Thursday, March 26, 2009

Miscommunication

Perhaps I was not clear about why/how we end up eating in every night when The Scientist is away. Contrary to Kelly Bee's thought, it is not lack of guts. Nor is it virtue, as I fear Kristen may believe. It is laziness and a firm commitment to #5 on the list. When one chooses to dine out with children, it is customary to eat at the same table with them, is it not? Dining out solo with children is not pleasurable for me. If it is a buffet (don't get me started on my hatred of buffets...), I spend the entire time jumping up and down to fetch things for various people and by the time I actually sit down to eat, they are all finished. It's not dinner, it's aerobics. If it's not a buffet, I have to figure out how to occupy three children spanning 7 years and keep them from giving everyone around us acid reflux. By the time their dinner arrives, I just want us all to wolf it down as fast as possible and get the heck out of Dodge. Not. Relaxing. Did I mention that Red Fish is going through a SpiderMan phase? Not that he knows who SpiderMan is, but he has a burning desire to climb on anything and everything. Tables are perfect and every one must be conquered. Sitting in a high chair and NOT being allowed to climb out of it and onto the nearest level surface is torture.

For some reason, all these issues are much, much more managable with another adult. In the meantime, however, a dinner out that I didn't have to prepare (or clean up) takes a backseat every time to reaching the end of a long day and sitting down to enjoy a meal by myself, in my jammies, in perfect silence with a great book. You can appreciate? There is no virtue here. I'm the one they make the public service announcements about. "The family that eats together..." There's just plenty of time for that one we return to our regularly scheduled programming.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i applaud you for not fantasizing!! When our daddy is gone i always look to go out as something to do. and i make great plans and have it all played out in my mind as it should go...and it never does. why i continue i don't know...except for the fact that i want some yummy food. but i am also guilty for feeding the kids and then getting my sushi, wine, and tv. now that makes me a happy woman. i wonder when he might be ready for another trip..hmmm.

The Major's Wife said...

totally agree, I'm the same with the Major out of town. It's a waste. My mom offered to take us out on thursday and I asked her if she'd just cook instead. 1 yr old and a 3 yr old in a restaurant is HORRIBLE!!