The Cracker Barrel school of Parenting

Just a few things we learned from our dinner out last night with Autumn:

1) Likes and dislikes can fluctuate as often as the tides.  She loved the chicken & dumplings when we ordered it for her birthday dinner two months ago.  Last night?  Not so much.  The first bite of dumpling was spit out and fell into the pocket of her bib.  The rest of what she didn’t eat was smeared into the table and dropped onto the floor.

2) Feelings of entitlement start early.  Since the dumplings weren’t a hit, I gave her the wedge of cheese from my salad.  No sooner did she finish that than her hand was in my dish grabbing for a tomato.  After the tomato was the egg (which she didn’t eat).

3) Stolen tomatoes are the only tomatoes worth eating.  At home they’re good for feeding to the dog and staining the carpet.

4) You can always tell if your server has children by how she places the dishes on the table.  Should you really put that full glass of Diet Coke in front of the toddler with the Inspector Gadget reach?  Mom and Dad learned their lesson a long time ago, thank you.