Parenting Minefield Dead Ahead....

There has been much comment on the Ehell (aka Etiquette Hell) forum about parents who take their children to "inappropriate" restaurants---that is, parents who take their kids to bars (in the US, definitely a no-no,) or sushi restaurants or restaurants that are obviously for adults in the mood for a little romance and who then let their little darlings (this is sarcasm) disrupt the entire evening.

Last night, we were almost one of "those" parents. :-O Except everything worked out okay. Rob's cousin and her husband were in town this week; they'd come into town for a business meeting and they invited us all to a fancy (well, to my mind---I don't eat at too many places that have more than one fork) restaurant in Balboa Park. Rob and I had agreed that if the wee one decided to start acting up, one of us would take her out so none of the other diners would be disturbed. And we were nervous---this isn't a place we would normally take our child, for the simple fact that a) she's 16 months old and b) fine restaurants and toddlers just normally don't mix.

It turned out fine. She was a good little toddler---drank her milk, had some hummus and some potatoes and chicken from our plates, and generally exuded excessive cuteness. She got a little fussy towards the end but it was really close to her bedtime, so we all just called it a night.

Whew. Another parenting minefield crossed. I'm not sure we'll go back there any time soon, particularly as she gets closer to the dreaded twos, but it's nice to know that we survived it.