Surviving Restaurants

One of my good friends, who also has two kids, has decided to never go out to dinner unless accompanied by other adults. "What's the point of going somewhere where the goal of the whole meal is to get out of there as soon as possible?" Hear, hear. Let me use a successful outing to Cosi in Old City to set some ground rules for doing restaurants with small children:

1. Bring other adults. (In our case, Auntie May and Uncle Harish.)

2. Get seats outside. (It makes dropping stuff on the floor less embarrassing, and gives the kids lots of things to look at.)

3. Play Ring-around-the-Rosie halfway through the meal. (Hey, even the adults are antsy by then.)

4. Buy smoothies. (But make sure intake is interspersed with eating the actual meal.)

5. Eat fast. (Hey, after all of that, you're still going to want to get out of there as soon as possible.)