On weekends, family outings multiply. Attendance at restaurants or bars to eat out, too. It is not always easy to find restaurants friends of children, although more and more they are prepared to attend to adults and children.
That eating in a restaurant with children becomes a pleasant experience depends on many things, mainly the character of the children and their customs. But the environment can facilitate or hinder that integration, with details of diverse importance that will make a family and children feel more or less at ease.
As on so many occasions, infrastructure and services do not always matter as much as attitude. But, if I had to choose, these would be the characteristics that gather the restaurants friends of the children.
- The restaurant heats the food of the little ones without putting any inconvenience and not even a bad face, and he also does it kindly and knows how to do it. As I was once told in Amsterdam when I explained how to heat a pot: "Don't worry, the cook has four children, he knows how to do it." The children in general already eat everything, but for the children we usually prefer to take our mash from home.
- In the restaurant, moms can breastfeed without problems anywhere, but there is also a space where, if they wish, they can breastfeed more intimately to your babies or try to sleep ...
- There is a special place for families with young children, or not. If there is a larger room, with corridors where they can walk safely at any given time, or a corner next to the table where they have spread once they have eaten, the better. But if that special place does not exist, the restaurant staff, and the tablemates, should accept and understand that children, in general, will not be motionless in their chairs during the entire meal. This does not mean that the little ones can bother the rest of the staff, but between the extremes there are many possibilities.
- If children are welcome, they are in their entirety, like children. Children who play, who can scream at any given time, who stand up, throw a glass, who drop the cover ... The bad faces in these cases are plenty. Again, each family should know where the limit is between what a child can do and what not, or differentiate what has been an accident from inappropriate behavior (unfortunately this, "family control", does not always occur) .
- Strollers fit anywhere. Going with a baby in a cart can be an impossible mission in some restaurants. If the baby is small and sleeps or rests in the carrycot, the family table should be next to him without narrowing (at least without receiving blows from the movement of chairs attached to him). And if you are a child, you are somewhat older and will occupy a chair or high chair, it is easy to place the cart or its fold so that it does not take up much space.
- The staff helps with the strollers, when there are stairs. Ideally, there would be no stairs, of course, but there are many places that do not take into account architectural adaptations. Parents generally manage this, but the help of those who know their workplace and facilitate the maneuver is appreciated.
- There is toilet with changing table for babies. Changing a loaded diaper supporting your daughter in the toilet bowl is not an easy, comfortable or hygienic maneuver. If there is no changing table, parents are given a place where they can change the diaper in the best possible way.
- There are high chairs available For young children. Many times it is the most comfortable and safe way for little ones to eat. And it would be necessary to have an adequate number of high chairs in relation to the space and capacity available, as well as to the public that goes to the restaurant. It is not worth having a high chair when you see that there are eight more young children eating badly in their strollers or in "elevators" of doubtful safety.
- Speaking of security: as far as possible, the proper place for safety is maintained, so that children do not have sockets where to put their fingers, cables to trip or lamps to throw over.
- No smoking. In Spain the restaurants are finished with smoke, but still in other countries you can smoke in these places that stop being friends with children (and everyone, really).
- They offer entertainment for children. The service is not always as fast as it would be desirable, and although the parents have many resources and the bags are boxes of surprises, it is good that there is a little leaf with hobbies, a puzzle and some colored pencils. Something new to entertain before the meal arrives or after.
- They give our children a little detail. At the time of leaving, a balloon, a figurine to assemble, a drawing for coloring ... but not goodies as it happened yesterday, please.
- They have a children's menu. Children usually eat many things on the menu, but neither the dishes are adequate in quantity or sometimes in content, not to mention the price. Therefore it is great to find a simple menu for kids, and cheap (as far as possible, according to each restaurant, of course).
- There is fruit for dessert on the menu. If I had to choose the point where many restaurants fail, they have struggled to meet the above points, it would be this. They have a children's menu, they are given balloons, pencils ... but at dessert time we only find sweets.The height of incongruity, which I met yesterday: There is fruit on the menu but it is not included in the children's menu.
- They accept that you bring the children's food, or at least a part of the menu. I am not in favor of my daughters, now that they can, eat something different from what we eat, but there are some exceptions, and it is precisely the desserts, as I said in the previous point. That is why we sometimes bring yogurt or fruit for our daughters (that does not mean that they try our hypercaloric, cholesterol-friendly and delicious desserts). There are also parents who decide that their older children eat what is brought from home, for whatever reason, and should be accepted.
I don't know if there are many restaurants that are friends with children that meet all these characteristics, probably not.
And surely for you there are others qualities that a place to eat with your children should fulfill, but in any case I do like to go to the places that will offer me a respectful treatment with the children, with their behavior and their health.
