We have learned very quickly that eating out at restaurants with Tee can be somewhat of a nightmere. Not knowing if she'll start screaming for no reason or if she'll want to pace up and down the isles. We pretty much gave it up for awhile.
Last summer we decided to exercise our "autism parent muscles". We wanted to try eating out. We put on our thinking caps (mine is pink with darling little flowers on it). We decided to try the early early bird dinner at Applebees with the hopes that the patio would be empty. We let her wander around the empty patio until the food arrived and by this time she was settled enough to sit and enjoy a nice dinner. Daddy paid and we slipped out the patio gate ... no harm ... very little foul.
Call me a wimp, but I don't want to sit on the patio in the snow. Going out to a restaurant is not usually an option for us right now .... until ....
We got a nice giftcard for Applebees and found out kids eat free on Wednesday's. Hmmm. Pretty good deal. What should we do?
For those of you who watch parenthood, although you may not like the character of Christina, I really relate to her. Well, I can relate as a parent of ASD and all the planning and worrying she does. I'm not quite as cryie or dramatic as her. (My family may disagree on the dramatic comment). It's hard to just enjoy stuff and go with the flow. There is so much planning and foresight that goes into everything. That's the strategy we took. We decided to take Tee and JJ out for lunch. Ohhhhhhhhh. We are wild. Guess what?? It went fantastic! We asked for a seat off to the side and had Tee sit snuggled between JJ and Daddy. We had our order ready for as soon as we saw the waitress. We asked for the bill and take home containers right away so we'd be able to slip out if needed. Tee sat like a lady as we presented her with a portable tickle trunk full of various shrine potential toys. She sat snuggled with her Daddy and we handed her a lollipop for dessert as we transitioned out of the restaurant. She was very calm ... only time she yelled out was when she started singing really loudly. Although we thought it was cute it probably wasn't the type of dinner music the other guests were expecting. Things couldn't have gone more smoothly! I still had butterflies in my tummy the whole time and barely remember eating. It's hard not to watch every move to make sure she's not going to start screaming, but she did it.
I'm so proud of my little dining out lady.
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