How to keep your child quite and happy in public
Keeping children quiet in public places often sounds like a fairytale, but it doesn’t have to be like that. It may be difficult, but if you prepare yourself and then them for these moments, you can make your previous public spectacles into a pleasant experiences.
The best way to have children who behave well in public is to get them used to it.
Here you can find a few steps for having a pleasant public experiences with your kids:
Prepare
You should prepare your kids before you go anywhere. This usually consists of a nice talk in the car on the way to your destination or in the house while preparing to leave. Kids usually want to feel good when talking to them, so you should ask them some questions so they feel great when they know the right answers.
Frequently asked questions:
-Where are we going together?
-Why are we going there?
-How should we behave?
-Why should we behave like that?
-What shoudn’t we do or say?
They would definitely have fun showing you the right and wrong way to behave. That way you will prepare them not to do something you don’t want them to do.
Pack
If you have more that one kid, then you should pack every kid separately. That way they would feel big enough to take care of their own stuff. You should start letting them pick out their own items to put in their bags. Of course, if you have a baby, don’t let her or him pick anything, and that is not possible:)
Every kid is different, so if you let them pick what they need or want, you will not be in the trouble. In your kid’s bags you should put snacks, books, toys, stickers, anything he or she likes the most. If they are bored anywhere you go, they will have their own things and they will have fun.
Visit child-friendly places
We all should thank anyone who invented child-friendly places with coffee shops, restaurants and malls, so we can all have fun at the same time.
Seek out restaurants with playgrounds or children corners. Attend events that have programs or areas for kids, so you and your friends who have chidren should all go together and have fun.
Let them order their own meals
This is the ritual they love to pe part of and every parent should make an effort to encourage them to order and to say please and thank you.
As we all know, children always try to be bigger that they are, so if you talk to them and see them as adults, they will be much nicer and better than they actually are.
Explain them how they should behave in public, tell them about social behaviour and always explain them why that is important. Tell them stories about bad behaviour of some children, how that influenced them and how that looked in the eyes of others. That parents did not feel nice and that they were so dissapointed because their kids did not behave appropriately.
Make sure they are well fed and settled
The most important thing is that your kids are not hungry or sleepy. We all know how that will look like. Have a bag full of food for them, or just order their meals when you arrive. Settle them in before you do anything else.
After they are all set, show them where to play and let them know what they can do. Remind them all the time how to behave. Ask them if they need anything else and then sit down and enjoy.
You really shouldn’t be afraid of taking your children to public places. We usually can get it under control quickly. Every mom receives good compliments about her children, but we all now how sometimes turns out to be a nightmare.
