Sunday, August 10, 2008

Good Kids

My husband and I refuse to be "that family". You know the ones that you stare at in a restaurant, the ones who you can tell the kids run the parents. The ones that interrupt your meal, the ones that leave a huge mess wherever they go.
We swore we would never let our kids be those kids, and we would never turn into the parents who were oblivious to our kids and others.
I am proud to say that for the most part we are not that family.

We started taking our twins out to eat then they were about five months old. We have a "no fast food" (with some exceptions) rule so we would take them to places we liked to eat and in doing so they are not picky eaters and try everything at least once. They prefer fruit to french fries and sushi to cheeseburgers.
We would never go out to eat if they were over-tired or cranky, that is just setting yourself up for a disaster. We order their food first so they can eat quickly. We always bring something for them to entertain themselves. Crayons and coloring books are the best and I usually keep a separate stash of them just for eating out. We play I Spy or some other game to keep them company and we are fast, we don't expect our children to sit for hours at a table.

Of course, there have been meltdowns and they are to be expected with kids. We have had to take our kids out of the restaurant to calm them down and even leave with a take out bag of all of our food once. For the most part our children are well behaved in restaurants and know just how to act. People regularly compliment us on how well behaved they are.
They are great kids and we are so proud.

How was that for one full blog post of bragging about my kids?



This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Burger King Corp. Check out clubbk.com to check out their new promotional kids’ meal toys by Crayola - perfect for boys or girls!

6 comments:

  1. I'm probably one of "those families" who have the kids who are wild! But my kids are getting better. We've learned to ask for the check when they deliver the food so we can have the bill paid and leave promptly as soon as the kids are all done eating. We also go super early before the restaurant gets busy. Sounds like your kids do really well when eating out...yeah!!

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  2. I am VERY impressed ... I was at a restaurant the other day and there were kids actually RUNNING AROUND. (And no, it was not Chuck E Cheese!)

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  3. Everyone deserves to toot their own horn every once in a while. And if your kids are good at restaurants, by all means TOOT TOOT!

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  4. I wish my kids could be better when we go out. They have gotten better over the past year, but about a year ago we did manage to get kicked out of a Chinese dinner buffet... how bad is that?!

    And, another time, I took the kids to Bugaboo Creek Steakhouse and Logan was jibber-jabbering nonstop and couldn't sit still. We were seated at a booth and the guy at the next table over decided he would ask if we could keep the noise down so they could enjoy their dinner. We managed to accomplish that, but Logan had to have his payback... so every time their table erupted in laughter, Logan was sticking his face over the partition, shooshing them, and admonishing them to "keep it down."

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  5. oh I don't know why i've never thought of bringing that stuff with you! sooo smart.
    your kidlets sound sooo sweet!

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  6. I am impressed too! I always promised myself that I wouldn't have one of "those" families either...but talk about the work!

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