Why Toddlers Need a Night on the Town

There are those that believe children have no place in a restaurant. These are usually the same people that think kids should be seen and not heard. Of course, ideas like these were also born in a time when it was legal for not only you to backhand your child, but any other adult could as well. Times have changed so that parents are either too busy to parent or restrained by the fact that everyone seems to want to chastise them every time they do parent. The solution is simply to start parenting earlier.

The earlier that anyone learns a lesson, the easier it is for them to incorporate it into their normal behavior pattern. People who learn lessons early on don’t actually have to think to use them they simply do. That’s why the sooner you get your child out in public places and teach them how to behave there, the more years you can enjoy taking them out.

It’s really not difficult to teach a child how to behave when dining out, except that you have the added element of food that, which isn’t present in every single social situation. In any given social situation, your child needs to understand that you are only there with them based on their behavior. You can further reinforce this idea if you reward them for good behavior at home by taking them out. When you’re out, you can stop negative behavior by leaving the area.

I’ve been a single mom since my son was an infant. I was never a mother who wanted to hire a sitter just so I could go out, thought I wouldn’t condemn a mother who did. It just wasn’t for me. As a result, the only time I got to go out for fun, I brought my small son with me. While he’s always been pretty well behaved in public, I have had to leave places because I would not allow other people to be disrupted by my child’s behavior. Yes, I will walk away from a shopping cart and make Ramen noodles for dinner rather than sticking around a grocery store with an ill-behaved child.

For my son, acting out in public simply wasn’t an option because I established this early on. Today, I can take him anywhere and he is often surprised not only by the way that other children his age act, but by older age groups as well.
References: Personal experience

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