What keeps your kids entertained while dining out?

Spoons are a great idea, but my little guy tends to use them as drumsticks, and that annoys some people who don't appreciate his fine sense of rhythm. He gets a kick out of ice cubes, though. We bring a whole bag of his toys from home. Crayons and paper work well, as does books and blocks. I try to avoid small items because he'll inevitably play the "gravity game" and it's sometimes hard to fish small items from underneath the table.

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This reminds me of a great idea I saw recently in one of the readers' tips on http://www.wejustgotback.com. A mom had created a "Kid Kit" by getting a plastic, snap-close SpaceSaver box and filling it with coloring materials, activity books with word searches and mazes, and other small toys to keep her kids entertained. Her reasoning was a bit different though. She noticed that her kids loved eating at chain restaurants that provided fun stuff for them to do, and she found that she was able to get her family into a wider variety of restaurants on road trips if she brought this kit with them. She kept hers in her car.

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Love the Kids' Kit idea! We'll have to try that one.

I posted recently about success with chopsticks as a mealtime diversion/challenge:

http://www.quickservekids.com/2006/10/a_will_eat_anything_with_chops.html

Of course, chopsticks are okay only with supervision and only if your child's beyond the spastic-hands stage and is less likely to poke her eyes, or someone else's. Baby A just reached that stage a few months ago.

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When they're babies, stick with Cheerios and other little bits of food. They won't be eating restaurant food yet, and you can stretch a baby's meal a loooong time if you just cut the food pieces small enough!

When they're a little older, keep it up with the tiny little foods. Also, plain paper and crayons are fantastic. I also kept a big baggie of hot wheels cars, tractors and construction vehicles in my car at all times, so that we could take them into whatever public place we were going to (restaurants, doctor's offices, airplanes, your child-less friend from college's house).

My Kiddo's 7 now, and we still bring things for him to do. Lately, he loves those Hidden Pictures books and Madlibs. We keep a book of each in the car. We actually brought the Hidden Pictures book into Grandma's house for Thanksgiving dinner. He's the only grandchild and he gets horribly restless waiting for the grown-ups to finish eating. So when he finished, I had him take his dishes into the kitchen and get the HP book and red pen that I had left out for him, and he brought that back into the dining room and did HPs while the rest of us ate and visited. HPs don't absorb all of the kid's attention the way a Gameboy (or whatever the kids are playing with these days), so he can still take part in the conversation when he wants to, but when Grandpa's talking about the special on String Theory that was so interesting, those Hidden Pictures are a life saver.

My in-laws don't approve of this, by the way, but it makes for a MUCH nicer holiday, especially for me and the Kid. I'm not kicking him under the table trying to get him to quiet down while Grandpa tells Daddy all about how well his tech stocks are doing, and Kiddo's not drowning in the misery that is adult conversation and forming the opinion that holidays at Grandma's house totally suck. And I'd WAY rather have my in-laws disapprove of me for allowing books at the table than to have them disapprove of my kid for being restless and bored (read: bad)

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I have 3 kids, 1, 5 and 8. When at a restaurant that provides crayons, etc, we think that's fine. But, we take our kids routinely to upscale restaurants with NO problem, because we engage our kids in conversation. We don't allow toys, books and gameboys at the table. We think our kids should learn to have manners in all settings - our expectation has been met. If our kids get squirmy, we talk with them about something that interests THEM. Part of dining out is to get to know the other person better and have a dialogue. You'd be suprised how much the kids want to do that if given the chance.

The worst thing I ever saw was a parent who put a portable DVD player on the table at a nice restaurant because she didn't want to be involved with her kid during the meal. What are we teaching our kids? Ugh.

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Well said, Lisa. My children are now grown, but we could always take them anywhere without fear of embarassment. They were taught from day 1 that meal time is precious family time, to be used for conversation and relaxation. Every meal served at home was at the table, with a tablecloth, good china and silverware. No toys or games were ever allowed in the dining room. Everyone was expected to participate in mealtimes to the best of their ability. This not only made meals hassle free, but it taught the children to both listen and speak thoughtfully and constructively - which can be considered a hidden asset.

Mary

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Actually, very little - I do try to remember to bring a book or some crayons and paper if I plan to be out with my family (nieces and all - they're three and one), but I tend to forget, as do their parents.

So we entertain them the *hard* way. We play fingerplays. We sing silly songs (quietly). We take them outside often for walks and runs and spinning time. We play with the menu and point to letters and pictures. We think of words that all start with the same sound, or that all rhyme, or that all are animals/foods/green. In short, we have very little time for adult conversation.

And the kids are considered well-behaved, which helps. I mean, I don't know, I think Ana behaves as well as any three year old ought - not very well, but not very badly, either - but we've all gotten compliments on her behaviour. Maybe it's her dad's DEATH VOICE putting the fear of time-out into her?

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