My wife and I work really long hours. Before my son was born, dinner usually consisted of what do we have in the house that we can re-heat really quickly. With that in mind, we usually treated ourselves to a really nice place for dinner on Friday. It was a way of decompressing after a long week.

When my son was born that was no longer an option. It’s not fair to your child, and it’s not fair to the other diners. If you’re at a steakhouse or something looking for a romantic evening, do you really want a toddler screaming at the other table?  Can you have a romantic evening with your toddler with you?  The answer is no to both. As a result, my wife and I have changed our focus as to where we go.  Instead of a nice steak dinner, it’s a burger and fries at a family friendly restaurant. 

There’s a real problem with the family friendly restaurants. They’re very popular. They’re full of parents with their kids who want a night off from cooking. That means slower service. That means you’re asking a toddler to sit around and wait and wait. Even the best behaved toddlers will start acting up. They’re more likely to act up if they’re hungry too. Sometimes the crayons and mat don’t cut it. It ruins the experience. It makes you wish you were home eating leftovers. Chick-fil-A now has the perfect solution. 

My mind was blown reading that. You can order your dinner in the drive-thru lane, and they’ll have it ready did you at a table when you enter the restaurant?  I would seriously do this all the time, especially if they have a Coke Freestyle there (seriously, that’s my holy grail. I love soda). If you’ve ever went out to eat with a toddler, you know how much better it would be to have the food out when you get there than having to wait and wait. 

Sadly, there are no Chick-fil-A’s near me. I can’t “eat mor chikin.”  However, with that said, I don’t know why other restaurants can’t adapt this, especially those with Roadside Service. 

I should be able to call my order in to a place like Applebees, Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Chilis, Ruby Tuesday, etc. and make my order. In turn, I can be told what time my table will be ready. To avoid issues, they could request pre-payment for my meal to ensure my arrival. It would create higher turnover of tables during the busy hours. It would also reduce screaming and crying children thereby making the dining experience better for everyone. 

Imagine going to Olive Garden and having your meal on the table with the salad and breadsticks. It would be a quicker and much more relaxing dining experience for parents. By the way, this would also work out great for Olive Garden because people would go through less salad and breadsticks thereby helping the bottom line. Same goes for Red Lobster and those cheddar bay biscuits (for most people, not me.  I’d still annihilate them). 

This makes too much sense not to happen. Hopefully, these restaurants pick up on this and apply the practice to their business. If you do, my family thanks you in advance. Also, I wouldn’t object to a consultant’s fee either.  

If your Day Care is like mine, it is closed between Christmas and New Year’s. This means someone has to stay home with the little man. As my day job has more flexibility then, it’s my responsibility. 

Two things you should know about watching a toddler all day: (1) it’s great spending that much time with your son; and (2) it’s exhausting. It’s a constant challenge. However, if you keep in mind that most little boys want to be like their daddies, it can help you get through the day. The next thing to keep in mind is that the more things you plan in advance, the better. 

After your son is up and gets dressed, make your way to the kitchen and make breakfast together. Every kid wants to be a help and be involved. Tell him you need his help making breakfast for him and daddy. 

One day I made scrambled eggs with my son. It’s easier said than done.  You have to do some prep work while entertaining him. I got the bowl out to mix the eggs, put a little milk in a cup, cut a small piece of butter, and I got the frying pan on the stove. I showed him how we crack the eggs, and I put them in the bowl. As I started to whisk them together, I gave him the cup, and I had him add the milk. Once that was done, I had him throw the butter I into the hot frying pan. Note, out the frying pan on the far burner and have your hands on your son’s wrists to prevent him from touching the hot pan. When the butter is melted, obviously put the eggs in the pan. Now, I got myself a spurtle, and I gave my son a large serving spoon. As the eggs cooked, I allowed him to move the eggs in the pan like he was cooking them. Once the eggs were cooked, I had him help me take the eggs from the frying pan and put them on our plates. 

Now, toddlers are notoriously picky eaters. However, I found when my son participated in the process, he ate his eggs without hesitation. Considering how much work the eggs were, I tried doing toaster waffles the next day. No, he told me he wanted to “make eggs.”  So, we had eggs all week. My advice to you is start with the waffles. 

After breakfast and clean-up, you need to figure out what to do before lunch. Keep in mind you’re going to want your kid to take a nap after lunch. It’s usually how it’s done in Day Care, and you really want to stick to that schedule. With that in mind, I suggest a physical activity. That means if you got a yard, go run outside in the yard. If there’s a park nearby, go there. If there’s inclement weather or it’s too cold out, run around the house. Just run your kid tired. 

On multiple days, I set up my son’s baseball stuff. We worked on hitting the ball as hard as he could. We played catch. One suggestion here is don’t force it on your son. If he doesn’t want to play, move on to something else. If you want him to like baseball, don’t force it down his throat to the point he hates it. On days he wasn’t interested, we ran races, played other sports like basketball, or we just played with his cars and trains. Again, the goal is to tire them out. 

Now, instead of staying home after breakfast and running around, it may help to do an activity. My family has a zoo membership allowing us to go whenever we want. This is really helpful. After walking the zoo and getting lunch, it’s time to go home. If your kid is anything like mine, it’s easier to get him to fall asleep in the car than it is to get him to nap at home. Coincidentally, I ran into another father from the same Day Care at the zoo, and he agreed with this assertion. In fact, even if you stay home, take your kid for a drive and get him to nap. It’s worth your sanity. 

While your kid is napping, you have time to clean up dishes. If you’re an overachiever, get dinner started.  Personally, I suggest something like a baked ziti that you can have for more than one night. If that’s too much or not a good cook, find an easy slow cooker recipe. Keep in mind, you may need that nap yourself as that week progresses and/or you’ll want to use that time to get some work done. 

One important thing to remember is to have a snack rest for your kid when he wakes up from his nap. He’s going to be hungry when he gets up. Set it up at the table, so there’s as little problems as possible. 

At the table, I also like to have some crayons and/or Play Doh handy. Something you can give him right after snack time if you need to buy a couple of minutes in preparing dinner. Right after snack, I usually like to see if I can keep my son at the table. Sometimes it’s drawing a picture for mommy. Other times it’s Play Doh. 

Overall, no matter what activities you do, you should be looking to incorporate ways to teach your kid something . . . you know other than getting him to swing level. There’s always an opportunity to count things. When he’s using crayons, use some yourself and draw the alphabet or numbers and try to get him to identify them.  At this age everything and anything can be used to learn something. 

Hopefully, once snack and activity time is over, your wife is home. Most likely, you still have time. That’s time that can be spent doing a myriad of things from reading books to coloring more, or basically whatever activity your son has in mind. Keep in mind, no one is going to judge you if you need to put on Sesame Street for a little bit. You can justify it to yourself because the show has a number, letter, and word of the day. Seriously, there are some benefits to Sesame Street. 

Hopefully, your wife is home at this point, and you can surprise her with dinner. Then it’s cleaning up after dinner, and you’re close to bath time, story time, and bed time. Congratulations, you’ve survived the day. Your son had fun, and your wife is happy and impressed with you. Think it was a hard day?  Your poor mother did that and a lot more for longer. Maybe at this time give your poor mother a call and let her talk to her grandson. 

In any event, after five days of that, you’re pretty beat. With that said, come Monday morning, I’m going to miss it. I’m going to miss the little guy. I look forward to the next time I can do it. 

I still can’t believe this will be my son’s third Christmas. 

For the first one, he wasn’t even a month old. I still don’t know how we pulled it off, but my wife and I hosted that year. Seriously, the ability to do anything with a one month old is a Herculean feat. The only thing I remember was I constantly played my favorite Christmas song as a way to soothe a crying baby:

Now, my son is older. It’s all about A Charlie Brown Christmas. He knows it’s Jesus’ birthday. He knows Santa brings presents on Christmas Day. He made cookies with mommy to leave for Santa. He’s all excited. It’s great to see him excited.

Every kid is excited around Christmas. Christmas is a magical time of year. Somewhere down the line each and every adult loses the magic.  That is until you see a child at Christmas. They understand this time of year better than anyone. When you see them, it takes you back. You remember when Santa brought you that special toy. Mostly, you remember family. 

I remember getting together at my grandparent’s house each Christmas Eve. I remember sitting down with my family to dinner. Those dinners. Nana was the best cook. Then an uncle would dress as Santa while my cousins and I would get excited for our presents. I reminds falling asleep on the drive home.  

Then Santa came!  He brought presents because I was good all year. I remember having hot cocoa in my Santa mug as my mother made breakfast. I cherish these memories. It’s the type of memories I want to create for my son. I want to recapture that magic for him.

I mostly want to recapture that magic this year. For the past month or so, my father has not been doing well. He just had his second surgery in a month. He didn’t respond well to the first one, but so far so good after Tuesday’s surgery. 

It’s why I want to recapture this magic this year more than any prior year. More than anything I want to give my son an amazing Christmas. I also want my family to enjoy it without any worries. We’ve had enough of those lately. Now is just a time to bask in that Christmas magic, even if it’s just for a couple of days. 

I hope this Christmas finds you and your family happy and healthy. I hope you can recapture some of that Christmas magic even if it is for a day or so. 

Merry Christmas!