Mommy lesson for Business: Eating out

For those of us who venture out after baby is mobile, you learn a few things.

Most painful for me has been what not to order. I am addicted to our local Mexican restaurant's chips and salsa. And my kids want what I have, no matter how much candy I try to stuff in their mouths so I can enjoy myself. But chips = choking hazard and salsa = hot hot hazard. Both also elicit tears.

Lesson #1 for business: Order food that will not make a scene. Soups can elicit slurping from you. Hand held food can get messy. Picture yourself eating said food and if you forsee any clumsiness, select that penne pasta dish over the fondue.

Chips and salsa orders are now confined to date nights. Our servers must see us as the couple who's rarely there but when they are spend hours downing the chips and salsa. Today, our family restaurant outings consist of places like Pizza Hut or Noodles and Co. Places that have very kid friendly meals. My child very likely to eat their pasta and they have pastas that I can stomach. I'm not a fan of tailoring my wants to those of my child's; normally, my mantra is "tough, your the kid and I'm the adult." But we do dinner out so rarely that I play along here.

Lesson #2 in business: when you eat out with colleagues, order what they order. This will keep you in their price range (which they will appreciate if they're treating.) If you're the first one to order, see Rule #1.

To save money, when eating as a family, we get water for drinks. But I've wittnesed many a child wailing when mom and dad get their beer and child is left with the flavorless water. There's no fooling them and you can only give your toddler so much beer... well, in most families.

This brings us to drinks and Rule #3 which is basically Rule #2 but more important. If you continually order alcoholic when they're ordering non, you're going to be judged as the party person, no matter if you order 1 or 20. If its the other way around, you'll be viewed as a fuddy duddy. When drinks are ordered, order along the same lines and price range of everyone else. Follow these simple sub-rules if you are asked first (many times, if you're the only woman there, you may be):

In order of importance:
a. Go alcoholic if its after 5 PM; non-alcoholic if before.
b. If non-alcoholic, order a drink from the menu and not just water 'from the tap.'
c. A glass of wine is usually acceptable. Lite beer is second most acceptable. I wouldn't go for a mixed cocktail if you're the first one to order.

These 3 rules should serve you very well. I know I broke quite a few when I was first working because I was so excited to have someone pay for dinner at a fancy place. It may sound like I'm telling you to bow to someone else's judgment. And I am. Impressions of you and your personality are often formed in the off-hours. Even more important, many business decisions take place in such a setting.