Bringing little kids to a restaurant can be a nightmare. They whine and fight at the table, don’t want to sit still, barely touch the food when it finally arrives, and beg for your phone constantly. Add in COVID risks, and it almost doesn’t seem worth it.
And yet, at this point in the pandemic, aren’t we all totally sick of our own home cooking" Not to mention mindful of supporting our local small businesses.
So the urge to attempt a meal out with little kids may persist.
?Having a good restaurant experience with kids isn?t impossible, but it?s going to vary from child to child, day to day, and meal to meal,? says Nita Sharda, a Winnipeg-based registered dietitian and mom to a baby and a three-year-old. 
Fortunately, there are ways to increase the chances of actually enjoying a dinner out with our little ones. Try these tips.
1. Manage your expectations
First off, you need to lower the bar on what a good experience might look like. We might want our children to not embarrass us in restaurants, but they aren?t going to stop being kids just because we take them out to eat.
?It?s important to distinguish between behaviour that is within your child?s control and behaviour that is not,? says Jillian Roberts, a Victoria-based child psychologist and associate professor at the University of Victoria. For example, getting upset and crying over food that has fallen on the floor or is too hot is normal, and they need to be comforted for that, not scolded o...