Bouncing Baby

A post about babies in restaurants over at Daddychip reminded me of an incident when my son was a baby. We ate out a few times a week back then, because it was just about the only thing that got us out of the house. Not to mention we were both too tired from sleepless nights to think about preparing dinner.

We usually ate at a new Perkins Restaurant that was the only eatery within three miles of our house, and we always requested a booth because my son's car seat fit securely between the back of the seat and the table. He almost always snoozed peacefully through the meal while the wife and I enjoyed the alone time.

One night we ended up at a different restaurant, which was short on booths, so we sat at a table and placed the car seat on one of those tall wooden high chairs, only the waitress turned the chair upside down to accomodate the car seat. It didn't take us long to realize that this set-up was too unstable. So, we took my son out of the car seat and took turns holding him on our lap during the meal.

Our table was located right around the corner from the kitchen door. Toward the end of our meal a waiter came rushing out of that door, looking down at a check in his hand, rounded the corner, and swung his leg right through the high chair, kicking the car seat and sending it through the air about ten feet away. It was quite spectacular, I wish I had instant replay.

But what I remember more was the absolute look of horror that came over that waiter's face when he realized that he had just killed a baby. I think everyone in the suddenly silent restaurant thought the same thing.

After an awkward moment, the waiter realized there was no baby in the car seat, apologized, and ran off to change his underwear. We learned there and then to never place our car seat on one of those high chairs, at least with the baby in it.