Going to restaurants with crawlers

[TheCrumpetQueen]

Going out with ds before he was crawling was a breeze but now he doesn't want to sit still in the high chair for long. Are we going to have to just give up on eating out for a bit?

[TheCrumpetQueen]

My ds is only 9 months but is just eating what we eat so he usually eats bits off our plates when we go out. But some places like Monkey Nuts in crouch end do really nice childrens menus (like chargeilled chicken, mash and veg) it's usually too big but they're happy to wrap it up and he has it for lunch the next day :)

[SanityClause]

DS will learn how to behave in a restaurant, even if he never goes into one until he is a teenager.

If you teach table manners at home, the rest is just a matter of understanding you have to choose from a menu, give your order to the waiting staff, etc. Not that difficult.

If going to a restaurant is fun for all of you, go for it. If its not, it really will not hurt his future ability to eat in restaurants, if he doesn't go to them as a toddler.

[ProfYaffle]

We perfected the 'smash and grab' lunch at that age. (Tea times/evenings far too stressful so we stuck to lunchtimes.) The idea is to get in and out as quickly as possible, the poster who mentioned you have a limited amount of time when they're happy to sit in the highchair is spot on.

I always took a bag of crayons/paper/stickers and the like, always had one course, dessert was pushing it! If the dc got restless we'd walk them round or take them outside to distract them.

It does get easier, they're 9 and 6 now and fantastic when eating out, we've even graduated to evenings