Calming the Baby Beast while Appeasing the Natives

So I know everyone has had this happen to them... you are either the patron or the parent cringing when a child (yours or someone else's) decides to get rowdy at a restaurant. What do you do? As a parent you look around for the nearest thing to cram in your child's mouth... as a patron you could do one of two things... accept it as a child being a child or shoot daggers from your eyes at the irresponsible parents right?

Well in my opinion responsibility lies on everyone involved... everyone needs to be respectful.

Patrons: Now I know you have gone out to enjoy yourself... but there are times that you need to realize a child is going to be a child. When music is playing in a restaurant... they are going to want to sing along and make noises possibly louder than the music... lighten up and by all means don't shoot looks at the parents who are probably already slinking in their seats because they know the daggers are coming and looking for an exit strategy that is more complicated than the one for Iraq.

Parents: Yes you know you should take your child out of the restaurant when they start acting up... but when is the best time to do that? What if they are just enjoying themselves and squealing in delight or throwing a fit and inconsolable? The first scenario seems like a time to stay put while the second seems to be get it to go and get the heck out of dodge. There is also the tendency to stay put just to tick off the patrons who have been disrespectful to you... but I guess it is in the eye of the beholder.

So here is the story... yesterday we went to a book festival and while there decided to eat at a local diner which let me just tell you had four tables occupied and the diner was pretty big. This neighborhood is known for its family (gay and straight) friendliness, well I guess we must have caught them on a bad day. When we walked in with our stroller... eyes rolled so hard they nearly rolled right out of their sockets. They looked at us like "oh lord here comes the lesbians and their new age family..." So anyway as we pushed tables and chairs out of the way to get to a table in the back that was as far away from people as possible, the waiter finally came up to us to ask us what we wanted to drink. We gave him our drink orders and then after four times of him impatiently coming by to get our order he stopped coming until we had to get his attention. He obviously doesn't have children... when going to a restaurant you have to get the children settled first. We had to feed the baby beast who was hot and thirsty from the day.

Anyway... so we finally had time to look at the menu and place our order. The waiter was still not amused with us in the least bit! I still had no idea what I wanted and just randomly picked what first caught my eye... luckily it was a good choice. It is hard for me not to get frazzled when people are staring and looking cross at me because of what noises he may or may not be making. I need to get over that too...

So we all were sitting at the table and lil guy started squealing and this guy who was sitting by himself eating kept shooting us the daggers because we were not quieting him down. Which we were... we had toys for him and his paci, but I had forgotten the puffs he loves so much. Anyway he decided to do it again and I took him out because frankly I was tired of being shot sideways glances by the guy eating by himself. The problem is too, that our lil guy wants to be on the go constantly... there is no strapping him in anymore. I knew that once our food arrived, he would be fine. The kid loves food!

But I took him outside and we stood there for about two minutes and our food was there. We headed back in and just as I expected pancakes and french fries were just what he needed. There was not another peep out of him... I learned some very valuable lessons yesterday. Go and buy some sugar free lollipops like my mom has been telling me to do and DON'T FORGET THE PUFFS!!!!

The other thing is that people need to relax and enjoy the joys in life whether it is their ten month old son squealing or the man who wants to enjoy his breakfast in peace... but whatever it is respect those around you and treat them with kindness.