[trishalishous]

We have a few friends who rarely take their kids out for meals (other than maccas) as they 'dont behave'
Personally I think that practice makes perfect, and we take our DD out regularly (she often doesnt 'behave' but we distract and play/draw with her and dont linger for coffees etc after)
How often do you take your kids out? Did age make a difference?

This post has been edited by trishalishous: 12/04/2012, 12:27 AM

[ubermum]

About once a month. We do kid friendly places like the pub for dinner, or a noodle shop.

[SummerStar]

Usually a few times a month except since the baby was born its been alot less but I'm sure as she gets older we will start going more often again.

[tamjk]

We try to take the kids out at LEAST once a week. Usually not for a meal as such due to the fact that between the two of them they usually fail to complete even half a kids sized meal.
Depending on who is going (adult wise) we usually head out for coffee and cake. That way we can go somewhere slightly more upmarket for the kids to learn proper behaviour.

I actually find my kids are better behaved in the pricey cafe that serves a two year old a drink in a VERY fragile looking glass cup than they are at a "family restaurant" like Maccas!

[2bundles]

3+ times per week. They are 7&9. When they were both toddlers we stayed at home a bit more or did child friendly venues as it often isn't worth the effort.

[meljb]

I have a 2yr old and 4.5yr old, we go through stages where we might be out for breakfast or lunch once a week for a few weeks and then nothing for a few months. I do try to take them and have coffee semi-regularly so they learn how to behave appropriately.
We went out for dinner recently to a child friendly but still "fancy" restaurant for a special occassion and they behaved beautifully (not perfect, but pretty close imo). We booked for the earliest sitting (5:30, but we were there for over 2 hours), ordered their meals first and then when I finished my main I took them for a walk outside as the other adults were still eating. The restaurant supplied some pencils and a picture to colour in.

[howdo]

I think it depends on age, but also the child. Some are really good in cafes etc earlier than others.

The one thing we don't do however is take them out in order that they 'learn how to behave'. We take them out for the reason that we are taking them out! When we had little, little ones (toddler and babies) and there were only 1 or 2 of them we would go to middle of the range type places - probably between 1-3 times in 3 months, then we got outnumbered. I think we stayed home for a while, but I think that's more likely to do with affordability than the kids not behaving. We definitely went through a stage for years where we didn't go anywhere other than McDonald's because we couldn't afford to go anywhere other than McDonald's.

Currently we have the finances to go about once a month probably and as they have gotten older we have started to eat at a wider variety of places. A few years ago it was Hog's Breath and Fasta Pasta. Now we frequent fine dining/a'la carte about half the time. It's hard to say if age or finances has been the biggest influence on that. One of the reasons we go out more is that they can stay up later, another is we don't have to chase anyone around a restaurant - they can sit still for an hour or two. But without the money to go those would be moot points.

This post has been edited by howdo: 12/04/2012, 07:14 AM

[threelittlegems]

We used to take our kids out to restaurants all the time, and felt very smug about it.

A number of times I informed posters on EB boards that it was their fault for not exposing their children to restaurants so they could learn how to behave.

Then we had Charlie. Everything changed. He was a nightmare, and no amount of exposure or training helped. Worse, he influenced DD who decided, why should I sit here and be quiet if Charlie wont.

So we didn't go to restuarants or cafes for over 12 months. Even a quick breakfast usually turned into a nightmare. We did go to a local cafe on Valentines Day, and I thought the kids were reasonably bearable. DH disagrees though.

OP, do you have one child? Because I agree, it is easy to train most children on their own to sit and behave in a restaurant. In fact, I'd be reasonably happy to take either of my three children out to a cafe on their own. Three together however, is a totally different story.

This post has been edited by threelittlegems: 12/04/2012, 07:20 AM

[Kay1]

Depends entirely on the child! DS1 we took out for breakfast weekly from birth - and later on for the odd dinner etc. He was great. We travelled o/s with him at 2 and he was great.

DS2 on the other hand....we didn't dare set foot in a cafe from about 10 months. He was hell bent of sweeping everything off every surface and no amount of 'training' would stop him. He would also throw food on the floor, cry and arch his back in the high chair etc. He is 3.5 now and we are finally able to go out for meals again. We go maybe once a month for dinner and more often for breakfast. We generally go to kid friendly places, so where they can run around while we're waiting (outdoor places, we don't let them run around inside) and always take lots of activity books etc.

This post has been edited by Kay1: 12/04/2012, 07:25 AM

[Kenzi_Bubble]

I don't take DD out for meals all that often, but it's mostly because of what's on offer for the kids meal. She doesn't like chicken, I'm sick of fish, the 'schnitzel' always looks gross, they are ALWAYS served with chips, and she just won't eat a whole adult meal.

Mind you, we went to QLD for a week last September and we went out for dinner every night and she was very well behaved, so once the 'kids meals' catch up to what she eats we will probably go more often