Eating in restaurants

[Darian]

We were at Red Rockets Pizza Port last night in Tomorrowland (aka Ghost town). As others who have gone to Disneyland know, the food is served cafeteria style... not quite buffet since you don't dish it up yourself. DW saw a woman who had taken a piece of pizza from the counter, carry it around for a while getting pawed by her child, then put it back.... oh man. My DW wanted pizza also, but waited until a CM brought a fresh pizza out from the back. She took a slice from that one.

We were there a while cuz I couldn't decide what to get. Sometimes you see things you wish you just didn't know.... There musta been magic in the air because there were no screaming kids, no food flying through the air and everyone seemed to be having fun.

Darian

 

[mum4jenn]

Way back in the olden days I worked the breakfast shift at McDonalds to make some extra money. On my first day a girl was showing me around the back and when we got to the freezer there was a wide open box of sausage patties in the doorway. She stepped right over it and did not give a second thought. Also when she showed me how to set up the milk shake machine the re-run mixture had a roach floating in the foamy part and she scooped it out and used the rest of the mix!!!!


As far as restaurants and kids go...we have taken our dd with us everywhere since she was two weeks old. We do not do the "baby sitter thing" We believe we chose to have the child and we should be the ones raising it and teaching it as well as exposing it to the real world. She has only spent the night at a grandparents house maybe 4 or 5 times and dd will be six in September. She has always been well behaved though. Maybe that is since she is an only child. There have been several times when childless couples have commented on how well behaved she is.
At the same time we have been around badly behaving children and can not believe that the parents let them act the way they do.

 

[Robinrs]

Yuk, mum4jenn! MORE reason for me NOT to go to Mickey Ds!!

I think when it comes to taking kids to restaurants or movies no one ever notices the well behaved children, just those who are acting up! I remember my Mom commenting on how well behaved my son was at restaurants and that was PROOF to her that I didn't cook!

I only have one child so I think it's easier to keep him in check. Any child plus one turns into another story!

 

[Planogirl]

My son is well-behaved too but wouldn't it be interesting if someone would post that their child isn't and how they handle it?

These stories about the restaurants are creepy but keep in mind that it's not just the fast food restaurants that might have "issues". In Houston we had a local broadcaster who kept up with these things and I remember when one of Houston's finest restaurants was closed by the health department. I'm not saying that all restaurants have problems but you never know.

 

[Poohbear123]

about how GROSS resteraunts can be, I have gotten sick MANY times from going out to eat--but I NEVER visit those resteraunts AGAIN! This is whay I am always leary of trying any NEW resteraunts. Oh, and yes I have gotten ILL at WDW one of the places I refuse to eat is The Electric Umbrella-Acck!

 

[worm761]

just to make planogirl happy ~ i will first say that MOST of the time my DS is very well behaved. he is hyperactive so we have our good days and our bad days. DS is going to be 7yrs next month. about a month ago we decided to go out to dinner. not one of DS's better days. there is no running DS's energy off. (yes i have tried, for the last 3 years actually. lol) anyway as we were waiting for our food to come DS started to get ansy. we tried to distract him by coloring and playing spelling and math games. wasnt really working. by time the food got there he was crawling under the table. that is when i asked the waitress to please bag up our food to go. left her a nice tip and left. we ate dinner at home, where DS can be as ansy as he wants without disturbing other people. in his defense, this was a bad day. he is usually the child that gets compliments on how good he is. he may be hyper but he does listen.
when children are out of control it is usually because the parents are letting them. DS knows that if he cant control himself we WILL leave and there are usually consequences.
and for those of you that eat at buffets~ you really shouldnt. i stopped when i had to take serve safe classes. the things they show you are disgusting.

 

[Planogirl]

worm761 PLEASE don't mention any of the bad things you know about buffets. Ignorance is bliss in this case.

I guess that I feel like kids will be kids and most will have bad days. As long as the parents are trying to control the kids, I have no problems with a bit of acting up. I only hate it when the parents sit there oblivious to all of it while their kids are running amuck throughout the restaurant. This is not only annoying but dangerous. Plus I admit that it annoys me when a child is sitting behind me in a booth and starts playing with my hair but luckily that's only happened once.

 

[The Sweetness]

Maybe I just have the best behaved child ever born but~ I can count on one hand the # of times my DD (11) has misbehaved in restaurants. MAybe its because I was always prepared...

#1~ I always brought an extra toy or book along and made sure (If a restaurant with menues/ service (unlike Taco Bell etc...)) to ask the hostes for an extra crayon or two, or just help myself as we walked p[assed the crayon box/basket as we walked to our table. These things kept her occupied before/after eating

#2~ I carried either a couple of saltines or a few cheerios in a baggie in my purse incase she was *starving to death*

#3~ When eating out I always let my her choose her own meal instead of ordering for her or forcing her to share what I wanted

4~ You'd be surprised how content a child can be with one of those colorful (covered) *kid cups with soda in it

#5~ Usually, servers will automatically offer to bring out the tot's food asap, if they dont offer, ask. It could make or break the meal, litterally. When the *grown-ups* food arrives, if their finished with theirs allow them a desert.

#6~ The one thing that always worked for me, even if she was feeling a little iffy, was a) a pepermint(usually in a basket near the hostess podium or door) and b) a warniong that she could always be left out the next time. (That one still works )

These are all very simple things to do and can lift all out the stress from dining out with a normal kid (as far as I know)

 

[Boots]

Yuck!!!!

 

[Darian]

Double YUCK!!!

Say, I wouldn't mind hearing the buffet horror stories - aka "how I got food poisoned at WDW" (gotta keep it a disney theme doncha know...)

Darian

 

[Darian]

The Sweetness,

Nah, we know what your REAL secret to having the perfectly behaved child is... but I can't tell you who told us... rumor has it that you have one of them electric dog training collars and when junior starts to misbehave you just reach for the remote....

Darian


(Just in case someone out there in the DIS is not absolutley sure, I AM kidding. Though it doesn't sound like too bad an idea... heheheh)

 

[BrerMom]

We were convinced we had raising well-behaved polite kids down to a science. DD and older DS were great in restaurants, even at very young ages, and even Olive Garden. I brought things to do, we talked about expectations before we went in, we didn't expect them to sit any longer than a regular than necessary, etc. They were and are excellently behaved and would try anything, especially new ethnic foods.

And then we had our third. He's just not wired the same as the other two. We have stopped going to many of the restaurants we like unless we're alone. And, yes, we definitely "do the babysitting thing." I've seen too many marriages break up because mom and dad forgot to make their relationship a priority. He's getting better at sitting and following directions as he gets older, but we couldn't even trust him to be publicly appropriate in fast food restaurants for a couple of years. We did NOT let him disrupt other patrons, though. We would either take it home or DH and I would take turns taking him outside.