It's a baby, not a disease.

Dh and I had a date night tonight. It was our first in a very long time. We won a gift certificate to a nice restaurant, so we left the big kids in capable hands, grabbed the baby and went. We freaked the hostesses out in the process.

Now this is a nice restaurant, but it welcomes families. They have high chairs and car seat slings available. This is not a ritzy, ridiculously expensive, no high chairs for miles kind of place.

I usually prefer to put the baby in the sling, but when we go out to eat, we usually bring her in her car seat because she tends to fall asleep and she can nap there which leaves me free to get close enough to the table to actually eat.

So we walked in, dressed nicely, carrying the oh so cute baby in the car seat. The two hostesses' eyes went wide. They looked horrified. One couldn't turn fast enough to grab the phone and pretend she was talking on it. The other ignored us. Someone else had to come up from the side to seat us.

I thought I may have misinterpreted their reactions, but when I mentioned it to dh later, he said he saw the same thing.

WTF? She's a baby, not a disease. She's a cute baby too. The few patrons there (it was far from busy) commented on how cute she was. So why the hell did the staff have such an issue with her? I understand the childless movement. I'm obviously not a member of it, but I completely understand why some folks don't want children. I also understand that there are places not at all suitable for children. This was not one of those places. This was the same restaurant where my entire family went when the twins were just 2 months old. This is the same restaurant where dh and I celebrated an anniversary with the twins when they were a year old. We've never had a problem. The whole thing was so bizarre.

The cute little baby won't bite your head off, I swear. I, however, just might if you don't cut that out.