How often do you eat out with the kids

I am just curious to see how many of us eat out with our kids. We eat out (meaning not home-cooked) at least once a week for lunch and at least once on the weekends. I feel bad if we are out and about during the week and want to feed them "out" again if we already ate out that week. I do not like to eat out two consecutive days. What does everyone else do? Thanks.

ETA: added 1-2 times/month to poll options. For those of you early on that did not vote, I voted for you so no need to vote again. Thanks for helping me with my poll choices.

 

Hi
We are generally running around on the weekend. We generally eat at IHOP after church on Sundays so that is once. We also generally eat dinner out once during the weekend. During the week, never.

 

During the week hardly ever b/c I stay home with them and at this point are hard to manage alone...but on the weekends to give me a break from cooking a gazillion meals ( I swear it feels like it) we usually eat out once or twice....and it makes them really happy to people watch and eat pizza or french fries!!

 

My options aren't really there, so I didn't vote.

I'd say on average, we eat out for lunch once a month, and dinner 2 times a month.

 

I would say lunch once every 2-3 weeks and dinner about every week or so- depends on our schedule!

 

mine have only been to a restaurant three times in their entire lives. all three times we were out of town and could not make arrangements for someone to stay with them.

 

QUOTE(Babies4Susan @ Aug 15 2008, 04:37 PM) [snapback]932311[/snapback]
My options aren't really there, so I didn't vote.

I'd say on average, we eat out for lunch once a month, and dinner 2 times a month.



Same for us.

 

We eat out every sat with the whole family. In-laws & g-parents. It was hard between 15 months & 2 years.

 

We are trying to take them to a restaurant once a month so they can practice. We generally don't do fast food unless there's a power outage, although when O won a coloring contest that included a kids meal, we did go and eat there. Sometimes we forget, though. So I couldn't answer, because not never, but not once a week, either. When we visit my parents they often bring in food from a local bbq place (we visit them every 6 weeks or so), but we eat it at their house, so that's not really a restaurant experience.

We're not big eater-outers. ardon:

 

I voted "never" for lunch -- that isn't quite true, but it is very rare since they're in daycare M-F and we usually have lunch at home on weekends.

I voted 1-2 times per week for dinner -- also not quite true, but you didn't have an option for "a few times a month."

In the winter, we ate out (local pub -- very kid-friendly) once every week or two. I'm not counting eating pizza at Costco -- we do that once a month or so.

In the summer, we have picnics once or twice a week, but we only buy food once a week (at the farmer's market) -- the rest of the time, I bring food from home. So we're eating out in the sense of buying food, but not in the sense of eating in a restaurant. We've only done that once all summer that I can remember.

We also buy muffins every weekend morning and eat them either at the cafe or at the park.

We never took them to a restaurant until they were at least a year old. (Wait, we did once -- for brunch, around 9 months.) Then for awhile it was easy because they were so interested in watching everything. Then it got a bit harder because they hated to sit still. We're still at that point, but it's getting a bit easier now that we can explain to them that the rule is they have to stay in their seats until we're done eating. I'd say it was probably hardest for a few months on either side of their 2nd b'day.

 

We actually love to eat out. On Wednesday nights, we go to "family night" at our club, which is a very casual buffet -- they have a good selection of foods, though, so the munchkins can try all sorts of things. And, it's free for kids under 5, so that works for us.

One other night a week, we go to Panera or Chipotle, both of which I think are a step above fast food. I used to pack Kevan & Karina's dinner for Panera, as there wasn't a ton on the menu that they could eat -- but now, I give them the vegetable soup, etc.

Very occasionally we'll go to Chili's or On the Border or some similar place -- yeah, it's a pain with two 14-month-olds, especially since Kevan is part monkey and tries for the full hour to climb out of the high chair -- but it's just nice to get out as a family.

I try to keep all of their meals at home as healthy as possible (trans-fat free, no HFCS, organic when possible) -- so I really don't feel bad about indulging when we're out.

 

We eat lunch out once or twice a week and dinner out once or twice a month. We've been doing this since they were tiny and they LOVE to go out to eat.

 

Gosh, I am surprised to see that some of you eat out only once a month. :bow2: I am a SAHM and I find that I have to get out the house almost on a daily basis to have happy kids and a happy mom. So we do eat out for lunch once or twice a week but never for dinner until tonight (the first time in 21 months we have been to dinner with the kids). I would go crazy cooking 3 meals a day everyday since they eat about 4 things on a rotating basis. I like the change of scenary and so do the kids. They eat much better when they have some outside stimulation.

 

We eat dinner out anywhere from 2-3 times a week. We have done this since they were born. We always go out once during the week (usually Weds.) and on Fri and Sat. night. That is just how DH and I have always done it and keeping that schedule made us feel a bit more like our "normal" selves once the babies came. Up until about 2 months ago I would just bring their dinner with us but now I tend to let them order off of the menu. Most of the places we go have grilled chicken and veggies as options or even fish every once in a while. I also find I can always order a baked (plain) sweet potato or something off of the sides menu that appeals to them. Many times we go to the restaurant (we have a couple faves that we hit every week and they are very helpful with getting us a good table outside, crayons, and quick service) and feed the babies or order them food while we are having an appetizer and a cocktail. We then order our entrees to go and enjoy them after we put the kids to sleep.

This has worked great for us. I feel very fortunate that our babies are pretty great eaters and for this reason only can we go out. They are entertained by eating the entire time and now they will even color a bit.

I do lunch with them (meeting up with a friend and her babies) once every two weeks or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

 

Only eaten lunch out maybe twice in their lives and about once or twice a month for dinner. We do not eat at any fast food but only sit down places.

 

THe only "restaurant" we bring the kids to is McDonalds (and the like) and that is rare cuz even that's a nightmare. LOL.

 

The last two weeks, it was much much more then normal. We didn't have a kitchen sink and I was doing dishes in the bathtub

But normally, we eat out about once or twice a month for either lunch or dinner.

 

When the twins were still babies, we'd eat out as a family a couple of times a month with no problems. Once they were toddlers, we were way outnumbered and just couldn't take our family out anymore. We still go out to eat occassionally with all of us, but it's probably about 3 times a year! But we do get take-out probably twice a month. For lunch, I'll get a couple of $5 pizzas once or twice a month as well.

 

We always do lunch at home. I picked 1-2 times per month for eating out, but it's actually less than that. We just don't go out much at all b/c we're tight wads. But I do love to take the kids with us when we go out. The girls do surprising well at restaurants.

 

QUOTE(Becca34 @ Aug 15 2008, 06:59 PM) [snapback]932453[/snapback]
Panera or Chipotle
Chili's or On the Border

Yum and yum.
Yum and yum!


We do lunch out about once a week and dinner out about once every other week. I would love to do dinner out once a week as a family, but the budget doesn't allow for it right now.

 

When the babies were infants - we brought in food, MOST days (AND.. used a lot of paper plates for the first couple of weeks) once the food from friends ran out.

Now, we go out or bring in a couple of times a week. Sometimes we go out when our first born is staying with grandma -- that way we're not out-numbered! We enjoy going to a place very close to us, called Sweet Tomatoes. It's a huge (like twice as long as a normal one)salad bar buffet, in addition to a soup bar, breads, pasta, baked potatoes, fruit, dessert, etc. It's wonderful - I love a buffet with toddlers.... no waiting!

 

FWIW, for us it's more like once every other month for each meal, maybe once a month, but probably less. So even with your added category, you could probably use something between "1-2 times a month" and NEVER. I voted 1-2 times a month for each.

We like taking the girls out but for us it is a treat not a regular occurrence.

 

We eat out a ridiculously large amount because both my mom and my aunt like to eat out (in other words, we aren't paying for it). I'd guess we eat out for dinner about 1-2 times a week but we go out to breakfast or lunch at least 3-4 times a week. Almost all of this is at dine-in restaurants, not take-out.

The girls like to "eat healthy things" so they almost always have milk to drink and then an entree with fruit or a veggie. Their favorite entrees are things like eggs & bacon, quesadillas, pinto beans, and spaghetti. Dax will eat pretty much anything except for vegetables and he usually has water (or occasionally apple juice) to drink.

 

I put about once a month, but it is probably more like once every other month. We also took ours out all the time when they were babies. Now it is a lot harder. Depending on their mood when we get there, we either make it half way through our dinner b/f they want out or are crawling out of the highchairs or we never even make it into the highchair b/f they are squiggling and whining. Eating out becomes more stressful for us than just staying in and cooking and cleaning. This doesn't include picnics, we do that a lot. I'm impressed w/ the numbers of people going out on a regular basis-I guess we need to get them out more and deal.

 

Does this include meals at family's house or picnics? We rarely eat at a restaurant with our boys - I'm talking 5 times in their whole lives. We just can't seem to make it an enjoyable experience! But we have had some nice picnics and a few great dinners at the grandparents' houses. I envy those of you who can take your twins to restaurants and actually have a good time (and actually get to eat your own lunch/dinner!!).

 

Our budget doesn't allow for much eating out so maybe lunch once a month or less. Dinner a couple times a month (pizza usually and maybe Friendlys every couple months).