I did my parent-child observation at a restaurant in Batesville Indiana. I went to a small family owned place called Wagner’s. I did my observation over Thanksgiving break after my family cut our Christmas tree down. This occurred on Saturday November 28th around 6pm. This is a place that I am relatively familiar with.
I have been going there with my family every year since I was a young child. It is a pretty small restaurant. While one side has a bar, the other side is more family oriented. It is a child friendly place that has a small area that toddlers and young kids can play. It has coloring books and small toys. The parents I was observing were both white.
The mother appeared to be in her early thirties. She had long brown hair and was about average height. She was wearing jeans and a sweater with boots. She seemed like a generally happy person. She smiled and laughed a lot. She appeared to be very invested in and attentive to her child.
She gave her reinforcements and regularly repeated things that her daughter would say. The father was most likely in his mid thirties. He had short brown hair. He was also tall. He was wearing jeans and a sweatshirt with gym shoes. He also seemed pretty happy but he was not at into what his daughter was saying and doing.
He would respond if she directly asked him something or said “dad,” but he did not go out of his way to communicate with her. Their daughter was a toddler most likely around the age of three. She had brown curly hair. She was wearing pink polka dot leggings with a black long sleeve shirt with sparkles on it. She was also wearing little boots. She seemed to be pretty content with being at the restaurant but she did have one short tantrum, which is pretty typical for her age.
. .r can be difficult, because they are many times not willing to cooperate and will make a scene to get her way. Even through the little girl made a scene at the restaurant, her parents did not cave and stuck to what they said. This is something I feel is hard for parents to do, especially when in a restaurant with other families watching. One way that I would apply the information I learned from this observation to my real life would be to not be so judgmental of parents when their children throw tantrums in the restaurant.
They are likely doing everything they can do to stop that tantrum and it is likely even more frustrating for them than it is for me. In addition, I learned that sometimes it is important to let children do what they want, but sometimes parents need to take a stand and say no. It is important to stay consistent once the parent has made a decision.
