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| Source-babble |
Did you hear about the couple in Washington that was giving a $4 discount for having a well behaved child?
Not too sure how I feel about that? I mean is it always under a parents control how a toddler will act? I mean you can only threaten punishment so loudly....
But seriously. You could be at dinner, having a good ol' time and all of the sudden your toddler burns it tongue, or gets a tummy ache. Can you as a parent be blamed or judged for that if your child starts screaming?
Well yeah. We can. And I have been part of the 44% many of time.
Will that stop me from bringing my monster to a restaurant? I think not. I try to come prepared. Cars, crayons, iphone and fruit or raisins. That combo usually allows me just enough time to scarf down my dinner. I win! I refuse to stay hostage at my home. Of course I say this now. The monster hasn't quite hit his terrible twos.
I had similar feelings to you about this story. We don't take Kale to restaurants all that often because he's not one to sit in one spot for very long. All kids are different and I don't believe that their behaviour is always a direct result of how we parent them. "Rewarding" parents for their kids behaviour (like this restaurant did) sets up unfair expectations of how kids should act. I'll admit - I'm totally jealous of parents that can enjoy a good meal in a restaurant while their little one sits quietly doing the same. At the same time, now that I'm a parent and know what's it's like, I would NEVER give parents the stink eye if their kid was being loud or walking around. All parents - regardless of how their kids behave - deserve to enjoy a good meal out every now and then :)
ReplyDeleteWell said lady! You said it completely right! I feel once you join the club of parenthood, the judgy eyes need to take a back seat to compassion and empathy. It's not an easy world to navigate and its makes it much harder when you are be sized up by once simply activity like eating lol.
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