A friend of mine posted the following as her status on FB. Her son is 7 & daughter is 4. Or 3. I can't remember.
Take kids out for lunch after church...
*no snuggling is not for restaurants. It's for home.
*sit down we don't stand in booths.
*take smaller bites (food shouldn't be hanging out of your mouth.)
*get back in your seat
*do we play with knives? No.
Why do we go out to eat?
She's a really good mom---active with her children at school, fun to be around & I'm sad that she'll be leaving us mid-year when they PCS (military move) to Texas. Now, I haven't been out with her & her children but I've been in the same restaurant with them when they've been out. Her son's a nice little boy & her daughter is darling. I haven't seen them act up but like most kids I'm sure they have.
My reply to her was this:
So they will know how to behave when they are older. Hunter deployed so often when Sunshine was a baby/toddler that I had no choice but to bring her with me whenever I went out. The upshot is she knows how to act in a restaurant, how to order her meal, how to treat the staff, etc. Now, we don't always have perfect manners, but she's getting there!
I can remember various times we've gone out to eat that weren't entirely pleasant due to a tired Sunshine. They weren't fun, but we got over it. And we kept going out to eat.
Why do people feel that educating their children is limited to reading, writing & arithmetic? What happened to teaching our children HOW to interact with other people ---people that aren't their peers? When Sunshine started spending money she had earned or received, we taught her to actually HAND the money to the cashier, not to put it on the counter or to throw it at them. If it's an item she wants to play with in the car, she'll politely say "I don't need a bag, thank you" or more often "the *insert item name here* not in a bag, please"
So, why do we go out to eat? One of my friend's friends said "so we don't have to cook!" & while I agree with her, I also think it's so our children can learn how to BE when they're out and about.
And so mommy can have a drink with dinner!
Kids need to know how to BE when they eat out. When we take the grandkids we want them to know how to act so we do the same thing as if we were mom and dad. Another thing, the please and thank you. I had this conversation today with someone (who is from Alabama) who said when she "went up north" they thought she was being rude when she said ma'am/sir, please and thank you. Well south or north good manners are important.
ReplyDeleteWhen Sunshine was 3 & going through that highly trying time of being 3, we worked on "excuse me", "Please" & "thank you". I used to tell my mom & MIL that people will tolerate young children as long as they're polite. The child who runs past you in a store but says "excuse me" is generally better received than the child who just runs past you.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, at least one teacher at school will comment to me on how polite Sunshine is. She can "yes ma'am" & "yes sir" with the best of them.
Bravo!! We don't have children, but as long as the parents aren't texting and ignoring the child that has crawled into my booth or the screamer who just wants attention, I'm all for sharing my evening (brunch, whatever) out with families with children. How else will they learn?!
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree! If you never take kids anywhere because of their behavior, they never learn to behave!
ReplyDelete"Because" Great title, great post!
ReplyDelete