I had a restaurants.com gift certificate for a fancy restaurant in Austin's Arboretum area (Bandera's), and my wife and I were just looking for an excuse to use it. I really like good food. Then it came, the email we were waiting for, my wife had been accepted into the vocal performance graduate program at UT Austin. But wait, it was already Friday afternoon and too late to find someone to watch the kidz.
So obviously, as often happens, we decided to bring the kidz with us to the restaurant. This is where the "miracle of the old laptop" comes into play. We sat down, ordered a massive amount of food, and then... yup you guessed it, we turned on the laptop. With the volume down low our kidz were able to sit quietly and watch Madagascar giving us an hour and a half of peaceful time to eat and enjoy each other's company.
How this works:
- Bring a laptop
- Bring a movie that will keep everyone's attention
- Ask for a table that is somewhat isolated and preferably one near an outlet
- Be respectful of other customers
- Order your kidz something relatively clean to chew on (ex french fries)
- Have a fun date night
While we have used this technique countless times, I have to admit that this evenings experience was particularly successful. First off, the restaurant was relatively empty, allowing our boys to have their own table at which to watch the movie. Usually they sit on the floor which isn't as comfortable for them. Second, the wait staff were incredibly nice.
This taught me something new:
- If you have a particular restaurant that you are wanting to visit, give them a quick call to find out when they are least busy. At the same time you can ask if they would be happy with your decision to bring the kidz.
