To say that my family likes to eat out a lot is an understatement. My husband and I would eat out most every night before we had kids. I’m not a great cook, not terrible either but it’s one of those situations where I can follow a recipe to the letter and when I’m salting the dish the top of the salt shaker will fall off and transform the once edible dish into something so sodium filled it would take months of water pills to get the weight off if you ate it. It’s not always my fault is what I’m saying. (That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.)
Eating out used to be easy, effortless and nice.
Now? Not so much. Having multiples in a restaurant is a challenge. When they’re itty bittys you have to decide, stroller or break your arms carrying both carseats in. Do you want to block the whole restaurant with your double stroller, will it even fit? Or do you want 2 (or more) upside down, makeshift wobbly highchairs to worry about? Knowing that everytime someone even remotely touches that contraption it could send your most prized possession tumbling to the ground like Humpty Dumpty falling off a wall.
Fast forward past the highchair stage (there just isn’t enough space to even start talking about that) to about age 2 1/2 when they exercise their right to not want to sit in a highchair anymore. You immediately are forced to cram a family of 5 (or more) into a booth so that the escape artists are somewhat contained. Only to have them stare intently, flirt and make “sweet eyes” at the booth directly behind you. You are obligated to apologize profusely to the nice kid-less couple behind you who lie when they say “Oh No, it’s ok.” You tell your offspring to sit down a hundred times when all you really care about is that they aren’t pulling hair and throwing food over the booth… Count your blessings other diners, it could be worse.
They stand up in the booth, they empty the sugar packets, if they’re on the Mommy side, they want Daddy and vice versa. They figure out that if they can’t go over the table maybe they can covertly slide under and play a disappearing act, ending up on the side they think they want, only to realize the grass isn’t always greener and at least the Mommy side has candy. All the while you are pleading desperately for the food to hurry because the cheese dip ran out and you know just like sands through the hour glass, your time is about to run out too. Check. Please.
The point of this is to say, I have yet to figure out a graceful way to eat out with my children. Sitting at home on a Saturday night eating soup from a can is usually more appealing.
Do you eat out with your multiples in tow? How do you make it more enjoyable than canned soup?
