What Do You Do to Keep Your Young Child Happy at a Restaurant?

As with most responses, it really depends on the ages of your kids. My 8 & 10 year old are old enough to enjoy Hang Man, tic tac toe, the dot game where you fill in squares, etc. All that's required is a pen and paper.

I think the most important thing we've learned is to consider the time of day and what restaurant we choose. We try to avoid peak times when service might be slower, and we never wait for a table (that just means you'll be waiting for your meal, etc.). We try to go to very kid friendly restaurants - places like Lifes a Beach and Joe's Crabshack - where kids are encouraged to play. Better yet, we go to places like Dickey's BBQ where you get your food right away.. You still enjoy the restaurant experience (no cooking, cleaning, etc.) but don't have to wait for a server.

Good luck!
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My mom just got my son a small travel-size magna doodle....this is the best thing ever!!! It's small, and keeps my 2 y/o entertained! She got it at Target for about $2-3.

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Hi!
I make scavenger hunt cards for kids. I have a series of restaurant ones that are super fun! They are all fabric and embroidery so they are washable! At only $12 they have been a really popular seller for me! Email me for more info!
My etsy site is www.BabyNeedsMilk.etsy.com
My cards aren't up yet though cause I keep selling out!
Thanks!

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We started a "toy backpack" when our daughter was young (like 4 mths old) -- she's 6 y/o now. We always took toys,stuffed animals, books, paper, pens, crayons, coloring books...whatever we thought would keep her busy/not fussy. We would also put some snack food in the diaper bag/back pack just for her. To this day, this is what we do. Our rule is "if it fits in the backpack, you can take it." We have NEVER taken movies or video games.

I have two boys, age 4 and 1 - they both love cars/trucks and books. I always make sure there are a few cars/trucks in my purse for any time we are stuck somewhere. And they both love to be read too so I bring tiny little pocket size books that are about colors, shapes, instruments, etc . . . it give them something to participate in as well.

My boys are 5 and 7 now, and are able to sit and enjoy and hour and a half long meal with the family without me having to bop them in the head. When they were younger, I would buy cheap little toys and mini board books, mini coloring books - anything new and small would usually hold their interest. I know you mentioned no video games, but Leap Frog has a line of educational toys that really aren't bad and will be the only thing you need to enjoy a somewhat peaceful dinner out.

I usually make sure that I have crayons ,something to color,(coloring book or some paper)in my purse. I also always make sure that i have some kind of snack in my purse too.Kids get impatient for their food to come so I find that his helps to occupy them.

Depending on the age of your child, things that work for us are mostly found at the dollar store. Some things that work are stickers and paper, a mini chalkboard and a wipe board.
I have seen all these things at the dollar store. However, my 2 year old son is at a really hard place right now for going out to dinner, so I am looking for new ideas too!

Some other ideas are lacing cards and stampers too!

it really all depend on the age of your child. When my daughter was between the age of 1 -3yrs of age, we would bring little books, coloring books, anything that didn't make loud sounds. She is now 5 and we actually still do the coloring activites and Leapster or Tag reader. Again, it all depend on the age.

Playdo- the mini size containers. Also, if you are at a place that serves pizza, you can see if they will give you a little ball of dough to play with.
Pipe cleaners to bend and shape (from the craft store)

I love this question. The responses have given me more ideas!

I have a 4 year old boy and I always keep his favorite cars, trucks, dump trucks, diggers, etc. in his little bag when we go places. When he was younger, we carried around sticker sheets and a small spiral notebook we called his sticker book for him (he would spend all his time just peeling them off and placing them on the blank sheets), we also used to carry around small activity/coloring books that would fit into his bag but pretty much right now he's content with his trucks! I've seen other parents who bring an activity box (i.e. lunch box of sorts) with misc. items such as these in there.

I'm not sure what age your child or children are to advise bringing something but I work at a restaurant -Dickeys in Flowermound on Long Prarie Rd.where I do balloon animals and face painting for the kids every Monday night 5:30-7:30 .I also do balloon animals at Lubys on midway Rd.north of 635 every Wed. night 6-8 .The kids love it ,come join me .Razzle the Balloon lady at Lubys and Razzle Dazzle the Clown at Dickeys BBQ

I would buy the mini cans of Play-Doh and each time we went out to eat, I would take 1 can with us. It worked great, my daughter would play with it along with us and in the end you can just throw it away.

Hi E.! When our family is out to eat we always get a couple of kids menus. This is a great way to keep your kids entertained because you can spend time coloring with them and writing their name or numbers if they are younger or my kids favorite pass time is playing tic-tac-toe,hangman,or rock-paper-scissors.

Colors, stickers, and pens were always entertaining. I would also have the diaper bag stocked with kids meal toys that they might like, and if they were dropped on the floor, not a big loss. At Mexican food places, you could ask for tortilla dough. My kids also like the game I Spy..especially when we would spy something on someone else since it was like an inside joke, but we had to whisper and be polite. But the one thing that has always been the rule for us is to place our food order the first time the waitress comes to the table to get our drink order. That way we hopefully get our food sooner.

You didn't put your kids' ages so this might not work for you. My kids are 6, 4 and 2 1/2. They all love Bendaroos, I Spy bottles (made them out of peanut butter jars and customized them to each child), magnadoodle, Color Wonder books (especially the Color Explosion ones).

Sounds crazy, but depending on age I would think about playdoh. We just had my son's birthday party and I put, among other things, playdoh in their gift bags. After the party eight adults and eight kids went to dinner. The kids all wanted to bring their playdoh in the restaurant (casual) and we finally agreed. Best decision ever... they sat through the whole dinner content. A friend and I joked that we were going to keep playdoh with us at all times....

books, crayons/color books...

Definitely no movies, although I don't mind if my 14 and 10 year olds occasionally play with their Nintendo DS games. Although for the most part I poo-poo that because it's meant to be a family outing so we should not be ignoring each other!

For my 2 1/2 year old, we usually bring crayons (triangle-shaped because they don't roll off the table) and a coloring book and we also have these biodegradable coloring placemats. She likes when we color with her. We also bring a few books because she loves to look at them herself. We don't order her food in advance because then by the time our meals come she is done and wanting to get up, which makes my eating time more stressful because I'm rushing to eat before she makes a scene!

The best trick when eating out with young kids is to go early so there is little/no wait time. Kids who have to wait a long time before even being seated typically have very little patience once they are at the table. We usually show up by 5:30 p.m. and almost always get seated right away.

depends on the age of the child. we have a 2 1/2 year old and she has backpack that we keep stocked with markers, crayons, paper, stickers, etc. However, they can still only sit so long so we make sure that food comes quickly and don't linger for too long. Usually, our restaraunt visits are not necessarily realaxing; however, they are pleasant. Good luck!