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Home › Articles › Your Children › Dining Double

Dining Double

Taking Twins out to Eat

By Kelly Burgess

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Then, make impartial observations such as, "I see you're slurping your soup again, sweetie." Or try presenting objective information to your child by saying, "Our family believes in showing good manners at the table. Soup slurping is noisy and disturbs others while they eat." Or simply try saying, "I lose my appetite when I hear others slurping their soup."

Or, according to Dr. Medhus, there's always humor. Try covering your ears and making silly remarks about the child's slurping having the same noise level as a jet engine on takeoff roll.

Also, make sure to put logical consequences in place. For example, repeat offenders need to leave the table. By the same token, praise them when they do demonstrate good manners but in such a manner that it doesn't foster approval seeking. Say messages such as, "I really respect the way you behaved at the table," to your child.

"Naturally, when they're young, most kids, twins or otherwise, will have all the manners of a wildebeest in the midst of a stampede, but that's OK," Dr. Medhus says. "These are teachable moments, not personal vendettas meant to drive you bananas. Address these events in a nonjudgmental way."

Be Prepared
Once you do go out, be prepared for any eventuality. Regales makes things as easy as possible by choosing a kid-friendly environment, but she also has certain strategies to divert her children if they do get restless. She brings extra crayons and drawing paper because she says the waitress never gives them enough and they always want whatever color their sister has. She heads off food competitions as well.

"I get them the same thing to eat, even if the don't think they both want the same thing, because otherwise they spend much of the meal trying to poach food from each other and insisting that they wanted chicken and not pizza, or whichever the other kid has," Regales says.

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