Toddler Tricks - 28

Ways to Trick your Baby:

Problem: You're out to eat and your children do not want to sit still. They're wriggling and whining and attempting to escape. Surely there are more interesting things in the restaurant that the silverware they can't touch and the sugar packets they got spoken to about ripping open.

Solution: Use booster seats.  With the added fitting walls around them, they'll feel more at ease in their lot.  If the boosters aren't enough (because there's no way to anchor a seat to the chair, and the willful toddler can topple one over in moments), seat them in the restaurant high chairs.  Those have straps and are quite stable.


Ways Your Baby Tricks You:

Problem: You've allowed your children to sit on the big chairs in a restaurant without a booster or a high chair.  They know it can be done.  From this, there is probably no coming back, and no made-for-the-child solution.

Solution: Sit only in booths.  Seat the children on the inside and yourselves on the outside of the booth.  With a built-in mommy or daddy barrier, we've found the temptation to scramble out of the seats to mass disapproval is much less.  Plus, the high backs and structure of booths discourage climbing around to get a beter view.  If the children really need to look around, when they stand up, there's less likelihood they'll fall because there's nothing to topple over.

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