Taking Baby To Restaurants: How Do You Do It?

 

I don’t know how some parents make it look so effortless. Taking their weeks-old infants out to hip restaurants and cafe’s and having them behave impeccably (or better yet, sleep) while they sip their lattes. My kid is having none of it.

The first time I tried to take her out was to a friend’s baby-friendly house for a casual BBQ. She was just over two months old and generally OK with unfamiliar faces as long as I was with her. I had been flying solo on the parenting front the whole week while my husband travelled for work.

In the week leading up to the get-together, I marched endlessly up and down the second floor of my house, reminding myself that I had a social occasion to look forward to. Nursery to bedroom. Bedroom to nursery. Down the stairs, up the stairs, morning, noon and night. Eating the same meal I cooked five days ago because the baby didn’t want me to put her down long enough to even make a quick salad.

I was all prepared for the evening get-together. I even went out and bought chicken for the BBQ, marinated it at 11 p.m. the night before after the baby finally went down, had a ride from a friend planned out in case I wasn’t comfortable driving down alone if my daughter started to fuss, the whole nine yards. My husband was flying in later, he was going to meet me there. I had been looking forward to this for weeks.