04-26-2010, 12:56 PM
No one thinks your child is as adorable as you do
Melissa Fox-Revett opens Blue Plate, a Toronto restaurant, on Tuesday. In this excerpt from her book-in-progress You've Been Served, the former tax lawyer and mother of three outlines etiquette for dining out with kids, starting with this cardinal rule:
BY MELISSA FOX-REVETT, THE OTTAWA CITIZENAPRIL 24, 2010
No one else thinks your child is cute, says Melissa Fox-Revett in her new book, You've been served, which offers the etiquette for dining out with kids.
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen
I like children as much as the next person. Which is to say, not very much. I love my own children madly and I still want to throttle them sometimes. So, imagine how I feel about your little darling popping a squat in the middle of my crowded dining room at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night. The cardinal rule of parenthood, the first lesson every mother and father must learn, is that no one thinks your child is as adorable as you do. Never is this truer than in a restaurant.
I am often asked whether my establishment is "child-friendly." Ridiculous! Inquiring whether I am "child-friendly" is like asking whether I am female-friendly, or middle-aged-friendly or brown-haired friendly. I don't care how old you are as long as you are well-behaved and spend money. When I am asked if we are child-friendly, I am always tempted to respond, "That depends. Is your child restaurant-friendly?" Most restaurants are not well pleased at the prospect of a roomful of ankle-biters, especially on a Saturday night at prime time. Leaving aside the matter of the noise and mess that most children generate, parents do not generally order lobster thermidor and Veuve Clicquot for their toddlers and, as such, children always translate to forgone revenue. Restaurateurs (as well as parents) have an obligation, however, to educate and train a new generation of diners.
Children require development, training, encouragement, exposure to new experiences and the experience of your high expectations. If the restaurant industry, including fine-dining establishments in particular, is to survive, children must not only be tolerated but welcomed. Most restaurants will accommodate your family if you strictly supervise your brood, you spend excessively and tip liberally, and you are prepared to eat early and quickly. If the restaurant flat out refuses to accommodate your family (and by this I mean you are explicitly told "if you bring children we will poison them") then you should never visit that establishment again, even without kids.
The Restaurant-Friendly Child
From the time they were infants, I took my children to every type of restaurant imaginable: the local diner, the Vietnamese pho place, the British pub, the Chinese dim sum dive, the Middle Eastern falafel house, the snooty French bistro, the expensive Italian trattoria, and innumerable fast-food establishments. I never asked if any of these restaurants were "child-friendly." I was determined that, even at a very young age, my children would be restaurant-friendly. I am confident that I can take my kids anywhere to eat and they will make me proud. The unfortunate flip-side, however, is that restaurant-friendly children are expensive; chicken fingers just won't cut it. So dip into that college fund and take your kids out for dinner more often.
You will open their minds now in the same way that you expect their post-secondary school education will do 20 years from now. In addition, they will learn invaluable life skills that universities don't begin to contemplate: table manners, the art of polite conversation and other basic social niceties.
Most parents I know despair that their kids just don't read books. Any teacher, study or parent educator will tell you that the best, easiest way to get your kids to read is to have a house full of books and newspapers, and to demonstrate your use and love of the written word to your children. Well, I don't need a scholarly article to tell me that the same lesson applies to food. If your fridge is stuffed with only diet pop and cocktail onions, the cupboard full of chips and Pop-Tarts, and your idea of dinner is a can of cold ravioli eaten with your fingers over the kitchen sink, then your children will never learn to like oysters, know how to properly hold a fork or understand the importance of "please" and "thank you." You are your child's first and, perhaps, most important role model. If you are whiny, a fussy eater, unadventurous or unpleasant, your child will be too. If you say "yuck" or mime a gag when I inform you that the special this evening is ostrich, do you expect that your child will behave differently? You cannot complain that your child won't eat osso bucco when all she gets fed at home is macaroni, hotdogs and peanut butter sandwiches. A customer once apologized to me because her son was a picky eater. He only ate white food: potatoes, rice, white bread (no crusts), apples (peeled), noodles, and so on. Well, who created that monster? That woman is just as much an enabler as if she were buying her kid crack.
When my children were young, there were lots of things they wouldn't eat: One hated onions, another despised asparagus and rare meat, and the third declined anything spicy. Well, I'm not going to live without onions, asparagus, rare meat and spicy food, and I'm certainly not going to cook everyone a different meal each night. I just kept trying, cajoling, insisting and, eventually, everyone came around. Now, my children are each allowed a couple of genuine food dislikes. One hates boiled potatoes and cake, the second refuses squash and red peppers, and the youngest turns up his nose at baked beans. I can live with that and so can they. Besides, they might just come around.
I am convinced that they would otherwise eagerly consume whatever was put before them: Sweetbreads? Delish! Sea urchin? Fabulous! Calves' brain? Sure, why not? I like to think that because my children are confident, open-minded, tolerant and adventurous eaters, they are confident, open-minded, tolerant and adventurous people.
Nowadays, I expect, a kid sitting at a table for 10 minutes crying about having to eat brussels sprouts might be regarded as a victim of child abuse. I don't feel any the worse for having choked down the occasional pickled beet and, in fact, I'm glad my mother taught me to appreciate how lucky I was to be fed at all. Being a parent is a job, it's not always fun and it doesn't pay well from a purely monetary perspective. It is your responsibility as a parent, however, to teach your children respect and appreciation for all food and all people. Teaching them acceptance and open-mindedness is your gift to them and, ultimately, a reward for you. And for God's sake, teach them some table manners while you're at it! make a reservation When you call for your reservation, advise the restaurant that you will be bringing children. I've had customers make reservations for 10 people on a Saturday night at prime time, and when they arrive, I discover that six in the party are children.
Four adults and six children might generate $300 in sales, whereas five adult couples in their stead could have resulted in sales more than twice that amount. So, yes, I would rather have accommodated the five couples rather than the party of mostly kids. By all means bring the kids, but either come before prime time or spend as much money on your dinner as five couples would. Making a reservation without advising that there are children is sneaky and inconsiderate.
If you can't get a reservation on Friday night at 8 p.m. for the wife and your six kids, don't take it personally; the restaurateur doesn't hate you or your family. The restaurant is only trying to make everyone happy, including the other customers. I guarantee that both you and I will endure dirty looks (at the very least) from neighbouring diners if you bring unruly children to a busy restaurant. And I know that I'll end up having to apologize to someone, buy a couple of drinks or give them a complimentary dinner.
Babies Taking your baby with you when you dine out is unobjectionable, in my view, if you follow some simple guidelines.
Many of the rules are similarly applicable to toddlers, as well as older children: a. Ensure the baby is fed, clean and sleepy; b. Dine as early as possible -- as soon as the restaurant opens for service preferably; don't arrive at 8 p.m.; c. Accept, with gratitude, any table you offered. Never demand the prime table; d. Be quick; an hour is more than enough time for a pleasant meal. And be prepared to ask for your dinner to be packaged up and paid for if your baby starts to fuss and cannot be immediately soothed; e. Eat out during the week, not on weekends; f. Don't clutter up the table or the floor with a capacious and, therefore, hazardous, diaper bag. Leave it in the car; anything you are likely to require should easily fit in your purse; g. Don't just order a salad and a glass of water; have a nice expensive steak too. You deserve it; h. Spend lavishly and tip generously.
A word about nursing your baby in a restaurant: Don't. Just kidding. I was once asked to feed my infant in the "lounge" (a.k.a. the bathroom). I refused; who wants to eat their dinner sitting on a toilet? I'm all for your right to nurse your baby, but be discreet OK? A well-placed scarf draped over your shoulder does the trick nicely. Again, consider not only your rights but other diners' sensibilities as well.
The Children's Menu Many restaurants (and not just fast-food outlets) offer a children's menu. When I was a child, however, I don't recall ever selecting from a children's menu. I don't even know if there were children's menus 30 (OK, 40) years ago. I unquestioningly ate whatever my parents ordered for me. As a parent, I'm not a fan of the children's menu either. I think kids should eat whatever their parents are eating, although perhaps a smaller portion. Kids' menus tend not to be very inspiring. If they're going to have chicken fingers, why not just leave them at home with the babysitter, a box of frozen chicken and a microwave? When my children were small I don't think we ever availed ourselves of the children's menu, probably because they didn't offer calamari or bison or pigs' trotters and other things my kids wanted to eat. Once the risk of allergies and food intolerances are past, it's never too soon to introduce your children to good food. I remember feeding one of my babies leftover homemade curry one day and my father suggesting that the child was too young for spicy food. "Dad," I said, "what do you suppose little babies in India are fed? Gerber's porridge? Soft, buttered bagels? Mushy peas?" To help your child develop as an adventurous and enthusiastic eater (and, by corollary, an adventurous and enthusiastic person) order off the regular (adult) menu. Yes, it costs more, but think about how much you spend on Baby Einstein, Montessori, Suzuki trumpet lessons and registered education savings plans. The end goal is the same: an informed, educated, open-minded, interesting person.
Most restaurants will prepare a regular adult meal in a child-appropriate size and usually for a reduced price.
If you do order from the children's menu, keep the following considerations in mind. If your child is old enough to be the designated driver for your family, she is too old for the children's menu. I've seen 16-year-olds order from the kids' menu! As far as I'm concerned, a children's menu is off limits to anyone over 10.
Supervise Your Children One evening, a few years back, a lovely couple was dining on my patio. They were celebrating their wedding anniversary and the first night out in months without their new baby. Their well-deserved evening out was continually interrupted by a couple of little girls playing a boisterous game of patty cake. The little girls' parents were sitting inside the restaurant, oblivious to, and obviously grateful for, their children's absence. The children were not badly behaved, just unsupervised, and constantly in the way of the servers working in the dining room and on the patio.
I asked the girls several times to sit down and they would, briefly, before drifting onto the patio again. I finally, and politely I might add, asked the parents to keep the little girls in their seats. I told the mother about the couple on the patio, explaining that the girls were disrupting their first night out in months, sans baby. The girls' mother reproached me: "I understood that this was a child-friendly restaurant! It clearly isn't and we won't be back!" Good riddance, I thought but did not say. It saddens me to think that those delightful and playful, though obstreperous, little girls had such an inconsiderate and self-righteous role model.
Set out below are my expectations for the behaviour of children, my own included, in the restaurant.
Keep Your Children In Their Seats Some parents seem to think that it's cruel to expect a child to sit at the table for longer than 10 seconds at a stretch. You know what's cruel? Parents in restaurants who extricate fidgety children from high chairs, pat them on the bum and send them off in search of high seas adventure. I've rescued toddlers from racing into traffic, diving into deep fryers, tumbling down stairs, drowning in toilets, juggling chef's knives and grabbing hot coffee pot handles. Maybe you want your little foodie to be an iron chef when she grows up, but a restaurant kitchen is no place for an unsupervised child. Keep your kids in their seats and entertain them yourself.
This is a Restaurant, Not a Stage Your child may well be the next Beyoncé or Pavarotti, but I'd rather wait and buy a concert ticket 20 years hence than endure their precocious warbling now. Unless you were at a karaoke bar, you wouldn't break into song and nor should your child.
Similarly, it is never too early to strictly enforce the indoor vs. outdoor voice rule. If your child is hollering, it is because she wants attention or needs a hearing test. Unlike, say, potty training, screaming and shouting is not a normal stage in child development.
Playing With Food A parent must ensure that their child's food travels from the plate to the mouth without stopovers on the floor, the wall, the ceiling, the server, etc. As any parent will tell you, an infant eating dinner is engaging in a full-body contact sport.
A baby who smears food in his hair simply wants to enjoy his dinner with all of his senses. As long as you don't expect me to give him a bath, I don't care if your baby bathes in his dinner.
Once a child is old enough to employ silverware, she should not be permitted to fling her food at anything or anyone other than her mother.
Please and Thank You Even a two-year old knows these two simple words. It's your job as a parent to ensure that these words are learned early and used often. Even the most egregious behavioural transgressions can be forgiven by an adorable child who says "please" and "thank you" frequently and sincerely.
Restaurant Staff Are Not Babysitters or Maids If you don't want to entertain your child or clean up after him, leave him at home with a babysitter. Restaurateurs, servers and cooks have neither the time, the disposition nor the inclination to mind your child. Most restaurants do not stock stuffed animals, crayons, coloured paper, safety scissors, toys, children's books, diapers or baby wipes, so bring your own. Tablecloths are not canvases for your budding artist, linen napkins are not supplied to wipe your baby's bum and dirty diapers should not be left to fester under the table. When you leave, remember to collect all your child's accoutrements, including his boogery Kleenexes. At the very least, make an attempt to tidy up; your server will likely wave you off in your efforts in the hope that you have left a generous tip.
THE CHILD-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT Truthfully, serving children in a restaurant can be preferable to dealing with adults. Children are not generally snobbish, critical or dismissive (as many adults can be), although they are often as boisterous, rude and ill-mannered as their parents. The savvy restaurant and its staff know that accommodating families is not only responsible business practice but enterprising as well. I would rather have the only restaurant on the street that welcomes children, than have the only empty one or the first to go belly up. Accept the fact that some people are just crabby and don't want to be anywhere they might encounter children. Or maybe they are paying $10 an hour for a babysitter and figure you should have done so as well. As long as your children behave themselves (and you spend some money), I would rather have the business of the family of culinary adventurers than the patronage of the peevish grouch.
Yes, Virginia, there really is a child-friendly restaurant. It is any and every establishment to which you take your well-behaved, well-mannered, enthusiastic and voracious little diners, especially on a Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/thi...story.html
Melissa Fox-Revett opens Blue Plate, a Toronto restaurant, on Tuesday. In this excerpt from her book-in-progress You've Been Served, the former tax lawyer and mother of three outlines etiquette for dining out with kids, starting with this cardinal rule:
BY MELISSA FOX-REVETT, THE OTTAWA CITIZENAPRIL 24, 2010
No one else thinks your child is cute, says Melissa Fox-Revett in her new book, You've been served, which offers the etiquette for dining out with kids.
Photograph by: Jana Chytilova, The Ottawa Citizen
I like children as much as the next person. Which is to say, not very much. I love my own children madly and I still want to throttle them sometimes. So, imagine how I feel about your little darling popping a squat in the middle of my crowded dining room at 9 p.m. on a Saturday night. The cardinal rule of parenthood, the first lesson every mother and father must learn, is that no one thinks your child is as adorable as you do. Never is this truer than in a restaurant.
I am often asked whether my establishment is "child-friendly." Ridiculous! Inquiring whether I am "child-friendly" is like asking whether I am female-friendly, or middle-aged-friendly or brown-haired friendly. I don't care how old you are as long as you are well-behaved and spend money. When I am asked if we are child-friendly, I am always tempted to respond, "That depends. Is your child restaurant-friendly?" Most restaurants are not well pleased at the prospect of a roomful of ankle-biters, especially on a Saturday night at prime time. Leaving aside the matter of the noise and mess that most children generate, parents do not generally order lobster thermidor and Veuve Clicquot for their toddlers and, as such, children always translate to forgone revenue. Restaurateurs (as well as parents) have an obligation, however, to educate and train a new generation of diners.
Children require development, training, encouragement, exposure to new experiences and the experience of your high expectations. If the restaurant industry, including fine-dining establishments in particular, is to survive, children must not only be tolerated but welcomed. Most restaurants will accommodate your family if you strictly supervise your brood, you spend excessively and tip liberally, and you are prepared to eat early and quickly. If the restaurant flat out refuses to accommodate your family (and by this I mean you are explicitly told "if you bring children we will poison them") then you should never visit that establishment again, even without kids.
The Restaurant-Friendly Child
From the time they were infants, I took my children to every type of restaurant imaginable: the local diner, the Vietnamese pho place, the British pub, the Chinese dim sum dive, the Middle Eastern falafel house, the snooty French bistro, the expensive Italian trattoria, and innumerable fast-food establishments. I never asked if any of these restaurants were "child-friendly." I was determined that, even at a very young age, my children would be restaurant-friendly. I am confident that I can take my kids anywhere to eat and they will make me proud. The unfortunate flip-side, however, is that restaurant-friendly children are expensive; chicken fingers just won't cut it. So dip into that college fund and take your kids out for dinner more often.
You will open their minds now in the same way that you expect their post-secondary school education will do 20 years from now. In addition, they will learn invaluable life skills that universities don't begin to contemplate: table manners, the art of polite conversation and other basic social niceties.
Most parents I know despair that their kids just don't read books. Any teacher, study or parent educator will tell you that the best, easiest way to get your kids to read is to have a house full of books and newspapers, and to demonstrate your use and love of the written word to your children. Well, I don't need a scholarly article to tell me that the same lesson applies to food. If your fridge is stuffed with only diet pop and cocktail onions, the cupboard full of chips and Pop-Tarts, and your idea of dinner is a can of cold ravioli eaten with your fingers over the kitchen sink, then your children will never learn to like oysters, know how to properly hold a fork or understand the importance of "please" and "thank you." You are your child's first and, perhaps, most important role model. If you are whiny, a fussy eater, unadventurous or unpleasant, your child will be too. If you say "yuck" or mime a gag when I inform you that the special this evening is ostrich, do you expect that your child will behave differently? You cannot complain that your child won't eat osso bucco when all she gets fed at home is macaroni, hotdogs and peanut butter sandwiches. A customer once apologized to me because her son was a picky eater. He only ate white food: potatoes, rice, white bread (no crusts), apples (peeled), noodles, and so on. Well, who created that monster? That woman is just as much an enabler as if she were buying her kid crack.
When my children were young, there were lots of things they wouldn't eat: One hated onions, another despised asparagus and rare meat, and the third declined anything spicy. Well, I'm not going to live without onions, asparagus, rare meat and spicy food, and I'm certainly not going to cook everyone a different meal each night. I just kept trying, cajoling, insisting and, eventually, everyone came around. Now, my children are each allowed a couple of genuine food dislikes. One hates boiled potatoes and cake, the second refuses squash and red peppers, and the youngest turns up his nose at baked beans. I can live with that and so can they. Besides, they might just come around.
I am convinced that they would otherwise eagerly consume whatever was put before them: Sweetbreads? Delish! Sea urchin? Fabulous! Calves' brain? Sure, why not? I like to think that because my children are confident, open-minded, tolerant and adventurous eaters, they are confident, open-minded, tolerant and adventurous people.
Nowadays, I expect, a kid sitting at a table for 10 minutes crying about having to eat brussels sprouts might be regarded as a victim of child abuse. I don't feel any the worse for having choked down the occasional pickled beet and, in fact, I'm glad my mother taught me to appreciate how lucky I was to be fed at all. Being a parent is a job, it's not always fun and it doesn't pay well from a purely monetary perspective. It is your responsibility as a parent, however, to teach your children respect and appreciation for all food and all people. Teaching them acceptance and open-mindedness is your gift to them and, ultimately, a reward for you. And for God's sake, teach them some table manners while you're at it! make a reservation When you call for your reservation, advise the restaurant that you will be bringing children. I've had customers make reservations for 10 people on a Saturday night at prime time, and when they arrive, I discover that six in the party are children.
Four adults and six children might generate $300 in sales, whereas five adult couples in their stead could have resulted in sales more than twice that amount. So, yes, I would rather have accommodated the five couples rather than the party of mostly kids. By all means bring the kids, but either come before prime time or spend as much money on your dinner as five couples would. Making a reservation without advising that there are children is sneaky and inconsiderate.
If you can't get a reservation on Friday night at 8 p.m. for the wife and your six kids, don't take it personally; the restaurateur doesn't hate you or your family. The restaurant is only trying to make everyone happy, including the other customers. I guarantee that both you and I will endure dirty looks (at the very least) from neighbouring diners if you bring unruly children to a busy restaurant. And I know that I'll end up having to apologize to someone, buy a couple of drinks or give them a complimentary dinner.
Babies Taking your baby with you when you dine out is unobjectionable, in my view, if you follow some simple guidelines.
Many of the rules are similarly applicable to toddlers, as well as older children: a. Ensure the baby is fed, clean and sleepy; b. Dine as early as possible -- as soon as the restaurant opens for service preferably; don't arrive at 8 p.m.; c. Accept, with gratitude, any table you offered. Never demand the prime table; d. Be quick; an hour is more than enough time for a pleasant meal. And be prepared to ask for your dinner to be packaged up and paid for if your baby starts to fuss and cannot be immediately soothed; e. Eat out during the week, not on weekends; f. Don't clutter up the table or the floor with a capacious and, therefore, hazardous, diaper bag. Leave it in the car; anything you are likely to require should easily fit in your purse; g. Don't just order a salad and a glass of water; have a nice expensive steak too. You deserve it; h. Spend lavishly and tip generously.
A word about nursing your baby in a restaurant: Don't. Just kidding. I was once asked to feed my infant in the "lounge" (a.k.a. the bathroom). I refused; who wants to eat their dinner sitting on a toilet? I'm all for your right to nurse your baby, but be discreet OK? A well-placed scarf draped over your shoulder does the trick nicely. Again, consider not only your rights but other diners' sensibilities as well.
The Children's Menu Many restaurants (and not just fast-food outlets) offer a children's menu. When I was a child, however, I don't recall ever selecting from a children's menu. I don't even know if there were children's menus 30 (OK, 40) years ago. I unquestioningly ate whatever my parents ordered for me. As a parent, I'm not a fan of the children's menu either. I think kids should eat whatever their parents are eating, although perhaps a smaller portion. Kids' menus tend not to be very inspiring. If they're going to have chicken fingers, why not just leave them at home with the babysitter, a box of frozen chicken and a microwave? When my children were small I don't think we ever availed ourselves of the children's menu, probably because they didn't offer calamari or bison or pigs' trotters and other things my kids wanted to eat. Once the risk of allergies and food intolerances are past, it's never too soon to introduce your children to good food. I remember feeding one of my babies leftover homemade curry one day and my father suggesting that the child was too young for spicy food. "Dad," I said, "what do you suppose little babies in India are fed? Gerber's porridge? Soft, buttered bagels? Mushy peas?" To help your child develop as an adventurous and enthusiastic eater (and, by corollary, an adventurous and enthusiastic person) order off the regular (adult) menu. Yes, it costs more, but think about how much you spend on Baby Einstein, Montessori, Suzuki trumpet lessons and registered education savings plans. The end goal is the same: an informed, educated, open-minded, interesting person.
Most restaurants will prepare a regular adult meal in a child-appropriate size and usually for a reduced price.
If you do order from the children's menu, keep the following considerations in mind. If your child is old enough to be the designated driver for your family, she is too old for the children's menu. I've seen 16-year-olds order from the kids' menu! As far as I'm concerned, a children's menu is off limits to anyone over 10.
Supervise Your Children One evening, a few years back, a lovely couple was dining on my patio. They were celebrating their wedding anniversary and the first night out in months without their new baby. Their well-deserved evening out was continually interrupted by a couple of little girls playing a boisterous game of patty cake. The little girls' parents were sitting inside the restaurant, oblivious to, and obviously grateful for, their children's absence. The children were not badly behaved, just unsupervised, and constantly in the way of the servers working in the dining room and on the patio.
I asked the girls several times to sit down and they would, briefly, before drifting onto the patio again. I finally, and politely I might add, asked the parents to keep the little girls in their seats. I told the mother about the couple on the patio, explaining that the girls were disrupting their first night out in months, sans baby. The girls' mother reproached me: "I understood that this was a child-friendly restaurant! It clearly isn't and we won't be back!" Good riddance, I thought but did not say. It saddens me to think that those delightful and playful, though obstreperous, little girls had such an inconsiderate and self-righteous role model.
Set out below are my expectations for the behaviour of children, my own included, in the restaurant.
Keep Your Children In Their Seats Some parents seem to think that it's cruel to expect a child to sit at the table for longer than 10 seconds at a stretch. You know what's cruel? Parents in restaurants who extricate fidgety children from high chairs, pat them on the bum and send them off in search of high seas adventure. I've rescued toddlers from racing into traffic, diving into deep fryers, tumbling down stairs, drowning in toilets, juggling chef's knives and grabbing hot coffee pot handles. Maybe you want your little foodie to be an iron chef when she grows up, but a restaurant kitchen is no place for an unsupervised child. Keep your kids in their seats and entertain them yourself.
This is a Restaurant, Not a Stage Your child may well be the next Beyoncé or Pavarotti, but I'd rather wait and buy a concert ticket 20 years hence than endure their precocious warbling now. Unless you were at a karaoke bar, you wouldn't break into song and nor should your child.
Similarly, it is never too early to strictly enforce the indoor vs. outdoor voice rule. If your child is hollering, it is because she wants attention or needs a hearing test. Unlike, say, potty training, screaming and shouting is not a normal stage in child development.
Playing With Food A parent must ensure that their child's food travels from the plate to the mouth without stopovers on the floor, the wall, the ceiling, the server, etc. As any parent will tell you, an infant eating dinner is engaging in a full-body contact sport.
A baby who smears food in his hair simply wants to enjoy his dinner with all of his senses. As long as you don't expect me to give him a bath, I don't care if your baby bathes in his dinner.
Once a child is old enough to employ silverware, she should not be permitted to fling her food at anything or anyone other than her mother.
Please and Thank You Even a two-year old knows these two simple words. It's your job as a parent to ensure that these words are learned early and used often. Even the most egregious behavioural transgressions can be forgiven by an adorable child who says "please" and "thank you" frequently and sincerely.
Restaurant Staff Are Not Babysitters or Maids If you don't want to entertain your child or clean up after him, leave him at home with a babysitter. Restaurateurs, servers and cooks have neither the time, the disposition nor the inclination to mind your child. Most restaurants do not stock stuffed animals, crayons, coloured paper, safety scissors, toys, children's books, diapers or baby wipes, so bring your own. Tablecloths are not canvases for your budding artist, linen napkins are not supplied to wipe your baby's bum and dirty diapers should not be left to fester under the table. When you leave, remember to collect all your child's accoutrements, including his boogery Kleenexes. At the very least, make an attempt to tidy up; your server will likely wave you off in your efforts in the hope that you have left a generous tip.
THE CHILD-FRIENDLY RESTAURANT Truthfully, serving children in a restaurant can be preferable to dealing with adults. Children are not generally snobbish, critical or dismissive (as many adults can be), although they are often as boisterous, rude and ill-mannered as their parents. The savvy restaurant and its staff know that accommodating families is not only responsible business practice but enterprising as well. I would rather have the only restaurant on the street that welcomes children, than have the only empty one or the first to go belly up. Accept the fact that some people are just crabby and don't want to be anywhere they might encounter children. Or maybe they are paying $10 an hour for a babysitter and figure you should have done so as well. As long as your children behave themselves (and you spend some money), I would rather have the business of the family of culinary adventurers than the patronage of the peevish grouch.
Yes, Virginia, there really is a child-friendly restaurant. It is any and every establishment to which you take your well-behaved, well-mannered, enthusiastic and voracious little diners, especially on a Tuesday night at 6 p.m.
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/opinion/thi...story.html
