We don’t really go out to eat that much because we never know what kind of mood Grant will be in while we are there. Well we got a great deal from restaurant.com and decided if we went for an early dinner that he wouldn’t be as cranky.
I’ll be the first to admit that Grant was not in the best of spirits when got to the restaurant, but once we got him in the highchair and gave him his truck and some carrots he was quite a happy camper. While he was playing with his truck and laughing this lady walked past us making some comment and her family went outside to eat. We thought that was odd because it was a little chilly outside but we didn’t really think nothing of it. Then we made the mistake of putting his bib on and Grant really lost it. Rick immediately picked him up and took him outside to walk around to get him to calm down (where he got dirty looks from the lady that had walked past us earlier). When they came back inside, I was holding him to see if he would eat but he would have nothing to do with the food. Once Rick finished his food he took Grant across the street to play at McDonald’s while I finished my food. We apologized to the people sitting close to us and they were quite understanding especially since they all had little children with them. After I was done I went up to get a box and the lady whose family went outside to eat kept giving me looks.
When I was starting to get our stuff together she walked past me and I thought I heard her say “we had to eat outside because of your child”. I was a little confused by that because they went outside when he was laughing and playing with his truck. I asked her what she said and she said that we shouldn’t bring a crying child to a restaurant. Then I said “don’t you have children?” and her reply was “my children never acted like that”. I responded by saying that he is only 1 and she said that we shouldn’t take him out to eat. When I saw her outside I was quite upset and I told her that was rude and she told me that I was rude for letting my child scream in a restaurant. Her husband just looked at me in disbelief. Rick said that she must have a selective memory from when her kids were that age.
At first I was questioning myself thinking I had done something wrong. But as Rick and I were talking about it we realized that we tried to do everything we could. It isn’t like we just let him sit in the highchair screaming while we ignored him and continued to eat our food (I’ve seen people do this). We took turns walking around with him so that the other person could eat. Rick even left the restaurant completely to take him to play at McDonald’s. I just couldn’t believe that someone (especially someone with children) would say something like that to another person.
