Restaurant Life at Home

A couple weeks ago, I walked around my sons’ bedroom after dark and felt so proud of my sleeping children.  They had been doing well in school, treating each other with kindness, and sacrificing their beds to one another to help us try to get the baby to sleep through the night better.  I felt warm mommy feelings and purposed in my heart to bless my children. 

The next day I told them, “We are taking the day off school today and are going to order out for lunch!”

They were so excited!  I was excited too, seeing how happy they felt.  However, as I reviewed my bills and financial status that morning, I realized that it wasn’t the day for splurging.  I needed to pinch pennies until the next paycheck.  What would I do now?!

I told the kids we wouldn’t be able to order out, and they were completely bummed.  I went from being the President of the “Good Mom Club” to being the CEO of the “Bad Mom Club”.  I felt disappointed but was also struggling as I dealt with their poor attitudes as well.  I sat down and prayed.  That’s it!  I’ll do a restaurant at home.

Quickly I sprung into action.  I hopped onto the computer and made some menu checklists for them.  When I was finished, I gathered my children into the dining room and welcomed them to

“The Cozy Nook Restaurant”.

The children filled out their menus, choosing main entrees, side dishes, and drinks.  From that moment on, I spoke to them as the owner and waitress of the restaurant.  I informed them that the restaurant served lunch around 12:00 or 12:30 p.m.

Around noon I began bustling around the kitchen.  I realized it wasn’t so easy to serve lunch restaurant-style with a nine month old baby under foot!

Besides preparing the food, I wanted to create a good restaurant ambiance.  I made sure to get out the nicer glassware and dishes and set the table with a tablecloth and faux flower arrangement. 

I served out the meals.  “Who ordered the grilled cheese sandwich?  Oh, and you must be the one who ordered the chicken nuggets.”

Throughout the meal, we dialogued as if they were my customers, not my children.  The kids especially loved that!  There were moments of laughter when the kids tried to get into the kitchen refrigerator, and I would respond (as I was chasing the child away), “Oh, sir, I’m sorry… The customers are not allowed in the refrigerator.”

As the children dined, I played a piano CD in the background and checked on them from time to time to see if they needed anything else.

I wanted to end the meal with a mint of some sort.  All I had in the house were some thin mint cookies so – voila!

A good time was had by all!