The restaurant experience provides children with opportunities to socialize, showcase manners, and expand their palette. As young children are still developing social skills, parents should be dutiful in corralling undesirable behaviors—restaurants are an excellent proving ground for them to rise to the occasion.

Choose an Appropriate Restaurant
Restaurants with dim lighting and soft music suggest an ambiance conducive to intimate fine dining. Alternatively, we’ll often find a rowdy crowd at a local sports bar, drinking, and yelling at the televisions. If we choose an inappropriate restaurant, we can expect a suboptimal dining experience.

Safety Tip
Many servers will offer to flip over a chair for a baby’s car seat carrier—this arrangement is often very unstable. Take great caution to keep the baby’s safety first.

Consider Seating & Keeping Them Busy
If we have potentially rowdy kids in tow, request a corner table or ask the hostess for the least conspicuous place in the dining room. This might help reduce disturbances from being too noticeable, setting the tone for a more enjoyable experience. Playing games such as tic tac toe, hangman, or origami can help keep children busy, the laughter going, and the tears from flowing.

Forbid Electronic Devices
To help children develop important social skills, we should practice with them; what better place than a restaurant? It really comes down to dad’s choice; we can encourage our children to have face-to-face conversations, or we can allow devices to act as social-skill-stunting babysitters. This idea may sound old-fashioned, but it’s so important. Restaurants are an excellent place to teach children to be present, interact with family, and enjoy time together. How have we, as a society, allowed screens to become a prerequisite to having fun? No devices at the table also means staying away from the tabletop tablet kiosks that charge for games. When fathers set non-negotiable expectations, they must be followed.

Set Expectations
During the ride to the restaurant, offer a quick reminder of the rules and potential consequences. If needed, explain that running, shouting, or throwing food will not be tolerated. Children should be expected to sit up in their seats and keep the noise down. Remind them to say please and thank you; manners truly matter. Set budget expectations with price limits if needed.

Let children know ahead of time if everyone will be drinking ice water. By getting ahead of it, we won’t let them get their hearts set on a Shirley Temple just to shatter their dreams and risk attitudinal fallout. If we know, tell them how much time we expect to be there. If we plan on bringing the family somewhere after the meal, make it clear that poor behavior at dinner will cancel those plans.

Veggies!!!
When children are young, ask the server to bring out veggies early on as an appetizer. This not only gives children something to do, but they are more likely to eat veggies when there are no other choices. If children are hungry and their only option is broccoli and carrots, they’ll often take what they can get.

Respect Others
Disrespectful behavior is unacceptable, especially when it disturbs other guests. When folks pay good money to enjoy a nice meal, they want to eat in peace. They don’t want to hear babies crying, couples fighting, or drunk people ranting and raving. If children are behaving badly, bring them to the restroom and sternly explain that we are not just suggesting they behave, we are requiring their immediate compliance. If they resist, it’s time to leave.

Summary
Fathers can give families wonderful restaurant experiences by sticking to the plays in the playbook. Go to the right place, set the right expectations, and have a smart plan for minimizing bad behavior. Dining out can be a great way to reinforce good manners, enjoy time together, and eat delicious food without having to worry about any cooking or cleaning!

“For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
—Matthew 18:20 KJV