Child-Unfriendly

We have had a really great holiday weekend so far. With Chris working for NATO, we get some pretty non-standard holidays. As an example, we will not get Independence Day off, but we do have a four-day weekend for Easter.

There were some things that we wanted to get done around the house today, and so we decided to take it easy. We started off the day at the Sittard market, just to get out this morning. The Saturday market is a smaller version of the weekly Thursday market, but there were vendors out with their Easter best today.





After looking around, we decided to get some lunch at Bagels & Beans, the most fun little coffee and bagel shop around. I have said before, and I'll say it again, it amazes me to see how child-unfriendly restaurants are in the Netherlands (really, in most of Europe).

I have really been thinking about this a lot lately, as we are planning a trip back to the States very soon, and I have started to get excited about all the ways I will enjoy carting my child around once we are home. The doors that are welcoming for strollers! The changing tables in the restrooms! The high chairs in the restaurants! The grandparents who will watch our son for a few hours! That last one has nothing to do with dragging the baby around, but I am really excited about it.

Today, I just happened to have my camera with me, so I want to point out a few things for you to illustrate what we put up with here. There are two things I want you to keep in mind. First of all, this outing to a "restaurant" is very rare for us. I have decided, generally, that Jackson is just not fun to take out anymore so we just don't eat in restaurants. A coffee shop was OK for today though. Secondly, Bagels & Beans is actually more roomy and child-friendly than most other restaurants. Just to give you an idea.

The following picture is of Jackson sitting in a "high chair". There was one standard high chair in the whole restaurant. It was taken. So, there was this other thing that you strap to a normal adult-sized chair. Not very sturdy. That was what we found for Jackson, and it was also the only of its kind in the restaurant. [This was very generous, though, as most restaurants have absolutely nothing for your children.] You can also possibly see from this picture that there is not much distance between our table and the one across the aisle. This is also typical. You can only imagine how long it took us to get our stroller to the table and then find a place to stow the stroller.



You might have no clue what you are looking at here - it's the women's restroom. No, not a stall, the whole restroom. There is a sink right behind me. Beneath the changing pad is the toilet. So, you are expected to pick up the changing pad off the ledge, and place it on top of the toilet to change your child. I must emphasize that the fact that there even is a changing pad available is incredibly generous, because there typically is nothing.



I really hope all my expectations about the United States come to pass!