Honestly we have never taken our children to a proper grown up restaurant. Coffee shops and so forth, yes. But no proper place with cloth napkins and no play area. Some place that serves great food and not over basted steaks. Somewhere where they do not have a play area, colouring in sheets as place mats or an offer to make your own pizza. Proper dining.
Well for Sunday lunch we did it. With friends. 4 adults, 6 children 11 to 5 with 3 7 year olds in the mix. It went well - amazingly so. I promise you I could hardly believe it. And all we took along was some paper (an old traffic impact study printed on one side) and a set of twisty crayons.
We had great great food (Portuguese buffet) , good wine, excellent company for 3 hours and very good children. In fact, it was such a nice experience that it has totally turned my very tired, very irritated and low mood into a very happy and positive mood. The naps after at home certainly sealed the deal. None of the "we went out to lunch, the food was just sort of ok but at least the kids had fun" feeling.
It just goes to show a point that was made to us by Piero from the now closed Tutti Pasta restaurant. Children have to learn to sit at a table and enjoy a good meal - without having the adaptions that we as a society have made to make it easier for them. If we always take them to kid friendly venues they will never learn and every time you take them to a non kiddy friendly place they will learn and adapt.
I know we have left this late - our kids are 7 and 9 - certainly we could have tried this earlier as some of you may. But truly, we as adults are entitled to having the dining experience we want and our kids need to adapt too - no use us always adapting for them. Admittedly it gets easier as they grow up but I am wondering if we could not have done this years ago if we started younger and just got them used to it.
So what have your experiences been?
(We had lunch at Mesa Portuguesa that has a stunning Sunday lunch buffet - it is well worth the visit. There is a little plastic table in one section for very small toddlers I guess - our kids did not even attempt to go there but for a 2 year old this can help)
"An old Traffic Impact Study," that made me laugh... my kids' toy rom is FULL of old TIS' and CAD drawings, with lovely blank backs for them to colour to their hearts content. Although sometimes they take the road drawings and drive their cars on them :)
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure we aren't ready for this milestone yet...but well done!
ReplyDeleteWe have taken ours to nice places lots of times because there's only so many times I can bear the Spur. I'd actually mostly rather not go!!!
ReplyDeleteGranted, sometimes it is a quickish supper but I agree, they must learn.
MandyE inspired me also in Charlotte when they refused crayons and such and she told me they want to talk to their kids when they're out. So now we do that but I keep a notebook and a pencil for each in my bag.... just in case... because sometimes they are a bit hanky (hungry and cranky).
Funny enough we agreed to only take out the drawing items after we all ate. After all we spent 3 hours chatting away.
DeleteYes, we also believe to sometimes take the Little One to our restaurants. Good to hear you was pleasantly surprised!
ReplyDeleteFor sure. Sometimes we don't trust our children enough in this sense. We think that a proper place will be chaos for them and us but they do surprise us sometimes. Glad you all had such a wonderful time. Good food for the win :)
ReplyDeleteMine has been exposed to proper restaurants from before she could even walk. Our attitude is that she should develop an appreciation for good food and let's face the facts - you don't get good food at the so called family restaurants. Given the choice between Spur or home cooked food, Zoe will always choose home cooked food.
ReplyDeleteSounds wonderful and I'm so glad that you managed to get out and have a great time with friends and family. We don't go out too often with all the kids - it's too expensive and we generally enjoy home-cooking/braai'ing more. We try do what they enjoy more than what we enjoy when we go out, but we did take the 3 boys to Beluga's (one of CT's top sushi restaurants) a little while ago - it was very hot and Jake was in a foul mood, but they were all really well behaved! If it wasn't so expensive, we'd definitely do it more!!
ReplyDeleteBelieve me Sue it is very expensive but we really do it very seldom - but I think it cost us not more than the Spur and the quality is a huge difference.
DeleteKade has been taken to proper restaurants once or twice and he's coped well. He normally sits and eats and chats to us but we don't stay overly long. In fact his first experience with the Spur was only this year when we went there for my nieces birthday.
ReplyDeleteGreat! We started taking ours quite recently to grown up restaurants and they behave perfectly. Sometimes we don't give these kids enough credit, hey! :)
ReplyDeleteWe took all five of our kids to nice restaurants (and not so nice restaurants) since they were born. You just have to be prepared to stand outside with a crying baby once in a while. But over while I think it is a great opportunity to teach manners - such as inside voices!
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