Saturday, January 7, 2012

Punishment for Quinn is twice as bad for us

Country Waffles and YouTube don't mix. Literally. Not even an option.
Maybe it's because the whole family is almost completely healed or maybe it's because we were feeling dangerous this Saturday morning, but we decided to take a chance on breakfast out at Country Waffles.

I packed our iPad, just in case we needed to distract Quinn long enough to finish our own meals. It worked in the past, with our daughter's attention drawn to the kid's games and videos while we wolfed down our sandwich/pasta/whatever meal we could probably have made at home.

Unfortunately, since the last time we ventured out to eat, Quinn has developed quite the addiction to the Internet – YouTube, to be exact.

Thankfully, she doesn't watch age inappropriate material, but her addiction to all things Just Dance 3 (see previous posts), Pocoyo and Peppa Pig knows no bounds.

Great, except Country Waffles isn't exactly known for its free (or even paid) WiFi service.

And so there sat our little daughter, madly trying to get YouTube to start and growing more frustrated by the minute.

We couldn't appease her. We offered her raisins, puffs, crayons, videos and games, but nothing worked.

She threw a mini-tantrum, right there in Country Waffles.

As we packed her into the car, she called out, "We're going to the park now! Quinn's playing on the playground!"

"No, Quinn, we're not," Derek said. "You acted poorly at the restaurant so no playground."

"But...but...we're going to the playground?"

"No, Quinn," Derek reiterated. "We're going home."

This exchange occurred over and over until she realized she really wasn't going to the playground, which kind of bummed us out as well. We like taking her to the playground and seeing her enjoy herself outdoors. But the playground is a reward for good behavior so we couldn't go today.

And so, not only did we miss out on the playground but we got a sullen kid to boot.

Quinn eventually quieted down, every now and then mumbling, "But...but..." We don't know where she got that – probably YouTube, which is now augmenting our daughter's vocabulary and ruining breakfast.

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