Family Studies Restaurant Observation

Alex Fox

Longhorn Steakhouse (7711 Voice of America Centre Dr, West Chester, OH)
Sunday, October 5th at 5:00 P.M.

#7 Restaurant Observation:

5:00 Two young children are sitting in the waiting room of the Longhorn Steakhouse, they are playing cards with each other, some type of trading card game. Child A is wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. Child C is wearing a tan shirt with white shorts.

5:03 The couple and their children move inside as it is a cold day. They are told the waiting time and are given a buzzer. The two children walk out and sit on the bench, they continue to playing card games.

5:06 Child A starts to talk with his mom about his day. Child C is still sitting on the bench and his mom joins him and she asks him about his day.

5:09 Child A moves from the bench and starts hoping around, he finds a tall stool to sit on and twirls around. He observes his mom watching him as if he were in trouble but continues to spin. He smiles and his mom tells him to be careful.

5:12 Child A and the father have returned from the car, and Child A and C start to talk and laugh about their day. They seem happy and are in similar in age. Child A shows him a trading card and C asks to see it.

5:15 The buzzer for their table rings and the family toward their setting area, child A and C are happy because they are excited for their favorite steak dinner. The two children walk behind their parents.

5: 18 Child A and C sit down across from their parents and they look over the menu, they have been here before.

5:21 The waiter come around, the parents decide that they are going to split an adult order of chicken tenders for the children. They receive their water from the waiter, and start to drink it.

5:24 They become tired and asks if they can go use the bathroom in addition to washing their hands because they are dirty.

5:27 The boys have returned and they have their appetizer garlic bread at the table, they take it and butter it. Child A actually likes dipping it in ketchup. They unroll their silverware and their parents tell them to put their napkin on their lap.

5:30 The waiter comes back with house salads, they then start talking about the movie that they are going to see after.

I did my restaurant observation on Sunday October 5th at Longhorn Steakhouse located at 7711 Voice of America Centre Dr, West Chester, OH starting at 5:00 P.M. which lasted till about 5:30 P.M. . I traveled to this location because I had been to this restaurant before. In addition, I knew that the family of four was going to be there that evening. The two individuals I observed today were child A and child C. Child A is wearing a white shirt and blue jeans. Child C is wearing a tan shirt with white shorts. Their personalities seemed different but they both got along and they liked to laugh, however they seemed tired throughout my observation. They seem to interact on a very comfortable level, they however seemed shy or quite. This could be told by their body language toward one another, they felt so comfortable and relaxed around each other. They really enjoyed playing with the cards they had and this reminded me of my childhood because there were many trading card games that I loved growing up. I could tell that they were getting hungry, but they did not verbally complain, which showed me that their parents had raised them to have manners and wait. They looked over the menu but they stayed with a safe choice of chicken tenders which the waiter told them it was a very good selection for children their age. Plus they had a special BBQ sauce. The also sucked down their water, which caused them to go to the bathroom pretty quickly.  In conclusion, this observation was a very eventful and joyful experience for me again. My reaction to this observation is that I would love to do this more often with different children because I think each scenario would be so different and unique from one another. I also realized that I think the interaction between children is so similar to how we eventually grow up and interact with one another.