Taking baby out in the evening

[Chump123]

What are thoughts on your baby being out in the evening even though it's their bedtime. I'm having conflicting thoughts about it, whereby I really want to be able to have my baby out at a restaurant if we are invited out in the evening but equally I think it's unfair for baby to be out when usually it's her bedtime.

We have a nice little routine with my little girl, who is seven months old, she is in bed between 7pm-7.30pm but then feel like maybe we are being judged because of not being flexible enough to have her out in a restaurant past this time. What do you guys do?

Thanks

[SS1987]

Unless you’re going to restaurants 2 or 3 times a week I can’t see why it would be a problem. Keeping baby up an extra hour every so often won’t do them any harm

[Lazypuppy]

We've always done it. But if our dd looked like she was getting tired i'd put her to sleep in the pushchair.

Very rare as she finds it so exciting sitting at the table with everyone

[Sparrowlegs248]

Not for me. My oldest son couldn't cope with it. He'd be ok at the time but wouldn't sleep while there, in a pushchair , and would still wake at an early hour in the morning, it would take him days to get over it. My second son would have been ok, but the first had stopped napping by then and again would have a hideous few days of tiredness after. My family went on and bloody on at me but honestly, it wasn't worth it for me and I was the one dealing with the tired cranky baby.

[wintertravel1980]

It depends on the baby. Most would be absolutely fine sleeping in a push chair and ignoring the background noise.

My DD, however, has always been very sensitive to noises and at night she point blank refused to go to sleep anywhere but in her cot. DH and I tried to take her out for family dinner once and we learnt out lesson..She pretty much screamed non-stop for more than an hour until we left and took her back home.

On the positive side, once in her cot, DD has been a brilliant sleeper. We could easily leave her with a babysitter for the whole evening and we knew we didn't need to worry (as long as the babysitter didn't make any noise and didn't disturb DD).

[AladdinMum]

It really depends on the baby, it would be equivalent to someone taking you out at two in the morning, soon people would like it others hate it.

[Chump123]

Yeh i don't mean until early hours of the morning.. I'm talking until say 10-11pm, but equally I don't think it's fair on baby to be out until then, sleeping in her pushchair. I'm all for both sides. Our baby is very chilled, but she is getting so much more aware and gets bored/irritable after a while. I'm not sure I could have a seven month sitting in a highchair at 9pm, it doesn't feel right? Argh it's like tug of war in my head

[surreygirl1987]

It definitely depends on the baby. I totally would if I could get away with it but my little boy (6 months old) would get overtired and wired and end up having a meltdown.... no way he'd simply fall asleep in his pram unless it was moving (which is not great if you're going out for dinner!!). We've resigned ourselves to many evenings in, or just one of us goes out, or we get a babysitter (my brother etc at the mo til he's older and even then we stay close by). We have had friends over to ours for dinners in the evenings at least which is nice.

[AllesAusLiebe]

I wouldn’t do it. Don’t mean to be rude, but if DH and I go to a restaurant at 10pm, that means we’ve managed secure a babysitter for a well-earned treat. I’d be more than a little pissed if my evening was ruined by a crying baby.

Earlier in the evening, I’d say go for it, however.

[Chump123]

Earlier in the evening do you mean for example 6pm, so baby might go a little past their bedtime but their back for say 9pm?

[AllesAusLiebe]

Yeah, I’d definitely do that if I had the type of kid who would be happy and chilled out. I know you can’t really predict that but I know that my DS would make everyone else’s dining experience an absolute misery! 😂🙈

I think as a one-off, it wouldn’t disrupt things too much in terms of your routine. 🙂

Having been out with friends and their kids, I’d say try and choose somewhere where the service is pretty quick. Your little one will probably be intrigued at all of the activity going on!

[Copperbeaches]

I personally wouldn't but I like routine!! And LO seems to be the same! Would take days to recover from it! Idea of it woul be great if it went smoothly and they slept until pushchair. But mine wouldn't
We did take our LO out for dinner at 530 once so could be back in time for his bedtime. That worked fine
Don't worry about others thinking your inflexible ,you do what you think is best .
There will be plenty of time when they older to go out later with them in evening.

[pikapikachu]

In those cases I'd go for one parent going out and the other having takeaway at home because being baby-free for the evening is great and there's hopefully a guaranteed good sleep at night.

[Chump123]

It would involve going out for a family meal so it would mean both myself and my partner going

[Copperbeaches]

You could ask family is they would consider a earlier dinner ? We also phoned ahead of our booked time and pre ordered so when we got there our food arrived within a few mins so LO didn't have to wait around till it all arrived meant we all ate straight away so he was happier and I was less stressed !