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HdG N8tve
Guest
...unforgiving as I think? My husband and I had our first child almost 5 months ago. We haven't been out to eat together since. I went to lunch with our son, my mother and my brother once, and our son did great (given, the restaurant was a pizza joint and was deserted when we went to eat). I thought, this went great! My MIL insisted on going out to eat at Olive Garden for lunch one day. We picked a Wednesday, I think, at like 2 to avoid crowds. My son was ok until I had to change his diaper. I laid him on the changing table in the bathroom, with a blanket under him, and he screamed like he was put on a bed of nails. After that, he was miserable the whole time. We rushed through our meal, he cried so much, and one of us was constantly away from our table with him so he wouldn't cry and disturb other guests. Luckily no one complained to us, because I would have just cried too. I tried so hard in the restaurant to keep things in control, but the experience made me feel so bad that I really don't want to do it again.
Then I read the blogs (there are tons of them...) about how if you have kids that cry you should never go out to eat because you ruin the lives of everyone there. I just want to have a treat as a family sometimes, and I do my best to parent when I'm out - but seeing so many negative postings discourages me. Why can't people be more forgiving? People judge moms and dads out with babies, but do they ever think - maybe they really need a treat? Maybe they're trying their best? I'm not advocating letting your kids run rampant through restaurants, but somewhere, a family has to start working on and learning how to eat out in social environments together. I wish more people could be more forgiving of that.
Then I read the blogs (there are tons of them...) about how if you have kids that cry you should never go out to eat because you ruin the lives of everyone there. I just want to have a treat as a family sometimes, and I do my best to parent when I'm out - but seeing so many negative postings discourages me. Why can't people be more forgiving? People judge moms and dads out with babies, but do they ever think - maybe they really need a treat? Maybe they're trying their best? I'm not advocating letting your kids run rampant through restaurants, but somewhere, a family has to start working on and learning how to eat out in social environments together. I wish more people could be more forgiving of that.