We needed a babysitter when Klara was between one year of age and about 20 months old. Before one, she’d just sleep through a restaurant visit or an outing or sit there quietly, observing all of the strange new phenomena around her.
Between one and almost two, though, it made no sense to take her to restaurants because nobody would get to eat or talk anyway. We’d just spend the entire time running after her around the restaurant, praying she wouldn’t bump into any waiters with plates of hot food.
Now that she’s older, though, we really enjoy going to restaurants together because she eats adult food, feeds herself with a fork, and can participate in a conversation in a way that is interesting to all of us. Plus, she can now understand not only the more primitive “if you scream, we are going home” but even the more complex “if you scream, you will scare the babies.”
I just noticed that we haven’t asked the babysitter to come since February because we never felt the need. This is a big milestone.
Clarissa's Blog 