any tips for holidays and my ds's behaviour in restaurants!

[hermykne]

i'll maybe get 4mins at the table with him and then the fun starts.
whilst dd will draw / colour with her books or even play a game with a dollie. ds dumps the books and just messes - age 2 + 10mths.

[ruddynorah]

will he not eat?

[hermykne]

well i might get 14mins but not more.....

[lyrabelacqua]

Make sure he's starving before you get to the table then he will concentrate on the food. My DS2 is the same (2.11).

[hermykne]

yes lyra he'll be starved alright
but he is a munchin
if something can be tugged / pulled / eve njust touched he'll do it...
but thanks anyway

[lyrabelacqua]

Sorry i wasn't much help. As i said DS2 is the same but he's calming down (slowly). Must be an age thing but i don't remember ds1 going through this phase.

[NannyL]

was gonna say if you expect good table manners at home, then you WONT have a problem...

but at less than 3 its not unreasonable to have perfect manners yet

start by improving manners at home, so its not too different.... does he have a favourite TV charachter that you could get a few books of this chachter of to keep his attamention?

good luck

[hermykne]

nannyl
we have lots of books, drawing materials, distractions, but i suppose he's 2 mths off 3 maybe there'll be a transformation then!

and he gets no treats / dessert if he leaves the table at home but he's just cheeky and upsets the dinner for the rest of us if i or dh get annoyed and we all want to eat our dinner contently in a relaxed fashion! so i tend to ignore him/ his behaviour.

i think this is common enough but i thought i might have missed some gurus wisdom along the road

[Dottydot]

No help as I've got an equally cheeky 3.1 year old ds. The only way to get through a meal out without too many grey hairs is to keep the food coming - we tend to go to somewhere like Pizza Express and order dough balls as they're taking us to the table! Ds's can watch the pizzas being made, the dough balls arrive quickly and as long as food is on the table ds2 isn't too bad. Obviously we never get to have dessert, but that's probably not a bad thing!

If you're going somewhere posher/where you don't know if they'll get food out quickly, take some breadsticks or crackers!

[Dogsby]

its dull thogh talkgin tot hema dn keeping them well behaved
hence we odnt go out muchwiht them

and my cooking is better htan crap kdis resturants

[hermykne]

dogsby
my vision of holidays is me cooking less (much and all as i love it i do it every day) and gazing with glass of wine at other diners whilst children read their books.

and its spain so the relaxed attitude of the restaurants there to kids should quell my angst at trying to have a nice "holiday"



floating on a cloud