1393 Baby In the Hotel Dining Room

After church on the lakefront this morning, we walked over to the hotel for breakfast. Although my husband prefers Abigail's on 3rd St., I like being able to see the lake, and today it was glorious with a cool front having moved in last night. There were so many boats on the horizon that it looked like white caps.



A couple with a baby were at the next table. She appeared to be about 11 months old--just adorable and angelic. This brought back many memories. No matter how they might have behaved at home where they could reduce me to a screaming meltdown in minutes, my children were the model of good manners and upbringing in public places like restaurants and church services. Even during the teen years, I can't recall that they objected to being seen with their parents, and sometimes after church other parents would ask me how we pulled that off. (Please note: this means nothing in terms of what they'll do about church when on their own.)

Never in a restaurant did I need to threaten to take them out or clean up thrown or spilled food. We had a few tricks, but not many. We would call the restaurant before leaving the house and place our order so that our little guy with a 30 second attention span didn't have to wait too long. Also, we never went to fast food restaurants but always sit-down places with order-from-the-menu, not buffets. They learned early that eating out was "an event." Also, it didn't happen often because of our budget restrictions and I was a sahm.

One Sunday morning at Friendly's (chain owned by Hershey's) an immigrant who worked at another restaurant as a manager picked up our tab for us. He said in broken English that it was because we had such lovely, well-behaved children.

Here at Lakeside for years I would order one meal for the two children and two plates and then divide it. Even then they didn't always finish it (they were perhaps 7 and 8 years old). But on to my topic--the baby at the next table.

I like to order the $4.00 breakfast--2 eggs any style, hash browns, biscuit or toast, and sausage or bacon. It's a hearty breakfast and usually I don't finish it. Much to my shock, the baby's mother had ordered this meal for the little one. Not only was it way too much food (I knew who would finish it), but she couldn't use utensils and dug in with both fists. Oh yes, and a large glass of milk. Obviously, the news about obesity in children isn't getting out, or else, people think it only happens if you eat at fast food restaurants.