You may find yourself at Lakeland restaurants where you expected to sit down, have a nice meal, and enjoy yourself. However, you might find yourself at the mercy of the child at the next table screaming and crying at their stressed out parents.
While you don’t want to blame the parents for the actions of the child, you can’t help but feel frustrated at the fact that you meal that you expected to enjoy turned out to be the exact opposite. Maybe you’ve found yourself in that particular situation yourself where you were the parent with the inconsolable child. To give you a hand, here are some tips to help you out when you’re taking your kids to eat out.
Choose the right restaurant
When taking your kids out to eat, it is important that you take into account how your children act when they go out in public. If your kids have difficulty staying calm in public, fancy sit-down restaurants are a definite no-no. You’ll end up interrupting the other patrons if your kids get too out of hand. Look for more casual restaurants where noise isn’t too much of an issue.
Give them something to amuse themselves with
If you’re taking your kids out to eat, one of the ways that you can get them to stay calm while you go out to eat is to bring them something that they can amuse themselves with. This could be books or games that they can distract themselves with. When kids get bored, they tend to get ansty, which could lead to public tantrums. It’s best to keep them occupied so that they don’t resort to playing with the tableware or the condiments.
Teach them good manners
One of the best ways to make sure that your kids don’t end up disturbing other diners when going out to eat is to teach your kids good table manners. Setting boundaries for your children and showing them the right way to act in public from a young age can be a huge help. Using proper child rearing techniques like positive reinforcement when they do the right thing, and negative reinforcement for punishments (like timeouts if they get into fights with their siblings or get too rowdy) are just some of the ways you can reinforce good behavior in your kids.
Try getting a table near the exits
If you’re not entirely sure how your child is going to act in public restaurants, try choosing a table that’s close by the door. This way, if your child acts out, you can take them out of the restaurant as quickly as possible without disturbing the other diners.