staying at the table

nene1216

My daughter is usually done with meals before we are and wants to leave the table.  I can hold her interest for a little bit, but if I don't give her something to do, like color with crayons in her coloring book, she'll get down.  My husband gets annoyed with this, he wants her to just sit there while "mommy and daddy finish eating", and I think it's silly to expect a 2 year old to show that kind of patience.  Is this an issue for anyone else?  If so, what do you do?

maryxc1

At dinner we all eat together and DS is expected to stay at the table until everyone finishes. Luckily, DH and I eat pretty fast so it isn't a huge deal. Some days we finish first and some days he does. We don't give him anything to play with at the table (except waiting for food in restraunts).

If we are visiting DH's family, they like to sit at the table and socialize after dinner. I think that is too much to ask so as long as everybody is done eating, whenever he wants to get down I let him. The rule is that he (usually I go with him) has to play somewhere else and not bother people still at the table.

MelissaMiso

With us, it depends on the day. We usually try to have Fifi sit with us but some days lately, I don't have the energy and just let her go back to playing.

ebl2

Our DD is usually the last to finish eating (at home, at least) so I sit and wait for her to finish eating. Depending on how much work my husband has he'll either sit with us or finish up work. At restaurants she's pretty good about sitting there and eating. For the most part we're all done at the same time. If she's done first we just keep asking her to sit and wait for others to finish eating. 

ELF4321

I sortof go with how long it will be until we're done. If it's less than 5 Minutes, I make her stay and try to keep her entertained. If longer, I let her go.

mrsshawnavanb

DD definitely stays at the table with us, but honestly I guess we are lucky because she is usually the last one done and doesn't fight it.

bellelamb

All of mine are required to sit until everyone is done sometimes until I've picked up the dishes and we do not allow toys at the table! But we also don't give them their food before we get ours so they aren't done way earlier. Kids can sit and have patients at this age, if it's expected from them!

nene1216

I guess I'm more along the lines of ELF, if we're going to be done soon, then she can sit and chat, if I have another 15 - 20 minutes (I'm a slow eater), it's a little harder.  But, good to know that my husband isn't totally ridiculous, haha :-)

nene1216

Just wanted to add, growing up we had to stay at the table and ask to be excused if we were done  and wanted to leave while parents/grownups socialized (and if we were allowed to be, we had to clear our dishes as well) - but I remember doing that a bit older than her age now.

GromMom

I guess I'm lucky that DS likes to sit in the high chair and eats slowly.  He does have his moments in restaurants, e.g. we went to the cheesecake factory the other day to meet a friend and the waitress took our catching up as a sign to not get our order for 15 minutes (we had not seen each other in a year and she just had a new baby).  This meant that while we had dessert DS was NOT happy and did not want dessert, he wanted to LEAVE.   This is why we generally only eat at counter service places like Rubios, it's too hard to sit through a sit down meal at a restaurant.  At home we let him watch TV while we eat so he's more than happy to sit.   I know this is probably frowned upon but my family watched tv during dinner once we got a tv in the kitchen