Teaching children to behave in restaurants

While we typically don’t eat at restaurants with the children when we are home, we do eat out often when we are on vacation. We usually get compliments on our children’s behavior even though we sometimes wince if we think they get too loud. They do usually behave fairly well and do not disturb others much. I travel often times alone with them in the summer and take them all out to eat on our roadtrips and usually do not have to deal with meltdowns.

Today I decided to share some tips on how to teach children to behave in an appropriate manner at restaurants.

1. Practice: even if it is not typical for us to eat out, the children all have had occasions to eat out. Ir might be Chickfila night for school or a stop on a trip or a birthday. From a young age, they are expected to sit at their seat just as they do at home. That might be one of the major points: if your children are not expected to sit at the dinner table at home, they won’t know how to behave when they are out.
2. Choose children friendly restaurants: I like to stop at places such as Applebees or Ruby Tuesdays on roadtrips because usually the wait is not too long, they have an inexpensive child menu and have activiy mats for the kids.
3. Have some small entertainment for the children ready such as books, crayons and paper or other small toys if the wait might be long or if you are out for a more formal occasion. I remember a dinner for my dad’s 70th birthday at a nice restaurant and my oldest reading a book after a while. We had compliments from several tables about our children’s behavior.
4. Take your child out for a while if they get too loud and cranky: no one can enjoy dinner if your child is screaming or having a tantrum. It has happened a few times and I usually am able to bring the child back to the table after a short walk outside.
5. If the wait is long,  ask for crackers or bread to keep the children busy and if they are hungry.I do usually ask for the small children’s meal to come out first as soon as it is ready. We know how we get hangry as adults so it should come as no surprise if our children become impatient and loud waiting for their dinner.

As a reminder, if your children are wild and crazy at home, they probably will be wild and crazy in a social environment too. Be consistent with what you expect of them. Practice, create boundaries and consequence appropriate ot their ages for their behavior whether positive and negative.

We get to really practice these behaviors when we are eating out on vacations as we usually then choose restaurants that us adults would enjoy. I will need to remember these tips myself when we spend a couple days in Chattanooga next month: it will have been quite a while since the children have been to a real restaurant (I actually can’t remember last time they ate out since last summer — apart from Chickfila– apart from  New Year’s day where my youngest had a meltdown). I need to go ahead a create a restaurant activity pack with something for the 3 youngest.

A bientôt!

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