Twin Tips- Arm Yourself When Eating Out (guest post)

Sharing is caring!

Today Hope finishes up our topic on eating out with twins (or multiples period). Below is her list of things she is always armed with when her family eats out with their precious twin girls. Make sure you scroll down to the bottom for her bio and to learn more about her family.

As a busy working mom of three, the truth is, we eat out quite often. My twin girls are now fifteen months and going out to eat faces new challenges than so just a few short months ago. I successfully breastfed my girls for over fourteen months and so the biggest concern in the earliest months was just making sure they were preferably both nursed before left home, but at least one of them – I never attempted tandem feeding in public. Today, they are getting to be busy BIG girls. They no longer sit quietly in their infant carriers (those were the days!) The girls now sit in high chairs versus that oh so safe and restrained infant car seat (yes, I often miss that restraint ïŠ), we no longer make sure they are already fed before we arrive in hopes that we might enjoy a family meal all together, and we come armed.

When going out to eat, we are usually armed with the following:

\Ӣ Sticky Placemat

\Ӣ Toddler safe finger foods (Gerber Ravioli, Organic Jammy Sammy Peanut Butter Sandwich Snacks, Fruits (blueberries, halved grapes, blackberries), Dry Cereal, etc)

\”¢ Sippy Cups – to be filled by the waiter with water at the restaurant so that they too can feel like they are being \”served\”

\Ӣ Fork/Spoons

\Ӣ Wipe off Bibs

\Ӣ Wet wipes for cleanup

In general, we follow these guidelines:

Try to avoid places where any sudden outburst by the girls would be too distracting.

Keep our meals brief as at this age they can only sit quietly and/or patiently for so long.

Keep our meals simple. I’ve found that too much on the table is often over stimulating and they then want to grab at EVERYTHING.

We share. The girls are usually interested in what we are eating and so we usually let them nibble on our food too.

Keep trying. We’ve had one pretty bad out to eat experience. We were at IHOP and our food took quite a while to come\”¦we weren’t armed very well and it was near naptime. It was a disaster. The girls were throwing food, were loud, and eventually irritable. It was at this point, that I vowed that we were done going out to eat for a while. Unfortunately that is just not realistic for my lifestyle though so instead, we now just come prepared!

Meals out with the babies are feasible they just require some forethought and preparation. I’m sure in due time we’ll have other less than perfect experiences going out to eat but making sure I have what they need lessens the likelihood of major disasters.

I’m Hope – wife to one tall dark and handsome cop and mom to three gorgeous girls who all keep me on my toes! Learn more about me and my family by visiting Toliver Family and follow my attempt to capture the family in pictures at Tolivers in Pictures.