We venture out to dinner most Saturday’s with Joe’s parents. We go to the same restaurant every time. Going out to eat with kids isn’t easy as all parents know. Add Autism to that mix and it makes it even harder. But we still do it. (Some day I’ll do a post about the amazing waiter that helps make these dinners successful for Courtney but that’s for another day.)

Going out to dinner takes planning. Courtney is such a picky eater that we have to bring food for her including her milk. A while back, her feeding therapist and I were talking about food items I wanted to work on with Courtney. As we brainstormed food items, I mentioned how it would be awesome to go out to dinner as a family without having to bring her dinner with.

Tonight it happened. We brought her food like always. Through the past couple years, we have found a few items that she likes there so we we have had to bring less of her food. Usually at some point during the dinner she decides she doesn’t want the French fries or roll and requests an item we brought. It didn’t hit me until on my way home as I was sharing with her feeding therapist via text about how she tried sherbet that Courtney did not need any of the food I packed.

We are no where close to being able to go to a restaurant without her food but I’ve become ok with that. We are starting to plan how we will pack all her food for our big trip coming up. It does not matter how kid friendly a restaurant is when you are brand specific on your food items. This is autism and I wouldn’t trade it for the world.