Recently, I wrote about the benefits of eating dinner at a restaurant with your children. For me, one of the best things about dining out is the lack of distractions- no laptops, tvs, etc. So, following an afternoon of shopping with two of my kids and a quick visit to the doctor, I decided to reward all three of us with dinner at a restaurant for good food and conversation.
I suggested three restaurants and told each child to delete one restaurant from the list. Whatever restaurant remained would be our destination. With no arguing (Woohoo!), a restaurant survived the process of elimination, and we headed there.
As it was 5:30 on a Monday night, there wasn’t much of a crowd, and we were seated immediately. Leaving the hostess station, I glanced around the restaurant and noticed televisions everywhere. This wasn’t a sports bar that we were dining at, yet there were screens galore. The situation got even better once we were seated at our table, for at one end of the table was a speaker. Not only could we see the programs, we also could choose which one we wanted to hear.
Although the food was decent, our conversations were lacking, even when the speaker was turned off. Having so many distractions in this restaurant eliminated one of the benefits of dining in a restaurant. We could have created the same atmosphere at home by eating in the living room.
Now, I am not a huge fan of television, but I also don’t prohibit my children from watching it. However, does it really need to be part of our dining experience in a restaurant?
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