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| Thursday, January 31, 2008 |
| Misconceptions |
Tuesdays are half price movie nights at the dollar theater here in town. Therefore, we can take our family of 8 to the movies for $4.00!! This is like renting a movie at home, but to the kids it is much "cooler" because we get to go to the theater. This past Tuesday we took the kids to see "The Game Plan". We were completely pleased with this movie. Z is now even calling it her favorite movie ever.
Anyway, another thing we rarely get to do is go out to eat with the Crew. I had a bonus that I was given at Christmas that I saved for such a time as this. We have a new Mexican restaurant in town that is supposed to be excellent. It is a chain and I've been to one before and it was very good. We decided to check it out.
Upon entering the restaurant we got several looks, including from the employee taking our name and how many needed to be seated. There were only 5 or 6 people waiting in the lobby. She looked at us and told us it would be a 25-30 minute wait. It was already about 7:15 at night and it was a school night. I told her thank you, but that we couldn't wait that long.
As we were exiting, I commented that I didn't understand the long wait time since there was hardly anyone there. D said she told me a long wait time hoping we would leave because of all of the kids.
We went down the road to another Mexican place who promptly seated all 8 of us. In fact, they seated us next to a table with 10 adults...10 drinking adults...10 very loud disturbing adults...you get the picture. After about ten minutes, E leaned over to me and said, "Mom, they really aren't acting very well and they are really annoying." We took the opportunity to teach a life lesson about drinking. However, I found it quite interesting that we were possibly turned down from one restaurant because of a misconception they had about the number of kids we had and the problems that might result from it. Then at the next restaurant, there were grown adults acting like children and it was acceptable.
What the first restaurant didn't know was that a good number of times that we have gone out to eat with our Crew, we have been complimented on how well-behaved they are. We have had waiters, waitresses, and other patrons stop and comment on how some people can't keep their one of two children from crawling under tables, making messes on the table, or throwing fits. I found it interesting that my just turned 10 year old daughter was noticing the childlike behavior of the people around us and talking about how "annoying" it was when we were just put out because of the misconception that our children would act that way. The whole thing was enlightening.
BTW, Mexican restaurants are one of the best places for large families to eat. We ordered two sets of fajitas, drank water, and even shared a dessert for $30.18. Not bad for 8 people at a nice restaurant. |
posted by 6blessings @ 6:36 AM  |
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| 6 Comments: |
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OMWord, I know EXACTLY what you mean! When ever we walk into a restaurant that isn't McDonald's, we are always given the evil eye! (and we only have 4 kids!) ... It makes me so nervous! But by the end of the meal people are telling us how well behaved the kids are, and they always seem so shocked. We even had one man (a customer) by the kids some ice cream, because he was so impressed at how well they behaved.
It's so sad that people will judge you like that, before they even know you. *sigh*
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I don't know why people feel the need to judge. I only have one kid and he's often under the table and acting out -- but they wouldn't guess that by appearance would they? (Not that Slugger's acting bratty in restaurants -- it's his anxiety.)
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Recently we invited over a family who has 7 children to dinner at our house. When we were eating they thanked us, saying how they rarely get dinner invitations due to their large sized family (they were all very well behaved BTW). We have also had experiences of taking the kids to restaurants and they put us in a totally different, empty part of the restaurant so as not to disturb the adults. I wish more people would be accepting of families.
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You're welcome to come to dinner at my house anytime. All of you. ;>
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People can be so judgmental at times. We had a similar experience at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco. We walked in with our children (we were there to meet family), and the couple sitting at the table next to us rolled their eyes at each other with an "Oh great!" expression on their faces. Fortunately, the kids stuck to their good manners, and by the end of the meal, the couple complimented us on their behavior. They even admitted that they were ready to leave when they saw us come in, but since they had already ordered, they decided to "wait and see."
Amazing how some people would be willing to leave a restaurant rather than sit next to children, yet they think nothing of the rowdy guys seated in the bar area.
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Not bad! That is really affordable.
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OMWord, I know EXACTLY what you mean! When ever we walk into a restaurant that isn't McDonald's, we are always given the evil eye! (and we only have 4 kids!) ... It makes me so nervous! But by the end of the meal people are telling us how well behaved the kids are, and they always seem so shocked. We even had one man (a customer) by the kids some ice cream, because he was so impressed at how well they behaved.
It's so sad that people will judge you like that, before they even know you. *sigh*