Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
c&p - eating out with kids
http://community.thenest.com/cs/ks/forums/thread/63680038.aspx
This thread had me giggling a little bit. Miso makes me laugh.
We went from about 1.5 to 3 without going out very often. We would have to have the haul of stuff to bring out, and even still, he wouldn't last very long.
I have been doing something lately that I am sure people judge the fu(k out of, but frankly, I don't care. We bring his Leapster and he sits and plays with it the entire time. We keep the sound turned off, but it works like a dream.
We did it on Christmas Eve (I know, I know, holiday dinner, FOR SHAME). We do the fish dinner, and we didn't start until 7 (Andy's usual bedtime). So, we brought it and had him play while we ate. My cousin sat and had the most sour look on her face the whole time. I wanted to be like, "It keeps my kid quiet. It is either this, or have him go through everything on the table, interrupt conversations, and potentially knock over water glasses. Your choice."
I don't know if this is a flameful confession, a random, or what. I'm bored.
Re: c&p - eating out with kids
Yeah, we took Ethan out a lot as a baby and young toddler. Now, it's not worth the hassle. We have to go early because if he doesn't have food in front of him by 5:30 he melts. He hates being confined, so we have to go somewhere where we can get food quickly and not leave him seated for a long time with nothing to do. We make it work when we need to to go out with friends or family, but if it's just the three of us we're staying our butts at home until he's capable of sitting still for 30 minutes.
I feel her on the "my kid is always the most hyper" bit. It's frustrating and makes me feel like I'm a subpar parent somehow even though it's just the way he's wired. He's as polite as you can expect from a toddler, loving, sweet, and well-behaved. He just cannot stand to be restrained in a stroller or high chair. He wants to be going going going, and it makes it frustrating as hell to take him anywhere that's not expressly designed for small children.
i actually agree with miso - but not necessarily for babies/kids under about 4 years old. i think once they get to about 5 (school age), they need to learn to sit and behave without the assistance of a bunch of toys and etc.
i think when they are small - you do what you need to do to minimize the disruptions of the people around you.
We went through a phase where my phone (apps or Netflix) was standard entertainment for Connor so that I could eat in peace. The good news is that has passed and he's mostly a normal little person at restaurants now!
On that note, I had a former coworker lecture me about how his kid would NEVER be playing with his iPhone and how it was lazy/irresponsible parenting. His child had not yet been born at that time. I told him to come back and talk to me in 3-4 years and see how he felt then. That's right. I pulled the you'll understand when you're a parent card.
For me, I just don't know if I will care if Andy is playing with his Gameboy/handheld-whatever-will-be-available-in-5 years-gadget. I remember often coloring at the table when I was younger. I didn't have a bag full of crap at the table, but I did keep myself otherwise occupied while my parents talked about stuff I didn't care about.
Then, there is my niece (not Devil Niece). I went out to lunch with her and my sister yesterday. My niece (10) wanted my sister to play tic tac toe the entire time, and kept wanting to dominate the conversation. This, I am not cool with. At all. These are the types of situations where I really wish my mom was still around so that I could ask her if I am mistaken, or if there is no way I would ever do something like that at that age. I was my mom's sidekick as a kid. I can't imagine she would put up with me butting in and wanting her to put all of her attention on me when we went out to lunch with her friends.
"As of page 2 this might be the most boring argument ever. It's making me long for Rape Day." - Mouse
Dagger is so inconsistent right now when we eat out. Sometimes he is a dream, other times are hell. But, he is testing things with me more that Mr. Winged and so if they go out just the two of him he is often better than if it's all 3 of us.
Dagger loves the iPad right now. I have not pulled it out at restaurants just because it is a work iPad, but I do pull out my phone for him occassionally. Redirection is the cornerstone of my parenting. it works. Eff anyone who thinks I suck.
I think it all depends on the kid. Ian is terrible at sitting still, even to eat at home. He will sit for about ten minutes before he starts getting antsy. In restaurants, re-direction does not work long enough to have an enjoyable meal, so we don't eat out.
Developmentally, he is not at a point where "the look" will get him to stop doing anything. He wants to run around or lie on the floor and play with his cars, and I don't have it in me to train him to be good in restaurants when he's only 2 and 1/2.
James has always been pretty good in restaurants, but I fear those days will soon be at an end. We took him out on Saturday, and I felt like we ran through the usual bag of tricks way faster than usual. He's a people watcher, so he actually behaves best when we're in a bustling restaurant and he's distracted by all the activity. The trick is finding the restaurants that are family friendly and have a decent crowd at 6 pm.
On a few occasions, I've found it stressful to take him out to eat because my husband and I have different thresholds for when we think it's time to take him outside (mine is lower than his). So that causes disagreement and ends with me taking him out and just wanting to be home, where I can just be done with it and let him play on the floor.
Charlotte is an ornery beast. We have to strip her down to feed her. So she doesn't come to dinner.
Occasionally we will try breakfast or lunch, but not really. I just assume wait it out as long as I can.
For less then ten cents a day, you can feed a hungry child.
Mucho likes purple nails and purple cupcakes
Miles really runs hot and cold with eating out. Sometimes he's awesome, playing nicely, talking at a normal volume, eating happily. Other times he's an absolute nightmare and I'm left shaking in fetal position at the end of the evening. It's really luck of the draw. We try to minimize damage by trying to only take him to very family friendly places and going very early. We also have gotten good at knowing menus so that we can place the entire order as soon as the waitstaff comes to greet us. This also serves as a warning to the waiter that we've got a potential situation, so make it snappy.
I am still really annoyed about a meal we had out a few weeks back. We decided to take him out for a quick bite after dc on a Friday night and went to a very casual local diner type of place with kids everywhere. He was being an animal. Could not sit still, was wandering around the restaurant, wouldn't eat anything, etc. We saw the writing on the wall, and had our food wrapped up to go so that we wouldn't bother anyone. As I was running after Miles to get his coat on, a woman in the next booth said very loudly to her H, "Huh, Miles is the name of our neighbor's dog. But the dog is more disciplined than that kid. God, get a babysitter!". I almost lost my shiit. Here I was at 6 pm at some place crawling with kids (most of whom were being loud, obnoxious a-holes), and she sees me frazzled looking and packing up to go with our food. I was so close to telling her how sorry I was to ruin her Le Bernardin experience.