5 /5 Nicole: Very good experience here day before Thanksgiving—stopped on way down to visit family on Long Island. Food was very good. I think the mashed potatoes were instant, but the environment made up for it. The waitress was very friendly—she had a child that was our sons age, so she was very patient with us which means a lot. When we were walking on the door, the maître d was very nice and handed our son a rubber ducky from behind the counter—they have a rubber ducky machine in the foyer, which our 4 year old son wanted to play, we kept insisting that its not worth it to play—because it wont guarantee you the rubber duck—didnt want to see my 4 year old sad in melt down mode because he didnt get a ducky. So, whether they knew it or not, they taught my son a lesson "good things come to those who wait"/"have patience".
Anyway, the swiss-mushroom burger I had was great!—My husband had the gyro, which came with zuchini fries which was a fun twist on the gyro which he said was very good. Our son had the pasta with meatball and marinara, but didnt eat because he was worked up over the ducky machine in the foyer, but as I mentioned was worth the lesson learned.
Experiences like this should be made intentional in establishments like this to teach children learned lessons... maybe Ill write a book about all of the possible encorporations we can adopt into restaurants and other stores and stuff—which can be disclosed to parents so they can be made aware that this lesson is available to them for their child, if they wish to guide their child on identifying the moral of the story.
Im a mom with ADHD who has a vendetta for modern childrens books—they dont offer the depth in lessons offered in the books my mother and grandmother read to me. Im trying to brainstorm ways to fill the void so I can raise my child to be perceptive, cognizant and aware of the world around them. The digital age has made parenting very difficult, as far as your guidance being impeded by technology/screens—even if you limit screentime, the exposure theyve ever had has already wired their brain for what level of excitement is worth their attention(dopamine). So you need to outcompete that level of excitement to get the childs attention to teach them things. What a better way than real life experience in the world around them to teach them things—cant get anymore in-your-face than that.
