How far should books go to keep the kids entertained at the table?
During my years working as a restaurant critic, I used to bring a few books along for my toddler son, to help keep him settled and engaged on the occasional nights he joined me for work. So you鈥檇 think I鈥檇 be the target audience for 鈥渋StoryTime鈥�: narrated e-books inspired by the company founder鈥檚 need to entertain his daughter until the food arrived when they were dining out.
Instead, I鈥檓 joining the legions of cranky restaurant-goers weighing in on what is and isn鈥檛 appropriate for children at the table.
Founder Graham Farrar got the idea for the narration app, designed for , because his iPhone didn鈥檛 have the right content and he didn鈥檛 want to tote a bag of books to a restaurant, . The app works on iPhones, iPads, and iPods, and the books include adaptations of "Shrek,"
"Transformers," and other less commercial titles.
Narrated e-books 鈥� for 2-year-olds 鈥� in a restaurant?
Now, kids in restaurants are a loaded topic at any time. I recently that we hear a lot about obnoxious, screaming kids in restaurants, but they鈥檙e not actually as common a blight as chat board complainers would have us believe. No one agreed with me.
But even in my relaxed view 鈥� maybe especially in my relaxed view 鈥� handing kids an electronic device at a restaurant creates more of a disruption than it solves. Instead of having to read a book, bulky or not (is it really too onerous to toss a few Little Golden Books or board books into the diaper bag you鈥檙e already carrying?), or to keep kids engaged in conversation, or even to walk them outside if they really can鈥檛 keep quiet, handing them a glowing screen (and, I hope, a pair of earphones to avoid broadcasting the latest Transformers battle to the next table) walls them off from the social connections that are part of why we go to restaurants in the first place. If we鈥檙e not going to interact with kids, that is time to leave them home with a babysitter. That鈥檚 where my 4-year-old is when he鈥檚 quietly hypnotized by his 'Magic Tree House" books on CD. It wouldn鈥檛 have occurred to me to hand him a CD player and a pair of headphones at the table after ordering the steak frites.
I admit my personal settings might be a little skewed. While I don鈥檛 find screaming or Cheerio-flinging acceptable, I鈥檓 not bothered by the sound of normal children鈥檚 conversations when eating out. And I don鈥檛 see anything rude about kids or adults reading a physical book at the table, though my own mother discouraged me from doing that in restaurants when I was a kid.
But a narrated book? It sounds as distracting as handing them a cell phone and telling them to make a call 鈥� a restaurant practice that I usually find more distracting than anything a kid is doing anyway.
What do you think? Do you read books in restaurants? Are e-books, or narrated books, any less socially acceptable?
Seattle writer Rebekah Denn blogs at
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