I miss the days when Derek was still a baby and we could go out to dinner with him in his infant carseat and he would just sleep. And we would enjoy a nice meal. That is no longer the case! Derek and I go to lunch with my mom pretty frequently. But it's fast places like Panera or La Salsa, so it's pretty easy. Last night my mom was over and we all thought we'd try and take Derek to Red Robin. Jason has yet to experience going out with Derek since he was small enough to behave. He refuses to take a 2 year old to a restaurant. But last night was the night to try it again. I brought toys and he had crayons. We even ordered him a chocolate shake to keep him occupied until his food arrived. He didn't want to sit in the highchair, he didn't want to sit in the booth with us. He just wanted to walk around and see the other kids and all the decorations on the walls. When we told him no, he screamed at the top of his lungs... I'm not exagerating! People stared. One girl pointed. The couple behind us let out an 'Oh my Gosh!' under their breath. I had to force him to sit next to me and cover his mouth. Totally embarassing. We were there maybe 25 minutes. Didn't finsih our meals... the most horrible dinner ever! I know a lot of you have experienced this, I think. (I hope my son isn't the only one!)
So when we got home I went to Target and got some poster board and stickers. This morning we started a new routine to teach him to sit properly at the table. He has to sit and eat all his meal and when he's finished he has to say 'excuse me plaese'. Then he gets to put a sticker under whichever meal he just had (breakfast, lunch or dinner). So far it's working well. I'm going to stick to this for a good 2weeks, then we'll try another restaurant and see if we have a better experience.
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5 comments:
Great idea with the poster board and stickers! You would think supernanny helped you out with that one! I bet Derek will love to put the sticker on the board and feel proud of himself! Good luck when you try again!
I love that idea!
Oh...good luck. MY kids love going out to eat. There's times that there's chaos food spilling kids crying, kids fighting, etc), but we've never had the wandering or the screaming. Actually, most of the time they're fine. But we miss out on the good places. Actually, Red Robin tends to be a kid friendly atmosphere. OR we'll go some where like Denny's and all the old people think they're cute no matter what. And we go early....like at 5:00 before the dinner time rush. That helps. I hope that gets better.
That poster idea is a great idea. William is a picky eater PLUS he's always too busy running around. It's hard to get him to hold still at dinner. I"ll have to try a reward system.
And for a few years we quit taking William out with us... he's pretty good now though.
Love the poster idea. Maybe try having a fake restuarant at home. Menu, appetizers, meal, check and tip! It worked good on my geeks!
Good Luck.
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