Often at a restaurant the final minutes of the meal are the worst part of the evening. The “helpful servers” have made sure that the kids meals are served 10 minutes before the adults assuring that the end of the meal will be more about crowd control then eating. What I will often do in those final minutes while I am trying to enjoy the last bite of my fish taco is ask if they would like to count all the change in my pocket. They always do.

While they are happily counting and sorting away I am able to finish my meal and take a possibly chaotic situation and turn it into a teachable moment.

If your kids are too young to understand the concept of counting money they can sort them by size or color. Just make sure they don’t take the money, and if they do, make them pay.