If there is one thing that people take for granted, it’s having the freedom to eat out and explore the world outside their families. Imagine being a parent and still being able to get out and have a meal without the kids? It’s not something that happens very often and for the most part, parents accept this as their normal while they are raising little people. The thing is, there is a whole new dynamic to eating out now that you have children. You have to bring them with you to public restaurants and while some parents hate this idea, we can’t exactly leave them at home every time!
While no one wants to be eating out and hear screaming kids and see kids running around the restaurant, it’s not something you truly appreciate until you have your own children that you have to entertain them at the table to be able to eat out. So, instead of panicking you can’t set foot in a restaurant until the kids are civilized, the best thing to do is learn how to keep the kids happy at the table. With these tips, you can do exactly that!
- Chalk. You can buy reusable chalk mats and bring a small bucket of chalks with you to a meal and keep the kids happy and entertained during the wait. You can play games like Hangman with your chalks while you wait and the little ones can go nuts coloring in. You can buy reusable chalk mats online, too!
- Memory Games. If your kids are older than toddlers, you can play some memory games at the table. All you need to do is collect some things from the table (salt and pepper, cutlery, glasses, napkin rings, etc) and lay them out. Let them study the items and how many of each one there are for a few minutes and then ask them to repeat back to you what’s there with their eyes closed. You can even remove a couple of things and see whether they can see what’s been taken away!
- Cards. Happy Families and Top Trumps are easy packs of cards to slip into your purse before you leave the house. Now that the world is changing and pizza places open up to the public, you need a way to keep those hands busy before they’re busy picking up pizza. Cards can be the perfect distraction, and even the toddlers can get involved in Pairs and finding matches for fun cards.
- Technology. An iPad can be a gamechanger for restaurant outings. It’s the last big gun that should be kept hidden until all other methods have run out of steam, but it’s the one thing that your kids can really stay quiet with. You can bring headphones if the kids are old enough to understand they need to keep the volume low. Ignore any eye-rolling you get, too, because if kids can sit and do coloring on pages, then what’s the difference except that there’s a screen to use?
- Coloring Books. Speaking of coloring in pages, a pack of crayons and coloring in can go a long way at the dining table. It’s why many family restaurants today still offer them to families who come through the doors.
