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Eating out
Children copy, imitate and pretend which is why we, as parents, have a key role to play in encouraging children to love good food. We are their role-models. If they can hear us drooling over a sumptuous roast chicken coated in tarragon-scented olive oil, see us licking our fingers while whisking together a simple salad dressing, then sure enough it won’t be long before inquisitive voices will be heard - “What’s that?” “Can I try some?”
The same applies to eating out. I’ve discovered that my children no longer want to be fobbed off with an inferior children’s menu. They want whatever we are eating. This is because at home they eat like us and with us, around a table, and so they simply cannot understand why children and adults should be treated differently at a restaurant. If treated like a very special occasion, children will rise to the event like actors on a stage, copying, imitating and pretending. The trick to successful restaurant dining with children is to involve them in the process, to let them choose, to let it be their restaurant experience. If you’re after a romantic dinner for two or the chance to catch up on your day’s news, get a babysitter.
Once the process of talking about the menu, weighing up the various choices, options and finalising a selection, have all been completed, then the potentially tricky time begins. Yes, it’s the waiting. The long, agonising wait, the moment when glasses will shatter, salt pots will spill and tempers start to fray.
And so as part of my campaign to encourage parents to dine with their children, I am willing to share the Luiggi family’s secret to keeping the kids amused while waiting for dinner!
We play “Il ou elle”. Literally translated this is a game called “he or she?”, “girl or boy?” One family member thinks of a person (it can be a friend, family, someone famous, living or dead) and the first question everyone asks is, il ou elle? Taking turns, further questions are asked but now the only answer can be; yes or no. It can take a long time to reveal the character, particularly when Pierre mixes up his “il” and “elle”. But it works. We’re almost disappointed when the food arrives and secretly hope for a long delay between courses to squeeze in another round or two.