It's always fascinating to talk to people you don't usually spend time with. I found myself with an hour to kill the other week. I had the girls taken care of, I had everything covered, and through a scheduling snafu, I ended up sitting at the bar in the club, nursing a glass of wine and chatting with the other random people who ended up being there.
Even though it's a club that we've belonged to for six years, we definitely don't know everyone, and I was meeting people for the first time, chatting about why we joined in the first place.
Realistically? We joined because I wanted Adam to be home more often. It doesn't make sense to most people, given the amount of golf he plays now, but he used to play every weekend six years ago too...at a course an hour away. Since I had recently become the mom to two under two, I decided that golf five minutes away was much better than golf sixty minutes away. Plus, this way, I could reap the benefits of the other stuff. So that's our story. Interesting? No.
But now that we've joined, I feel like there have been some extra benefits.
One of those things is restaurant behavior. As we sat, getting to know each other, one of the women remarked that she did remember seeing my girls, and that they were so well behaved in the restaurant.
Knowing how to behave in a restaurant is a skill that makes me incredibly happy. The girls have been eating there since they were so young that they don't remember any differently. They know how to sit, how to behave, how to order. I identify with plenty of parenting memes, but generally speaking, I'm happy to say I don't relate to the kid flipped upside down in a booth. When you'll be seeing the same people, you make sure you've figured that part out.
Teaching manners is tough, and there are plenty of situations to go, but restaurant? We've got those down.
