Having young kids doesnโt mean giving up on restaurants. Head over to Bon Appetit for advice on how to dine out with the familyโand maybe even enjoy it.
{This is our Providers column for the Restaurant Issue of BA. While youโre there, check out Theย Hot 10: The Best New Restaurants of 2015, and โ what the heck โ why not subscribe?ย Photo by Adam Rapoport}
I could never relax at a restaurant when my son was really young, like age 2-4. To this day (heโs 8), we bring a piece of paper and a pen. we can play hangman or tic tac toe, etc. No device necessary.
The early reservation is key. Iโll never forget our 5:00 pm dinner at LโImpero (alas now closed) with our three year old who played nicely with a small container of play-doh until her dinner arrived. The staff was extraordinary, and the chef even came out of the kitchen to ask if her pasta with butter and cheese was too her satisfaction!
We broke rule #9 with my daughter when she was 1 and we were in Parisโฆ. And I highly recommend it under certain conditions. 1. Go for lunch, not dinner. And 2. Be prepared to eat in shifts.
Interesting rules to note. Young kids and restaurants sure can be an adventure at times ๐
I just read your article in B.A. on eating out with young children. I laughed out loud on number 5, โdrink while you canโ. Its so true that your kids will come home from Middle School after drug and alcohol training and keep track of any alcohol you drink . My son was so bad that I could only have one light beer if we were driving. I even had to perform a sobriety test before he would get in the car , one the police officer holding the class showed them, touching your fingers to your thumb back and forth twice. My father took to pouring his wine into a coffee mug out of sight when my kids were around.
Great article.
I too laughed out loud at #5. I recall the time we had margaritas at dinner; my daughter informed us that because there was tequila in it, itโs considered a โmixed drinkโ and proceeded to share equivalent drink statistics with us. My husband suggested that if he just had the tequila it would no longer be a mixed drink. Only other dinner tip is to order food they really have to work at โ mussels, clams, crab legs, raclette, fondue, anything with chopsticks, you name it. Meals, rightfully so, become an adventure. Dining with my kids, now high schoolers, is one of my greatest pleasures.
Is this the Sands Beach Club?
Love this column! The single best thing we did with our son (who is now 12 and who has dined out frequently from birth) was to enforce a no device policy with a twistโฆ he could always have a book and a stuffie. It wasnโt perfect when he was very young, but it turned him into a voracious reader, and we can take him anywhere โ heโll converse and try new foods and talk to the waitstaff, and when he gets bored, back into the book he goes.