The JOY of dining with children!

It all began with a $25 gift certificate to Ruby Tuesday...

There are days when going out to eat with young children is more effort than it's worth. In all 3 years, 5 months, and 9 days of having children however, NEVER have we had to give up on our dining experience and take our food to go, until today! It was a tragic combination of poor service and tired children that did us in. We didn't stand a chance.

On Sunday Joshua has to skip his morning nap so we can go to church and he usually does really well. This morning though, he woke up too early and he fell busting his lip, so he wasn't his normal easy going self. :( Church is two hours long and usually gets out late, so it's always a risky decision to go out to eat afterwards with two kids under the age of 4 and nap time looming over head. Today we decided to throw caution to the wind and since we had a $25 gift certificate to Ruby Tuesday we went there. Can I just add that were it not for a gift certificate we would not have stepped foot in that restaurant. Ruby Tuesday is like the Mcdonalds of dine in restaurants. The food is bad and the service sucks. You are better off spending your money elsewhere.

They sat us at a table that would have better suited a party of two. We spent the whole time strategically placing things out of arms reach from our mischievous one year old. Even our best efforts ended with everything on the floor. He was grumpy and hungry. Our creative make shift toys would only hold his attention for a few minutes before they also ended up on the floor. The server was either brand new to serving or had a hearing problem. My husband thinks she was just plain stupid. That describes for you the kind of mood he was in. It's never a good sign when your server starts off by messing up your drink order. My husband got the wrong beer, Kaley got the wrong juice, and Joshua got juice instead of water. She did get my sweet tea right though, so 1 out of 4? She disappeared for 15 minutes after delivering our drinks before we could get our order in. That's the worst. Every minute that goes by is a minute closer to a hungry kid meltdown. It's like sitting on a geyser. Meanwhile Joshua is getting antsy. He keeps bumping his poor little lip on things, which is irritating him. He's tired and hungry so we got up and went for a walk. When we came back our appetizer was out praise God and our order in, so the kids had something to munch on. Jon bit into a raw chicken wing though and we had to send it back with the manager. The snack held Josh over for a little bit longer, but he started getting antsy again. Everything within reach is ending up on the floor, he's right by the window and trying to pull down the blinds, he wants to get out of his highchair, he's still hungry ... and tired. He keeps saying, "Up! Up!" We've been there close to an hour by now, no food in sight. Needless to say, our patience is thinning. Kaley is starting to get naughty and the next thing I know she has an old lady's WALKING CANE and is asking me, "What's this Mommy??" I apologized and returned the cane. Not only are the tables small, but so close together that we are all up in everybody's business. Kaley wants to sit in Daddy's lap and is crawling around under the table. I pacify her with a cartoon on my phone. We pass the hour and fifteen minute mark and decide it's time to throw in the towel. Just then a side of mac and cheese comes out. Hallelujah! I ordered a kids mac and cheese which was supposed to come with fruit, but ok whatever. Joshua scarfs that down in two minutes flat and then is ready to go home, NOW. The rest of the food has yet to make an appearance so we give up, wait another 10 minutes until our server finally reappears, and ask for our entrees to be boxed up to go. I took the kids out to the safety of the car to spare the rest of the diners attempting to enjoy their Sunday lunch, thinking our little debacle was over. Nope. I go to change Joshua's diaper and discover I'M OUT OF DIAPERS. I am in the middle of a lack-of-diapers-crisis about to Magyver a diaper out of a coloring pages and string when Kaley yells, "I HAVE TO GO POO POO MOMMY!!!" I don't know about you, but when my 3 year old is that frantic about going number two it throws me into panic mode to get her to a toilet STAT. So I grab Joshua as is and we take off back into the restaurant with Kaley leading the way doing the potty dance. Haha it is so funny to watch. She sticks her butt way out and wiggles it around with this look of desperation on her face! I throw my half naked baby to a surprised Jon, who by the way is still waiting for our food growing angrier by the second, and run to the rest room with Kaley. We made it in time praise God. I break down into hysterical laughter at this point. I mean things have gone wrong while we've been out before, but this is just hilarious, one thing after another! I can't imagine what the tables around us are thinking as this fiasco unfolds. I'm surprised my husband hasn't started over turning tables at this point and destroying the restaurant in his rage. I am glad he ordered a beer when we first sat down and thankful I gave him some extra attention last night. ;) The manager did come out for a third time and apologize that the food was taking so long. Maybe the server put in our order wrong or forgot to put our order in all together? He ended up taking off our raw appetizer so that was nice of him. Kaley spent a good 10 minutes on the toilet and then finally, almost 2 HOURS after sitting down for lunch which Jon and I had yet to eat, we loaded up in the car to go home!

I think it's going to be a while before my husband and I recover from this experience and attempt to go out to eat again! Oh the joys of dining in with children. I think next time we'll just do Curb Side To Go.