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Applebee's After Dark and other musings of a tween

Booze, chicks at the bar, lewd behavior, all on a Saturday evening and...

at the local Applebee's.

Ok, so, maybe there wasn't booze, chicks at the bar, or lewd behavior. This was the behavior my 9 year old daughter, Flower, "saw", what she cooked up in her head and swore off ever eating at an Applebee's again.

Let me explain.

Saturday is our day to eat out for dinner. The Hubs recommended Applebee's because he wanted to use a gift card he was given. Once we arrived and were seated, there was a large table with families and their teenagers. They were, obviously, celebrating something.

Ok, so the teenagers got a bit loud, it's what they do. They started singing and walking around. Trying to ignore them, our attention turned to the bar. Seated there, according the my Hubs' description, was a 2015 version of extras from the 70's show Starsky and Hutch: an older guy, a bit antsy, re-reading the menu, wearing a burgundy pleather jacket. The other guy, a more rotund guy, quiet. The Hubs went on to talk about how the Applebee's bar is a singles pick up bar. Amazing commentary, wondering though how he knew that. This, of course, would be a topic of discussion for later.

Meanwhile, Flower was mesmerized by those teenagers. She started looking at them like they were from a different planet. She hated the way they talked, sang, walked, ate. This was when she declared that, when she became a teenager, she would NEVER act like that or ever set foot in an Applebee's. In her 9 year old mind, Applebee's was the place that changed teenagers and turned them into zombies who can't seem to eat with their mouths closed. All of a sudden, she became the go-to-gal for eating etiquette.

Man, those teens left an impression on that girl! But guess what? In my opinion, they weren't doing anything wrong. Simply celebrating with family and being themselves.

You know how it is. You get together with family and the good times just roll. Add some food in the mix and we got ourselves a party! It was actually refreshing to see families out, eating a meal together and enjoying each other’s company.

That’s the point I wanted Flower to take away. We try to stress that in our house because I never grew up where, as a family, we sat, ate, and laughed together. A fight always seemed to forge its way in somehow.

I was also somewhat impressed that she was evaluating certain characteristics she wanted to display when she becomes a teenager. She started to associate certain behaviors with certain consequences. A couple of weeks later, she added more places to never set foot in to her list. Victoria’s Secret was one of them. Now, you know this is gonna change once she reaches a certain age.

Dang, I should have had the video going to capture her declarations.

And you know, months later, she is still talking about our Saturday at AppleBee’s.

What behaviors did you swear off as a kid that you now find yourself doing? Would you ever tell your tween about it?

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