinner our lunch. We choose a nice place. We order drinks. We have more than one course. Words, like "appetizer, please" and "second course" have recently left Colt's mouth. We don't just do this on vacation! We do this at home, too. If we must do dinner on vacation, we go as early as we can. If he is having a bad day or hasn't had a proper nap, then we do take-out or stay home.
We make sure he is hungry, not starving angry but full-on hungry. Colt has never been much of an eater, so I don't let him snack. He is a slow eater, though. So, if he is hungry we can really stretch the amount of time to make things slower, more enjoyable. He picks out his own food, too. All of the same rules apply. We don't change any of the rules for restaurants. Consistency is key with children. No veggies, no dessert.
In Belgium, we had a waiter sigh, walk us to our table, and say "it's ok, kids have to eat, too". WOW! The SAME waiter when we left about two hours later couldn't stop complementing him. He even complemented us and said thanks for giving your son a real education (in reference to the dining experience).
Fingers crossed, we will soon brave the infamous restaurants of Paris. wink!
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