How Rude Is It To Bring Food For Your Kids To Restaurants?

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But Within Reason, I’d Say Yes

While no one is expecting anyone’s kid to be a discerning Michelin-star diner, there are plenty of restaurants conducive to kids and their food. Think: restaurants where it’s easy to let kids eat those appropriate foods away from other diners, like on a patio or with nearby lawn space.

There are more appropriate foods (not messy or overly fragrant) to have kids eat at the table, of course. Milk or formula, baby food, and pre-packaged items that are easy for you (not your server) to clean up prior to leaving your table are a safe bet for etiquette and food safety reasons. Also, it goes without saying that you should also be ordering plenty for yourself, and not surviving off the bread basket alone, when your kid is not joining in on the meal.

At the end of the day, kids need to learn somehow how to behave in a restaurant and that’s absolutely the case with them eating any food. Did any of us really learn how to conduct ourselves properly at the dinner table without sometimes being a complete turd out at a restaurant once or twice? It teaches them about patience, social cues, and their own food preferences far quicker than any home meal could.