Oh my goodness. Tonight we were THAT family. You know the one. There's a screaming toddler that won't stay in his chair. Two frustrated looking parents. You ask to be seated as far from them as possible. The infant was calm, so we had SOMEthing going for us! haha! I was mortified when the neighboring table asked to be moved. Eric made me feel better when he brought up that Everett did not start misbehaving until the woman at that table started ogling over him and distracting him from his meal. Ok, good point. But still...mortified. In our defense, we did go at 4:00pm on a kids eat free day, when families are at the least risk of ruining other people's meals.
Before having kids I would have sworn we would never be that family. We would *make* our kids behave. Uh-huh. Sure. Six months ago I would have said the same thing, perhaps a little less confidently. Parenting is humbling. And that's a good thing. Shame on me for passing judgement on something I had no idea about. Lesson learned.
So we survived. We ate fast, and despite Eric fielding Everett's behavior while I breastfed Pax in a booth in which me holding Pax barely fit, we did get to eat most of our meals. Everett refused to eat his dinner - well, he did lick the ketchup off his home fries if you count that. However, on the way home he did request "mooore", and I gave him some of his packed up meal. *sigh* We also met a nice Grandma who came over to offer advice and try to help us comfort Everett.
Perhaps next time it will be take-out. :)
Ah yes, we understand. Last night was our first "that family" night as well. Liam has reached that inevitable stage where he throws his head back and screams when he doesn't get his way. This behavior increases dramatically when he doesn't get his proper naps, so last night was a bit of a perfect storm. Needless to say, we were mortified and had that same "oh I get it now" humbling moment. Unlike Everett, Liam was very interested in eating, so a ketchup covered french fry finally calmed him down. But we had that glimpse into the future, where someday a french fry won't be there to save the day.
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