Babies and restaurants.

[Frenchymom]

Would you take your baby (3-10 months) to a non local restaurants with a table booked by a family member for as late as 7pm?

Depends on the restaurant...a family friendly chain type...yes. Very fancy, expensive type place, no.

If you have a child that is happy to sleep anywhere & in a pram then it'll be fine. If you have a child like mine who just likes her bed/cot then absolutely no way. Been there & tried it on holiday.. it was not happening. I see plenty of babies asleep in prams so definitely dependant on the child.

2 of mine never ever slept in a pram or stroller. Not once. 1 would.

Still took them to restaurants regardless. They could eat, play (seated, quietly) sit on me and play, feed, sit on the other people. If they started to fuss, they could be held, walked, rocked, taken out. Might be a bit of pass the baby and musical chairs going on but nothing was allowed to disturb other diners.

I’d never have gone out at all otherwise

Yes. Babies that age are fairly portable so long as they will sleep in the pram.

3 months? Yes I think so. 10 months? No, at 10 months neither of mine would have settled and would have been wriggling about trying to crawl/walk everywhere

That's the perfect age for it!

I wouldn't / didn't.

Massively different at 3 and 10 months. 3 months, maybe. Probably would have slept in pram with a snoozeshade. 4 months would probably be my upper limit for that as after that both of mine liked proper dark rooms to sleep after about 6.30.

At 10 months no way. Plenty of babies would be fine at that age. Mine would have not really slept and got very grumpy and shouty.

I would. DS has a very late (11pm-ish) bedtime anyway. As long as he is the centre of attention at all times and he gets a share of my food he’ll be happy. He always behaves himself when out in public, it’s at home that he gets bored out of his skull and starts acting out.

No.

Babies are very portable. Take advantage. Baby can sleep in pram or buggy.

At 3 months, yes. He slept anywhere then. At 10 months I wouldn’t have though. He was well into a bedtime routine by that age.

Totally depends on the baby. My DD - no chance, witching hour lasted a loooong time. She would have screamed. DNephew is a total angel and would happily snooze in his pram.

Yes

Yes, we took ours everywhere when they were tiny, including smart restaurants. They would either sleep in the pushchair or on one of us, or be awake and nibbling/being bounced. If they cried, they'd be taken out if they couldn't be distracted - we wouldn't expect others to ignore a screaming baby. If the restaurant is happy to allow children, then it's not for other diners to say otherwise.

There will always be the odd miserable sod who scowls and grumbles at the mere sight of a baby in a nice restaurant in the evening, even if the child was asleep. They feel entitled to go out into "adult spaces" and not have to encounter children at all. They're wrong. Not wanting to be disturbed by crying is reasonable - but if you don't want to see members of the public (including infant ones) then by all means stay at home.

First absolutely not, she never slept in the buggy and would've spent the time screaming.

Second, maybe, but I still would've found it very stressful so would've avoided if at all possible. We did do lots of lunches though.

If I had a rare night out in a nice restaurant with the kids at home with a babysitter, I wouldn't be happy to hear someone else's crying child so need to consider that as well.

Nope! Sounds like a disaster for my kids -they're in bed for 7pm (5yo and 7mo).

I've taken my DS out to eat in all kinds of places since biryh so he's used to it. We had Xmas afternoon tea at The Ritz last month (he's 2 yo now) and he was good gold!

Birth*