Toddler behaviour - versus the royal family

[newmumabouttown]

So, please bare with me in case I badly articulate my question.

My DS was SO well behaved at the dinner table / in restaurant, but since hitting around 15 months and now 18 months I basically don’t want to take him out to restaurants or pubs anymore as he will just want to run around. No longer happy at the table. I don’t want to use any screens.

I think the answer is probably an age thing, and we can reintroduce / enforce table manners again soon (2 years? 3 years?). But do you have 18 month olds who are wonderful and still at the table?

I compare most children to how the royal family’s children’s behave. How do we get to that level of behaviour? Let’s say Prince Louis though, a little cheekiness so welcome!

I’m worried it’s because I work full time and it’s nursery. But there are so many wonderful things about nursery, but I’m getting so upset how frustrated DS gets if not just throwing toys and running. It’s become mental! We have wonderful calm happy moments, but the chaos can spring at any moment.

I do think there's a bit of a sticky phase around 18mo-2.5 (variable) where restaurants become quite difficult. We stuck to food courts or places like Leon around that time - get in, get out.

Now I have a 2yo and nearly 4yo and it's better again, the younger one is a less hyper personality anyway so it's been easier.

I didn’t think the royal children did much in way of engagements whilst still toddlers? And probably don’t go to the local pub all that much for security reasons… So don’t know that’s what I’d be thinking of.

But we never stopped eating out with ours. Do playground before to get energy out, 2 courses max (kids mains with your starters, their desert with your mains, you skip pudding and get a coffee to go at the end) and pack toys + colouring. They’ve been well trained and we can take them to some pretty nice places now (age 4 and 8).

This is so true, I think we see them as babies,
and young children. But can’t recall toddlers of the prince and princess of wales at televised events.

Think you're expecting too much. I have a 12 month old who wants to do nothing but climb, walk and jump off surfaces. We go out all the time but we only both sit while he is eating. Once he's finished, we take turns walking around with him. There is no quiet lunch for 2 😂 we go to plenty of nice places, not just food courts, but we don't expect to actually sit through a whole lunch. And we choose places that do have places/space we can walk around so I'm not walking with him around people's tables FYI.

Also, no desserts, that slows things down massively, I don't know why restaurants seems to really take their time with desserts. Appetisers and mains and one drink only.