Children and Restaurants

Tonight we had an informal farm business meeting at a restaurant. My daughter, her husband and kids came along.  One year old Clair was impatient, fussing about sitting in the booster seat and Kasen, three years old, sat by Pappa hiding his head in his side obstinate about everything.  

As the discussion got deeper and more serious the children became more restless.  Clair worked her way out of the booster into her dad's lap where she climbed her way into mom's lap.  Finally, able to wiggle her way down she waddled off towards the big giant claw machine.  

Kasen perked up then, "Where is Clair Bear going?"  he said in a very concerned voice.  Not because he was concerned something was going to happen to her but more so that he might miss out.  

So, I decided to do a grandma intervention.

"Come on Kasen let's take a look" I replied as I grabbed his hand.  

About $10 later in quarters we managed to be successful at the claw machine while Clair was entranced by the whole process.  The definition of successful is all in the situation.  We "won" a stuffed item, it was a Betty Boop with a crazy eyed look sitting cross legged in her trade mark short skirt on a birthday cake with candles with big letters that spell June.  Good grief I thought!

Kasen was thrilled at first when he reached in the round hole for the prize.  When he pulled it out and took a good look at it his response was, "Well, this can be Clair Bear's, and the next one will be mine".   When we handed it to Clair she immediately chucked it on the floor.  Even she thought it was hokey. 

As soon as he said "next one" my mind began churning trying to decide what the odds were that we could actually hook two items in one night considering we were even lucky to retrieve one.  Pretty sure I knew the outcome we used up all the quarters that everyone had and the claw came up short every time latching on to nothing.  

Kasen was disgusted to say the least but took it like a champ after I gave him my phone to play with . Although he didn't win anything except a Betty Boop doll he did learn to distinguish a quarter from the other coins because they don't work in the machine.  Hopefully he learned that the claw machine is a rip off too but we will see.  

Taking small children to a restaurant is challenging but they behaved better than can be expected.