Twin Tips- Eating Out with Preschool Twins

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For everyone who has read our awesome twin tips this week- thank you! We hope what we have to say helps you out a little (or alot!).

Monday Erin shared with us her  Check List When Eating Out. 

Tuesday Sonora gave us the  Do’s and Don’t of Eating Out.

Today, I am gonna break it down for those who have older twins. Keep in mind, what we are sharing works for anyone with multiples of any high order as well as anyone with a large(r) family.

My twins are four now. As they get older, eating out with them gets easier.

I have five boys. Half of the time when we eat out, I am the only adult as Daddy’s work schedule is crazy. We probably eat out once a week and it is usually on a weekend night. We hit rush hour eating a lot.

Here are my tips to keep you from literally pulling every hair out.

1) Decide what the children are eating before you get out of the car. Remind them of the meal choices (chicken nuggets, mac and cheese, etc.) My kids eat the same things over and over again and we frequent the same restaurants, so we kinda know what to expect.

2) Budddy up. Each twin is assigned to a bigger child. The bigger child unbuckles their assigned twin, helps them out of the car, holds their hand as we walk in, etc. During all of this, I am handling the baby (who is 16 months old). Then, on the way back to the car the buddy drill is the same.

3) As everyone else has said, booth seating is key!!! We do a twin on each side (they are big enough to sit without a highchair or booster). One big person (rather it is an older child or an adult) sits on the end of each seat so no one can escape. Really at this age, the baby is our biggest challenge (he is 16 months old). The twins really know what is expected. Booths are always great in case someone is cranky and sleepy. Let them lay down a bit if they need to. (We have actually gone in with a sleeping baby and just lay him next to us in the booth seat.)

4) Order their food ASAP. Even if you do not know what you want yet.

5) I no longer take toys in because my kids are older. We totally take advantage of the crayons and color sheets given with their menus. (Like everyone else has said, kid friendly restaurants are a must!) Everyone gets a color sheet- even the adults a lot of times. Have contests and see who can color the prettiest, the fastest, etc. Who wants to color with Mommy or with Daddy? When we run out of coloring activities we improvise and play tic-tac-toe or something. (Right now the twins are into Spell This. They will tell me everyone’s name in our family and ask us to spell it on their color sheet. Before we know it, our food has arrived!)

6) Tip the staff well and clean up a little. We always try to pickup anything big on the floor that our crew has chucked overboard.

7) Skip taking in your own booster seat. We tried this when the twins were littler. OMG, what a bulky bad idea. Seriously!

8) Loud places are great! No one hears the drama at your table! 🙂 Loud usually also means some sort of free entertainment. There is a local chain restaurant, Joe’s Crab Shack, they have a play ground outside on their patio. Hello! We are all over that!

9) When {baby} Matthew was little and the twins were 2.5-3 yrs old, I often wore the baby and at that time there was no choice for the twins- they HAD to sit in a high chair.

10) Get in, get out, and get on with life. Either share a quick dessert after everyone is finished eating, or grab a dollar ice cream cone at McD’s on the way home.

Make sure you tune on Thursday and Friday to see what two other mom’s of multiples have to say about eating out with their little ones.

Now, tell me- how do you make the logistics of eating out easier for you and your family?