To want to never ever ever eat out with a toddler in tow. Ever.

[bbface]

Just got back from disasterous morning.

Went to a toddler friendly museum, which was fantastic! DS (16 months) loved it, and DH and I loved being all together and watching him so excited.

Then....

We went out for lunch. We rarely do eat out with DS. With good reason it turns out.

We went to Byrons, it is an upmarket burger restaurant, but family friendly too. DS squealed, screamed, writhed, refused to eat anything other than breadsticks, threw water etc. DH and I wolfed down food and left. We were very stressed with each other, DH blaming me getting worked up about DS' lack of eating. As we walked out of the restaruant, all eyes were on us. Not my imagination, they really were!

I see other toddlers eating out in restaurants... how can I make this a reality for us? Otherwise, what age is good age to start going out?

DH and I still not talking to one another!

Rubarb - that sort of thing has happened a few times to Us and i agree it is a total mightmare. We learned to always have the buggy with us if was near nap time. I would feed DS anything remotely ok and them me or dh would take him for a walk. Dh would order for me in my abscence and everyone would start eating . I would return with a fast asleep child, park buggy at the table or nearby .Cue lovely leisurely child free lunch albeit it was sometimes a bit cold!

You need to have these horror experiences to get your eating out mojo - that's why you just have to keep doing it...

DS has always been pretty well behaved in restaurants as we did it regularly and he has always been a human dustbin and is always hungry.

However, on one occassion, he was a nightmare. As I got up to leave a woman sitting nearby congratulated me on how calm I had remained. Maybe she didn't spot the large glass of wine I was drinking that was taking the edge off.

Disclaimer, DH didn't drink. The poor bugger had to deal with the situation stone cold sober.