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Infants, Toddlers, & Preschoolers
Do you let your toddler walk around in the restaurant?
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Anonymous
| Restaurant etiquette question - At a restaurant while waiting for food, sometimes crayons or toys don't work and all 18 month old DD wants to do is walk around. Do you let your DC do it or is that frowned upon? Thanks! |
Anonymous
|
Absolutely not. It's rude to other guests and a tripping hazard to servers carrying food.
Take her out to the lobby or outside if you want her to walk a bit. |
Anonymous
| No, we did not. If the child couldn't/wouldn't sit one parent went outside while the other got food boxed up/check paid, etc. And it doesn't matter if it is a family friendly restaurant or not, don't let your child walk around. |
Anonymous
| Not free-range. We might dawdle a little on our unncessary walk to/from the bathroom, but I absolutely try to keep her in her seat for most of the meal. There was a year there where we didn't go out much, because she was an uncontainable force of nature. Pure id. |
Anonymous
| Never! It is dangerous, rude to waitstaff and patrons, and is a terrible lesson. If the child can't behave, he/she should be removed. Trust me, this is the only way your child will learn to behave. And, a tray full of hot coffee that falls on your child's head after the waitress trips over him/her seems like a terrible way to learn this lesson. |
Anonymous
| We do, but conservatively, at family friendly restraurants. I've heard if you let them do it once, they'll always want to do it. We let my 4 yr old when he was a toddler (again, conservatively, with me right behind and usually just for one 'lap' when it isn't busy) and he knows to stay seated now. We are doing same with 18 month old now - when it gets to that point, one of us will walk him around, a mix of holding him, pointing out the window at things, and maybe 1 lap of him getting to walk around. This is usually enough for the other parent to finish eating and get the bill paid. |
Anonymous
| I used to sometimes walk around with him (e.g., dawdle going to the bathroom, or at Tex -Mex places we might watch the tortilla machines) but never on his own. |
Anonymous
| A restaurant is not a gym. It is a very dangerous place. Kids should be taken outside if they can't stay seated. |
Anonymous
If you haven't noticed, its cold out. And when its dinner time, its dark out. I'm not going to stand outside with an 18 month old in a dark parking lot. Or even go sit in the car for that matter. So, we go early, as to not interfere with the romantic couples and other non-family type guests. And we don't go to upscale restraurants. And we only do it when in order to let whoever isn't done eating to finish eating and pay the bill. Yes, its not a gym. But we don't let him climb on things or pull on things. We don't use it as a gym. Parents who do a lap or two with a toddler aren't using the place as a gym. Parents who let their kids go wild are. Big difference. |
Anonymous
| Nope, I didn't. If my kids couldn't/can't stay in their seat, I took them outside. The only exception to this is Tex Mex restaurants where they invite the kids to watch the tortilla machine. |
Anonymous
That might be true for your kid, but my kid seems to be doing ok when we ask for age-appropriate good behavior (which at 2 or 3 might mean being quiet but being allowed to get up once, and at 5 or 6 being quiet and seated). |
Anonymous
| We let him walk to the bathroom and back. For some reason, he likes to hang out in the bathroom for a little bit when he is bored at restaurants. I guess it gives him a change of scenery. |
Anonymous
| No, we don't. If they're getting unruly, we take them outside. If that's not an option, we go home. It's dangerous to let your child walk around, even if supervised. What if a server trips on them and dumps hot food or drinks on them? |
Anonymous
| With or without a parent? What type of restaurant? |
Anonymous
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Without a parent? Never! I used to work at a busy restaurant, and this always boggled us. So rude and potentially dangerous. Our servers walked around with trays of hot food, and a toddler is the perfect tripping height.
With a parent? Only if the restaurant is casual and it's not busy. |