We do our best to stay away from electronics while we’re out to dinner. And heck, we do our best to teach our kids to sit at a dinner table and converse, be patient, and just eat dinner without having to be distracted with something else — games, activities, toys, electronics. But we all know, making it through an entire dinner with a toddler and a baby and zero “activities” is nearly impossible (at least for us) but that’s the direction we’re trying to go.

A couple weeks back I was discussing our weekly meals on my Instagram stories and mentioned we take the kids out for a family date night every single Friday night – Mind you, this weekly dinner is far past Franky’s bed time and always cuts into at least part of Ava’s. And as we all discussed, a lot of you asked me to put together a little guide to how we keep our kids entertained out to dinner without using electronics. So here I am talking a little bit about how we’ve done it over the years.

First, I want you to keep some things in mind:

• They’re kids and they get impatient and heck, I am an adult and I get impatient sometimes too so I can’t blame them. It happens.

• Yes, we’ve given Ava YouTube and other learning apps while at the dinner table. In fact, we used to do it quite a bit around the age of 2. I’m not going to lie about that on because I truly believe electronics can be a very handy tool for parents. But with that being said, it’s our very very last resort when we just can’t take it any longer and since we’ve worked toward that, I can’t even remember the last time Ava had any electronics while out to dinner. She’s learned and she’s adapted and it’s her normal now so she doesn’t think anything of it.

• When we were kids, we had no electronics to fall back on. We had crayons, we had our mouth to chat with our siblings and parents and that was that. So while I know a lot of you may be thinking, “My kid would never be able to sit at dinner without electronics“ just remember that we all did it when we were kids. It is possible.

• But with that last note being said, all kids are different, of course. Some kids it’ll be easier for in some kids not so easy at all. But like I said before, kids adapt to what is “normal” so if you make it normal, it’ll become more normal… with some chaos here and there.

One thing I think we can all agree on is that we want to raise patient, kind, social kids who are able to hold conversations with adults, who are able to wait patiently, and second most importantly (to us at least) we want to enjoy the things we enjoyed before we had kids. That is a huge part of our continued happiness, the strength in our marriage, and I mean, who doesn’t want to have fun?

Electronics are a very helpful tool and a wonderful tool at that. But that’s just what they are —

They’re a tool to be used in balance.

With all of that being said, here’s what I pack when we go out to dinner with the family, to attempt to avoid electronics for the kids:

1. Your Voice

We don’t sit down at the table and immediately bring out the toys and crayons. We last as long as we can with nothing at all, just having conversations with Ava, and then when she starts getting impatient, the rest comes out. But that first part is crucial because it’ll gain you some time ;)

We play “I spy” or fun little games like that and recently, we’ve taught Ava simple addition and subtraction so this is one that keeps her busy for a while. It involves no toys and she’s learning while she’s at it! And if you saw my Instagram post about getting our mails done, this little addition and subtraction trick helped buy me a good 20 minutes at the salon and Ava was content and happy as ever answering math problems.

2. Crayons

This one is my go-to. Ava lows drawing and coloring so I always have a couple of crayons and a mini coloring book in my purse just in case the restaurant doesn’t provide it.

3. Wiki Stix

These things are GOLD. They’ll keep the kids entertained for hours — like actually. You can teach them to braid, make some fun glasses to wear, create figurines and let their little imagintions run wild! I’ll link to where you can snag them on Amazon here but if you haven’t tried these out yet, I’d highly recommend you do.

4. Small Toys

Typically before each dinner, I let Ava pick out a couple figurines to bring with her. She’s quite the imaginative little thing so a Minnie Mouse, a couple Hot Wheels cars, a My Little Pony and a few of her favorite figurines work wonders. And I think it totally helps that she gets to pick them out herself!

5. Snacks

This one is for the babies, mostly. And while most restaurants have bread from the start, it’s always nice to have some Cheerios or Goldfish to keep Franky entertained until our meals come!

So that’s that! Those are the tools we use and if worse comes to worse, the electronics come out and that’s okay.