Manners...

Sunday Night a couple of us youth sponsors decided to take the "Children's Group" from our church on a field trip of sorts. We loaded up the cars and headed to Frisch's Big Boy... 9 kids and 3 adults! Anyway, we had kinda prepped the kids ahead of time of what was expected of them - let's all stand in line when we get inside until they get our table ready, walk together, please and thank you, etc. Below is a little run down of how the evening went:

We got in the parking lot, and began unloading the cars. When we tried to "team up" the kids, so no one had to walk across the parking lot without a partner, of course the boys didn't want to hold the girls hands, and the girls were just as set to stay away from the boys... lol. We finally all got our partners and headed to the door.

Once inside, my granddaughter was the first to go straight to an empty table and sit down. Once I retrieved her and we all got back in line, we waited patiently for our 12 sitter table. The kids reminded me that we shouldn't be burping or screaming while we waited for our seats. I was so proud!

Well, we got seated and managed to scatter the 9 kids (ages 2 to 12)out enough to seat the 3 adults among them close enough that we could give them all the "evil eye" if needed - that way we could make a point without raising our voices. After about 15 minutes we all finally decided what we wanted to eat and drink. (It's funny that kids know exactly what they want to drink until somebody at the other end of the table mentions cherry coke, then everybody wants to change their order to cherry coke.)

While we waited for our food, we went over the lesson of THE LAST SUPPER. Besides having to utilize that "evil eye" proximity convenience seating a couple of times (paper airplanes are so easy to make out of kid's menus), that went really well.

The manager (who did know the kids were coming) got the food to us lickity split. I think he was a little scared to wait too long! We all got our stuff in front of us, and said the Blessing. We were all definitely ready to eat - well, almost all of us... the littlest guy (my 2 yr old grandson) had passed out somewhere around the paper airplanes and didn't even realize his macaroni was sitting in front of him.

So, the kids were eating their food, and the adults were praising everyone when they showed an act of good manners AND tried to make a lesson out of any act of a not so good manner when my cell phone rang. It was about my grandchildren so I felt I needed to answer it. One of the 8 yr old girls said, "It's not good manners to talk on the phone at the table. You should take it to the bathroom." So true! We had created monsters.

It wasn't too long before the kids were finished eating. Unfortunately, the adults weren't quite done. Heck, we were behind because we had been busy cutting up chicken and pouring ketchup, etc. We were still hungry at this point. BUT the kids were done and they were getting bored. We started hearing - "I need to go to the bathroom." Now, we are not silly. We sent each and everyone of this precious children to the potty before we left church just two short hours ago. But, who really knows if they had to go?

So we started allowing them to go "in teams". Everything was going fine UNTIL... we allowed a 12 yr old girl to accompany a 5 yr old girl to the restroom. I looked up from the table about 4 minutes after they had left the table and here comes the 5 year old skipping around the back of the restaurant, so happy and smiling! Were was her buddy?

Anyway, after all was said and done, I was really happy with the way the kids acted during our little experiment... and I think they were excited that we trusted them enough to take them out on a field trip. They learned some great table manners and I learned not to use my phone at the table.