I love going out to dinner. Someone is there to bring me a nice glass of wine, warm bread from the oven, serve me my hot dinner, and then clean it all up. It’s like being a queen for an hour….or not. But I can always dream, right?
Recently we went out for just such a dinner to one of our favorite restaurants with my brother in law, his wife, and their newborn son. I was looking forward to it since we don’t get to spend a lot of time with them even though they live no more than 10 minutes from us.
Instead of the nice dinner that I was looking forward to I had the dinner from hell. We were “those people”. You know what I’m talking about the family with the toddler who can’t sit still, who can’t be quiet, and who throws everything.
I don’t know that there was enough wine in the entire establishment that could have made me feel better. My son was the epitome of naughty.
Let me start by saying that he found his out loud voice. The really loud screamy one. The one that most definitely draws all sorts of attention.
I have a better idea… let’s make a list of all the things he did to create a less than desirable dining environment.
1. Uses the loud voice
2. Put bread in his mouth, spit it on the table, and then threw it on the floor
3. Tried to climb out of the high chair
4. Succeeded in climbing out of the high chair despite the seat belt securely fastened
5. Tried to climb on to the table and take my glass of wine
6. Refused to use his silverware
7. Ate, maybe, 1/8 of his dinner.
There was one point that I stood up and was going to take my son to the car and wait there so everyone else could enjoy their dinner, but sat down and finished my food and we did the best we could to keep him from acting up again.
Our saving grace was that the restaurant was really busy and loud. This helped to muffle some of my son’s antics and not draw to much attention to our table.
When we finally left I decided that he is simply not ready to go out to dinner or maybe I’m not ready to take my 15-month-old son out to with us.
Now, I’m curious dear readers how have you handled a dinner out with a busy one-year-old little boy?
