Eating out with grandchildren

You need Pizza Express vouchers - check out their website. We never go near PE, Cafe Rouge, Ask etc unles armed with vouchers!! (2 mains for £10 or 2 for the price of one being the commonest) And as for £7 for a glass of wine - that is more than I spend on a bottle. Cross-reference "Is wine posh?" - obviously not in my case

snailspeak, sounds a horrid experience. I loathe the folks who have not taught their children how to behave in public but not sure what can be done. As long as its seen as acceptable by those parents we will be faced with this.

I could bang on ad nausium about how we 'trained' (chose age appropriate venues, showed by example and gave them one of my looks if they misbehaved) ours to be decent guests in hotels and restaurants but its hardly going to change how others go about bringing up theirs if they dont see it as a problem. Needless to say my elder daughter has already introduced her little boy (now 3) to eating out and he is doing well. We go to small tearooms or family style cafes, he is allowed to choose (usually either/or) and he must remain in his seat for the 20 - 30 mins a snack and drink usually takes. We usually have a bit of colouring with us if he gets restless but hes such a chatterbox (and a bit nosey) that hes well entertained by whats going on.

My older sister and I were very well-behaved children, but it was my Dad who got us banished to the "Katzentisch" in a recess just outside the dining room of our hotel when I was 5 and on holiday with parents and German GPs (Katzentisch = cats' table, like feeding the dog outside the kitchen door)
Dad had ordered a bottle of fizzy water for us and decided it didn't look fizzy enough so he gave it a good shake, turning it upside down a few times at which it sprayed over all our table and most of the people next to us. How we laughed! (not the GPs who were very on their dignity)

When I am visiting my sister in England I take her to garden centres or for a pub lunch, now there is no smoking in pubs. We usually get really good value. Children are usually allowed into the dining area of pubs, or they have special family rooms.
I avoid anywhere that has salad bars set out because they have been shown to have traces of faeces and urine in them, unless you are the first in the queue when the plastic is taken off! Don't eat peanuts which are displayed on a bar, either!

snailspeak I wont go out for a meal unless I have checked if there are any vouchers available, have a look on Martin's Money Tips, they have some great deals.
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Also check this out I have applied but the offer runs out today so if you want one you need to apply today.

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I take my GC all over to eat and I can say that they have never been anything but well behaved, but they have been taken into that environment from being babies.

Thanks Gracesmum. I shall check out their website but the damage has been done now. It was the multi-decibel noise and also very slow service that make us disinclined to return.

I have "one of my looks" too HildaW. Kills at a hundred paces but these kids didn't stay still long enough for it to work. Did try it on a couple of adults but they were too thick to pick up on it.

Certainly object to a glass of wine costing the price of a bottle and some.

Sorry should have linked it

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Third time lucky

he! he! Snailspeak, mine was perfected running pre-schools, I used to have parents asking me to tell their children off for something if they spotted me somewhere. I was also used as a sort of 'bogey person' you know 'I'll tell your teacher if you dont do such and such. The thing that such parents don't seem to be able to take on board is that if you are firm but fair you can have such fun with children, its almost as if children are liberated by knowing what is not allowed from the start. I saw many a little so-called terror blossom into a happy creative child once they realised we had a few simple rules and that all the staff stuck with them (even if your Mum was the Chair of the committee and you had perfected the I'm a little prince/princess smile - which buttered no parsnips with me).

Thanks for the link glassortwo. Unfortunately it came up with a warning: "Possible phishing site". So I decided not to continue.

Oh thats a shame, I didnt have any problems snail you may use a different security system.

In addition to "the stare" we used "ABC", which stood for Attitude, Behavour, Change! Seemed to work, the child was warned/admonished without public humiliation!

Oh dear. Your Pizza Express experience sounds like a nightmare Snailspeak. But let's hope it was a one-off experience.

We have taken the grandchildren (9 and 13) to Pizza Express and Pizza Hut in recent months and despite the noise (mainly from little children and their over-excited parents!) the service has been brilliant, the food hot and good and our littlies behaved beautifully and had a lovely time. So did we as a matter of fact.

But I do agree that the mediocre wine is over-priced. I also agree that you should only go to these places armed with money-off vouchers - then, if things aren't perfect, you don't feel too aggrieved.

We ate in a restaurant the other day, and at the next table was a couple with what we guessed was the grand-daughter, about 15. She spent the whole time texting on her i-phone, and hardly said a word to them. It made us so sad, and I felt like saying something to her, but of course, didn't. We did discuss later what we would do if this happened to us when the grand-kids are older???

I live in a pretty market town in Germany with lots of tourists and cafés for them. We who live there have them well marked out. There is one for the twenty somethings, another for the older generation and the large one which we call 'screaming kids' Even this one is not so bad as decribed on GN but I avoid it except when I am pushing a buggy myself.

I take my two GDs out for ice creams where they live and they sit in place while eating. On the whole it is expected here, but I coudn't speak for burger bars etc as I don't go there anymore.