Product Review: Eating out with baby

A group of my friends and I decided to go out for dinner tonight for our Holiday dinner because we didn’t get a chance to do it during the holiday season. We ended up at Magiano’s. It was pretty busy, but fortunately we made a reservation and got a table for 14! Yes, that’s right – 14. That’s eight adults and six kiddos. Two families with two kiddos and two families with one kiddo. All of our children are under the age of five. So, needless to say lots of high chairs, car seat slings, toys to occupy the kids during dinner and everything else we need to tote around with us.

We call ourselves The Four Families as a little joke – forming our own little “mafia”.

Okay, back to Magiano’s. My lil man was sleeping, so we brought him in with a stroller. As the hostess starts leading us to our table she says to me, “oh, we don’t allow strollers here. You can’t go inside”. I was a bit floored at her statement. I thought I had heard wrong. No strollers? They’re supposed to be a family restaurant with their family environment and family menus. I completely understand strollers take up space, but what exactly are you supposed to do with a seven-month-old sleeping infant? So, I politely asked if I could at least push him to the table in the stroller and we’ll put the stroller back into the car thereafter.

Fortunately, being a “family” restaurant, the hostess offered us a sling. That made me feel much better and made up for the non-stroller rule. I thought, why didn’t she start with that statement first? It would have seemed less rude if she had said something along the lines of, “oh I’m sorry, can I offer you a car seat sling? We don’t have much space for strollers to fit them”. I know this seems long winded, but I think it’s more customer friendly having worked in the restaurant/customer service sector myself.

Have you ever seen a sling? I first discovered it in August 2010. A friend of mine explained to me what it was when we were out for lunch and she asked for two, but the restaurant didn’t have any. The car seat sling is a lifesaver and definitely proves that the restaurant that carries them is a baby-friendly/mom-friendly place.

It’s basically a stand with a mesh netting – image the bottom of a director’s chair but without the seat. You place the car seat on top of the mesh netting. There’s a safety belt you can wrap around the car seat through the seat belt “loops” so it would strap over the baby. It fits most car seats. Our car seat is a Graco metrolite up to 35lbs, so it’s fairly wide and it holds ours pretty well. It weighs less than 8lbs, folds, made of steel and has rubber caps on the feet. Here’s a photo I snagged off the Internet:

So, the next time you go out to eat, ask them if they have the car seat sling. You could even call the restaurant before you leave the house. This way you’re more prepared about what you need or don’t need to bring out with you when you leave the house.

This post is NOT sponsored. I just like to write reviews for things we’ve tried or used in our home. If a post is sponsored, I’d definitely note it for you in the post. Either way, sponsored or not, my reviews are my honest opinions.