What’s So Boring About a Restaurant Anyways?

Whenever we take our kids out to restaurants, half of my bag is usually filled with stuff to entertain them. Crayons and paper, stickers, Hot Wheels cars, fidget spinners, and a pre-meal snack – anything to keep toddlers cheerful and calm. Apparently, dining out in a bustling eatery full of noise, different smells, the dizzying dance of servers and patrons, and sometimes even TVs blaring sports games is not enough to “entertain” children.

Sometimes, if service is slow and dinner goes longer than usual, my husband or I will begrudgingly cue up an episode of Blippi or Bluey on one of our phones. That always buys us just enough time to down our drinks, pay up, and gather every toy and crayon that’s fallen under the table. Plus, are they truly iPad kids if they’re not watching it on an iPad?

Of course, going to restaurants in the ‘90s looked very different. For one, there was a smoking section that was barely partitioned from the rest of the dining room. But also, parents never packed anything to “entertain” us at the table, and if we really wanted to bring something along – a book or maybe a small notepad and some crayons – it was up to us to carry it ourselves.

Like so many family restaurants today, some offered crayons with the kids’ menu. Then, there was a whole trend in the late ‘90s where restaurants would cover their dining tables in brown Kraft paper and servers would introduce themselves by writing their name on the table in crayon. (Here’s looking at you, Romano’s Macaroni Grill!)

Meanwhile, fast-food joints in the ‘90s swung to the other side of the pendulum, and many had plastic indoor playgrounds. Families made it a point to dine-in at McDonald’s and Burger King, just so kids could play in the colourful ball pits and crawl through the grease-streaked tube mazes. And a birthday party at McDonald’s – complete with shiny hard plastic hamburger swivel stools, Grimace and Hamburglar statues, and tasty Happy Meals – was considered an ideal afternoon.

As kids, if we went to restaurants that didn’t have built-in entertainment, we were forced to face boredom and make our own fun. Sometimes that meant coming up with little games at the table, like I Spy and word associations, with our siblings. Other times, it meant sitting in relative silence with just our thoughts and imaginations.

I can’t help but think that dealing with boredom once in a while was good for us, especially in terms of spurring creativity. Needing to stay in our seat, wait for our food, and just engage with our surroundings – rather than an iPad or Nintendo Switch – was probably also good for stimulating certain parts of our brains.

My kids love dining out, and for the most part, we like bringing them with us. I’m hoping that as they grow, we’ll need to bring less stuff with us to entertain them, and at some point, they’ll be in charge of carrying the crayons or books in and out of restaurants themselves. And maybe because there are two of them, they’ll have each other to cope with their boredom. (Who doesn’t love Tic Tac Toe?)

For now, I’ll be seated at the table with pizza, wine, and a side of Hot Wheels; plus, ensure that my phone is fully charged and ready to entertain.