My daughter, on the other hand, has been to a whole lot of restaurants in her eight-year-old life. And the frequency has increased since we moved down here with Grandma. If my mother had her way, we'd eat out, every day; some days more than once. During the school year I can usually keep these forays limited to weekends-only, although I must admit that one weekday is usually a take-out night to spare me from making dinner.
This summer I have had to take us all out to eat almost every day, mostly so that Mom gets an outing. The kid doesn't really seem to care if we eat out or not. She's a grazer by nature, so is happy nibbling through the day. Of the places we go she prefers buffet-styled restaurants, which play into her grazing nature, as opposed to having to settle for one thing off a menu that never seems to have what she wants.
I am starting to hate eating out. Not only is it costly (and fattening), but with my tummy troubles and new ventures into a more vegetable-based diet, it is difficult to find something good to eat. I was shocked when we visited a local Chilis recently. There was practically nothing on the menu for someone who isn't eating beef, poultry, or pork. They didn't even have a veggie chili. I ended up getting the soup/salad combo, but had to ask that they hold the bacon on their "loaded potato" soup. The other soup offered was chicken tortilla. When the soup appeared, it was basically melted cheese with a few pieces of potato in it. Yum? After checking out their website, it appears they have a vegetarian version of their menu. Chili's suggests that when a customer sees meat on the menu, to substitute black beans. Or there's always their dessert choices. Sigh.
Actually I think the kid is onto something with her buffet proclivities. At least at a buffet there are always soups and salads, and invariably one of the soups is meat-free. And if I want to skip the carving station, I can just attack the sides — potatoes, vegetables, pasta, etc. I am just going to have to start weaning us from the daily food-related outings as the summer begins to wane next month. Maybe feed them at home and then still go out and do something — a movie, the library, shopping, etc., so that mom gets to get out of the house for a while. Life is always a balancing act.
2 comments:
I made it a point to take my mother out every evening when I got home from work. Sometimes to eat out, more often just to the local mall to wander around looking at things, and finish off with a cup of tea and a cookie.
Another good place to go was the big Borders store down the road -- my mother was always happy in the presence of books, and they had a cafe.
If I was tired, we'd just head for the local Safeway. There's always something one can buy.
We'd eat when we got home -- my mother had turned vegetarian on me, so I had the same problems (for her sake) that you now face. Believe me, it was a lot tougher then, most eateries had, at best, a salad; we didn't eat out much at all.
Every weekend, I'd cook up special breakfasts: big omelets, or home-made pancakes with strawberries. And, if the weather was at all promising, I'd drive her out to one of the parks in the area. For a while, we had a program of exploring different ones, but at the end we stuck to just the one with which my mother was familiar.
While my mother was still capable of dealing with food on her own, though, we'd often go to a buffet place (often enough that she bought a senior citizen frequent diner discount card, and it paid for itself). Like you, she could then concentrate on the vegetable offerings. Later, eating out was no longer an option at all. :(
--Mario
Thanks, Mario.
I agree that a daily outing is essential, as long as we can. It sounds like I'm on the right track. Mom can't read much anymore : ( but she does love bookstores and selecting books for Lucy, so either a bookstore or the library is usually interesting for her. She suddenly doesn't like to walk around stores as much, so has said she'll sit in the car if we run into Target. In a way it's a little more freeing for he kid and me to get the errands done, but it also makes me wonder if her world is narrowing even more.
My mom and food wil be a whole 'nother post. She seems to only want to eat certain foods for a while, and then she'll switch. I manage to serve her a wider variety of food at home than she opts for when we go out - usually she'll only order a tuna salad platter or a burger. Lately she doesn't want to eat bread, but two years ago when we moved down here that's all she wanted to eat!
When the weather gets a little cooler again we could start going to a local park. During the school year we went once a week with the dog and met a friend of Lucy's from school - she could play in the playground and my mom got some exercise and amusement watching her and the dog got an outing, too!
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