Tearoom doesn't allow kids under 8 because they serve hot drinks and they might get injured!?!??

[MNersanonymous]

I just called this tea room as I saw that they don't allow under 8's in and I was curious as to why.
www.battlersgreenfarm.co.uk/retailers/thebullpen.html

Apparently the lady I spoke to said the management had a long standing policy of this and it was because they "serve cafetieres and there were a couple of nasty accidents with hot drinks"

So really they are just doing us a favour.
Blimey.

I said to her I find it curious that they say that given pretty much every other cafe ever serves hot drinks but lets kids in.

Very odd.

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

Wouldn't a couple of big signs up warning about the hot drinks be more sensible (and profitable surely?) than banning children altogether?

Hmm, maybe something really bad happened though...

[Monkeybird]

sounds fishy - maybe it's a ruse to keep kids out?

[niceglasses]

bolleaux of the highest order.

[hecate]

Bound to happen nowadays. Have an accident and look for someone to sue. Makes everyone wary. Probably some kid was running around the place, knocked over a cup, got hurt and the mother rang one of those ambulance chasing vultures! and the owners thought feck that for a game of soldiers.

[Psychomum5]

obviously a baby/toddler/small child hater!!!

if it is a 'long standing' policy tho, it obviously hasn;t done her business any harm, and in some ways, it is better for us mums with tinies as at least there is somewhere for all the other baby haters to go instead of follow us into the tearooms we go into and then tut loudly if they even dare to breathe let alone talk!

[misdee]

oh its near me. i might go there without the children to have a quiet drink. quite like that idea personally.

[MNersanonymous]

lol - love the idea of baby haters - I've encountered a couple of them in my time. Hope they all bugger off to this unchild-friendly tea room and knock over a stray cafetiere in there all over their trousers.

[niceglasses]

Those mad sort of 'old lady' tearooms though with the paper doillies etc- you'd be really struggling with the buggy and the rest of it.

I tend to stear well clear.....they just don't cater for kids.

I was once asked (when had no kids) did I want 'best ham' or just 'ordinary ham' in my sarnie. Wah?

[SmugColditz]

bull.

It's because under eights upset the old ladies.

[Psychomum5]

misdee has a good point.......at least there is somewhere to go if you happen to be child-free for a while, yet don;t want to go into a pub to get soemwhere that doesn;t have any other kiddies running about.

I know that as and when I have a childfree option for a coffee, I instantly head for somewhere I know will be kiddieless!!!

altho, if it is then full of babyhaters, I have to then run a mile as they are normally all sour faced with pursed lips and long noses that are good for looking down on people.......

[SmugColditz]

And I must add, when I (rarely) get into town without my boys, i go to a tearoom that's well stocked with magazines and up 2 flights of stairs!

[misdee]

exactly physcomum, when i go minus kids, or when dd3 was asleep and in her pram ,i would seek out the most quietess corner of a coffee shop and read a magazine in peace whilst having a leisurely cup of coffee. i dont always wants to be surrounded by children. i love children, or should say, i love my children, doesnt mean i want to be with them all day long.

[misdee barricades herself in the living room with a cup of coffee and slice of cake and lets dh deal with the dd's for 10mins]

[misdee]

i'm going to go there when dd3 is in nursery, and before #4 arrives lol.

[Psychomum5]

yeah see.....I too love my children, and I also have a great deal of affection for my friends kiddies too, but other peoples children can (at times) make me shudder.....and there is also the bad habit I have (when not being occupied by my own kiddies fighting) of judging other peoples parenting skills......so for that reason alone I stay far far far away from baby/kiddie places when out and head for the 'snobbier' (well, not really but YKWIM) places...!

[JamesAndTheGiantBanana]

Yeah, babyhaters... a couple of weeks ago we went for a bite to eat in a family pub, and chose to sit in an area which was mostly empty apart from two sweet looking applecheeked elderly ladies. We sat down and my (then) 7 month old started to babble, not very loudly at that. I caught sight of the two old women scowling in our direction, and they kept it up all the way through our meal everytime lo giggled or made the slightest sound, and he didn't even cry at all. Miserable sods.

and in contrast, a massive leatherclad biker type was coochy-coochy-cooing at my lo and making him laugh in asda the other day in the cheese aisle! lol It was lovely

[ReallyTired]

I think that the tea room has every right to ban under 8s. Not everyone likes children and lets face it, small children can be loud and irritating.

There are plenty of tea rooms that do welcome children. I would go somewhere that wants your business.

[Flibbertyjibbet]

I'm with misdee. Whereabouts is it, I might slope off there for a quiet cuppa and read of the paper sometime

[Flibbertyjibbet]

Hmm its nearly 200 miles away. Am tempted though... for a childfree coffee....

[MNersanonymous]

Are the shops nice Christie - it looks like they are - I might go anyway one day to lok at the shops, obviously walking past the tearoom and not going in....!

[hannahsaunt]

Our flashy new indoor miniature golf opened just in time for easter hols custom won't permit under 3s - I wasn't allowed to take my older two with 7mo ds3 in the sling in case he was hit by a ball .

[Kewcumber]

Obviously nothing whatever to do with Health and Safety its a way of saying "no small children running around". I wish places would be more honest about it - happy not to go to places that don;t want DS running around and leave them to people who want to have their tea in peace.

I don;t think people who are irritated by small children ruinning aorund shouting are child haters though some may be - they just don;t have small children and have no patience for them. I was the same before DS and will no doubt revert again at some point. Also like Misdee says - I love my children... not necessarily keen on others running around.

[alibubbles]

I have heard they don't want the place filling up with children on exeat visits from the two local boarding schools!

They are a bit snotty in there and it is full of old ladies!

I took my mother for lunch, it was average.

[binkleandflip]

I am a baby hater of the highest order when I'm not with my own or friends/rellies children.

[roisin]

I wish more places did this tbh. I enjoy family/baby-friendly venues when I'm out with my children; but if I'm child-free quite often I crave a child-free venue.

I'm not a child-hater, but I work with children all day every day, and then come home to my own, and sometimes its nice to have a break from them.

I quite like coffee shops and teashops, but I don't appreciate tripping over huge prams to negotiate my way to a table, to find myself sat on a table next to a spoilt, screaming brat; or a fractious baby.