Keeping kids entertained (and—let’s be real—calm) during meal times is an eternal struggle for most parents, especially when you’re in a new environment and there’s lots of stimuli around. You know, like when you’re out to dinner on vacation, maybe in a different time zone, and your child is experiencing all kinds of new stuff, possibly even exhausted.
Brittany Mahomes can relate. As reported by PEOPLE. she recently took to Instagram Stories to ask fans for their advice for handling a “bad habit” her 19-month-old son Patrick “Bronze” Lavon III had picked up during a family trip to Europe, and it seems she scored some pretty sound advice from fellow moms out there.
In the since-expired post, the 28-year-old wrote, “Alright mamas or professionals. We started a bad habit with Bronze while on vacation, we started letting him watch TV when eating literally just to keep him chill and not throw fits in public,” noting that Bronze “is still not the best eater and will fight it and throw huge huge huge fits when trying to make him eat.”
Mahomes, who is currently expecting her third baby with husband Patrick Mahomes, shared that the duo would let Bronze watch TV while out in restaurants to much success. “He would literally eat anything we gave him in silence and it was great,” she joked.
All was well until the family returned home, when the mom of two realized Bronze still needed some TV time during meals. She shared that they “have been trying to break this now that we are home but he legit will not eat a single thing unless he gets a show and then if he does will eat anything. So I need secrets on how to break this and get him to eat.”
As expected, fellow moms came in clutch with some solid solutions, suggesting that she read with baby Bronze as they enjoyed their meals. She shared the sweetest photo of her little one with his stuffed Mickey and Minnie Mouse toys, giving an update that will make all parents cheer in solidarity.
“Update: we did try a few books and I was really engaging into the books and asking him lots of questions and really explained a lot to him,” she wrote. “He was pretty locked in and ate all his dinner…huge step!!”
Of course, there’s no shame in managing meal-time stress however works for you and your little one, and like so many parenting struggles, there’s a good chance those “bad habits” end up being a “this too shall pass” scenario. Managing kids in a restaurant is no picnic, and you’re doing great no matter how you handle it all.
