restaurants

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What happens when you go out to a restaurant with your child?

I don't have any children, but I am quite certain they wouldn't let me in if I brought my parrot!

I guess that depends on the child and the restaurant.
restaurants in general are fine, we go sit and eat and he enjoys him self then I clean up and we leave, no real issues, my child is more interested in the food then exploring or causing problems as long as while we wait I keep him entertained or nibbling on something. this one restaurant we goto and frequent they actually bring him out toys and fun snacks while we wait.

If we go out for a meal, we tend to take our children to smorgasboard or buffet restaurants, so that they don't have to sit and wait. It works really well. They love walking around and choosing different foods, and it is a good way to ease them into learning good behaviour in restaurants.

http://www.wrongplanet.net/posts29941-highlight.html

Probably the cops show up under orders from butch the feminist and they arrest me for attempting to be an aspie heterosexual male parent.

Then they force my kid to get beat up by a woman as part of butch the feminist's "Domestic Violence Prevention."

well, considering the remaining ones are 23 and 26 (and I'm the aspie)...not much... the daughter's a looker, so we wind up closer to the front. If by myself, it's the 'kitchen door' seat...

Just a thought; I think I've noticed that good-looking people get seating up near the cashier, or the front door, while 'not so good-looking' people get seated near the kitchen door...it's an international conspiracy; I've had it done in the US, UK, France, Italy, Greece, and Turkey... Anyone else notice this?

We don't often eat in restaurants , but when we do it's usually one of two kinds only.

A reasonably "quality" cafeteria, where we circle the stands choosing our starters and desserts, if any, or cold plates, and then wait at one of three service areas for hot dishes. Then sit at table with food on trays etc. We know most of the selection off by heart by now, and I find less and less to eat there, but my 8 year old son likes it.

The other kind is a really good restaurant, with visiting family or friends , which doesn't happen often, ( five/six times a year perhaps) . We have a favourite one who know us now and remember that my son is coeliac etc. The food is luscious. My son can now read menus, and he has always tended to choose out of the full menu, not just the children's stuff.

So, ( a couple of weeks ago for instance), after a "fruit cocktail", he ate foie gras with layers of spicy honey cake ( a very tiny amount of wheat from time to time is ok) and chopped apple confit and small salad starter, after which tucked into duck breast with raspberry sauce, with tiny potato pancakes and lightly sauteed mixed veg, followed by a selection of cheeses ( blue, goat, creamy, etc), and ... ... icecream for dessert.

He runs around the terrace between courses, looks askance at the resident dogs, plays with his Bionicle or other toy(s) that I remembered to suggest he bring with him. And all goes well.

Restaurants are good. He eats most things. ( other than wheat) I put it down to breastfeeding him for as long as he wanted, ( which as until he was 20 months old ) ; he had time to learn a lot of tastes through my milk, to develop his own taste, connect fully with it, and have confidence in what he puts in his mouth.

He's homeschooled too, so he's used to sitting with adults. And recently he has started joining in with jokes and comments, which still takes me by surprise because for so long he was so "speechless", and because his contributions are so independent, and funny. We don't tend to do that thing, ( and have discouraged it in visitors) , of asking lots of "nice" but deadly dull questions "to show interest", so his joining in is totally spontaneous.

Our only issues with our son (age nine) are 1) he's a picky eater and 2) gets bored sometimes. We always let him bring along a book and/or a small quiet toy (like an action figure or a little car) to read or play with in the restaurant. He loves it if the restaurant has a children's menu; he's crestfallen if they don't. We will either find something on the menu that he likes, or we'll just let him have bread sticks or something and let him have some of what we're having, if he wants. Usually for us it's a good idea to let him eat before we go to the restaurant - that way if there's not something on the menu he likes, he's not really hungry anyway, and thus we avoid a meltdown.

In general, though, he's very well-behaved at restaurants - no tantrums, screaming, crying, etc. He's better behaved in that respect than a lot of presumably NT kids I see at restaurants/shops all the time.

Oh, and if it's a really posh, gourmet restaurant - we just don't take him.

Baby J behaves pretty good at restaurants... he will actually request certain ones now. We have to make sure that it's a fairly quiet atmosphere though. We also let him go outside (with an adult) and walk around until the food arrives - he has a need for movement and he might feel confined if he's expected to sit and wait for a long time. He never uses crayons or does anything involving fine motor skills while we're out, but I'm realizing that he may have issues with that sort of movement.

well i have 2 young children so restaraunt usually = mcdonalds with a playland.
but i fwe do go out to a real restaraunt we usually get those crayons and papres which is hit and miss with them. hopefully i have a snack and toy with me so they can occupy themselves.
i basically go into it expecting that we are there to eat and not for too much longer than that, as would most people with kids 5 and under i think.
if i want to have a "coffee date" and plan on chatting for a while it's usually mc donalds because thenthe kids canrun and play while i chat and that works well.
thnkfully my son doesn't really have food issues and as long as there's chicken and french fries he wouldn't care about anything else anyways.

my toddler doesn't sit still and barely touches the food. Then if someone who doesn't quite get what is going on tries to give her something different she gets upset and throws a big tantrum to the point to where I must go outside with her. Is this just a normal response in most children or is that AS related?

I'm asking because people are treating me like I'm crazy and don't know what I'm talking about.

Yeah, that's normal. Toddlers are usually very resistant to other people trying to get them to eat when they aren't hungry. One way around the problem is to get your toddler the smallest possible child's meal so then not very much food would be wasted if she wasn't hungry.