How to Get Your Kids to Behave in Restaurants: Making Life Better by Planning and Strategy

I love going out to eat with my husband and kids. We used to have to cross our fingers and hope that they would behave while we're at the restaurant. After much trial and error, experiments and coaching, we finally found out how to prepare for the outing and how to get them to behave in restaurants. My kids' ages are three and six.

The first thing I do is make sure they are hungry when we arrive at the eatery. Both of them are picky eaters and don't like many types of food. If the restaurant doesn't have a kids' menu, that's still okay, as long as French fries and chicken tenders are available (pasta works for them as well).

The next step is to bring plenty of table appropriate activities to distract them until the food arrives. Most family friendly restaurants give free crayons and paper placements or coloring books to children. I never take the chance that the restaurant we have chosen will run out of crayons.

I collect the crayon boxes that we take from restaurants and then use these to bring out to other places. I also make sure to bring a coloring book for each kid in case the kid's menu is not printed on a paper placement. Luckily, they enjoy coloring and this is a great way to kill time until the food comes.

Other useful items to bring along are a small Doodle-Pro drawing toy, books and small cars or trains (my kids like Thomas the Tank Engine trains). If the food takes a long time to be served, they might get bored with coloring and I need to have alternate activities with me.

Before driving to the restaurant, we also speak to the kids about our expectations of their behavior. We ask them if they like going out with Mom and Dad and then we explain to them how they are supposed to behave in the restaurant. My 6 year old son is fine and he can sit still and stay occupied in the restaurant. My 3 year old daughter is just now old enough to understand that the frequency and privileges our family activities hinge on the kids' behavior and that in order to have a good time, she must comply.

I'm lucky because the younger one takes the lead from the older one. If you only have one kid who's under the age of three, it's much harder to explain this to him or her. If you dine out enough times and use the tips I suggested, eventually your child will be used to the routine and will act according to your wishes.