To think hotels are very child unfriendly

To your face. The intolerance behind the scenes is intense

I found it perfectly family friendly over the years. We took Dd to a wide range of hotels, restaurants, museums, theatres, theme parks, various days out, etc and never had any issues.

Totally.

Yeah but adults are allowed to be a pita. The constant goady fuckers on mumsnet literally hate children.

I don't hate children. I do hate poor parenting. It is unfair on people around you at the time. It is unfair on their future teachers, and volunteer coaches or group Leaders, and, ultimately, it is unfair on the kids themselves. Does them no favours to let them grow up not understanding that their behaviour impacts on others.

Theirs of course were apparently at 3 sitting nicely for hours on end, were never up with the lark and bouncing off the walls while they willed the clock on. Yeah right.

No, 2 of mine were later diagnosed with ADHD. They certainly weren't (and still can't as adults) "sit nicely for hours on end" , so we worked with that and never expected them to. However, during the times they were expected to sit nicely, then they grasped the concept that it wasn't playground time.

Did it take hard work ? Yes

Was it a barrel of laughs ? No.

Did we make our lives a lot easier by staying in self catering places where we weren't disturbing others ? Yes
If they needed to run off some steam, did we let them do it in a hotel lobby ? No
Did we take them out to somewhere appropriate to run about ? Yes

Oh wow, if it wasn't for the spa nakedness maybe I should move to Germany.
The phone playing at loud volumes on public transport seems to have extended itself to France and Jersey from a recent stay. I hate it so much - more so than DCs playing in a lobby - as it's just selfish behaviour easily remedied by cheap, widely available headphones.

Well it's like being dog friendly is it. Fine to welcome the smelly mutts, but nobody wants them pooing in the reception.
This!

Welcoming dogs is not a free pass to let a dog off lead everywhere, poo in reception and bark at 7am because foofoo-paw-pants is so excitable and can't help it.

Same with children. A child-friendly venue welcomes children. It's not a free pass for lazy/inconsiderate parents to let them run around everywhere, make huge amount of noise, demand access to everywhere and then sulk when people object to the poor parenting.

Currently staying in a large 600 bed hotel in Germany. There are many children, and babies in arms, some dogs and lots of singles and couples all ages. Not any special "child friendly " stuff. No high chairs, playground, etc. They seem to manage just fine.

And it is quiet, people checking in, no running around, all chatting quietly at breakfast etc. It is simply as expected.

We were on the underground tram yesterday and a young man started his music playing ... 3 people nearby immediately, quietly asked him to respect others. He turned it off. Certain levels of respect seem expected. I love it.

Ha yes. If I see ‘dog-friendly’ on a website, the hotel gets crossed off my list.

I genuinely haven’t been woken by drunk adults. And I stay everywhere from posh to premier inns! Maybe I have been lucky. Have not been woken by screeching kids either though.

Nope, that is simply coincidence. It’s that everyone in the U.K. hates children, and everyone in Europe (which is one big lump of a country that is all identical and not a good number of countries with various cultures) loves children.

Precisely !!

I take care to avoid hotels that welcome mutts & brats.

Well it's like being dog friendly is it. Fine to welcome the smelly mutts, but nobody wants them pooing in the reception.

It's a good point. "Child friendly" actually means the venue make facilities like toddler food, cots / highchairs, etc, available; not that they welcome you using the venue itself as your own personal play park.

Even child friendly places don't have to like our of control kids. Sometimes it's not appropriate for kids to run around, smallish places where other people are walking through is a good example of this. Kids should be able to be quiet for an hour or two, if yours can't, plan how not to disturb others.

I’ve no idea. Maybe the single parents of toddlers have some suggestions?

@EssexMan55

most are not so entitled.
most ensure their children are not so entitled too.

that’s what happens in most EU countries.

so with you huge EU knowledge I guess you see that

ps it’s true but we already know people in the UK are so arrogant they think there is nothing to learn from EU hence the stupidity of Brexit

Oh, and to respond to ideas raised recently on another thread, no, we don’t hit our children to get them to behave. Never have and never will. At the table we talk to each other (with children involved in the conversation), draw/colour, read, do puzzles etc.

Could be coincidental, but my husband is French and as a family we just don’t hold with any of the bullshit described. Sitting at the table and joining in the conversation is normal. We don’t allow phones at the table for anyone (including us, the adults, so as to set a good example). Running around is NEVER acceptable. Mealtimes are rigidly set with limited snacking opportunities. My (French) MIL is ruthless. Our eldest is nearly 5 and from day dot if he has asked for a snack at an inappropriate moment he just gets told straight up “no, it’s not time”. Funnily enough he is hungry come mealtime and sits nicely at the table. It’s not rocket science 🤷‍♀️

I’m afraid the latter CAN be true. My son was certainly capable of sitting nicely at the table for a good hour at that age. And up with the lark? Maybe I am lucky with my children but anything before 6am gets treated as a night waking.

No, you don’t do this either! Just take them to breakfast directly!! It IS on at 7am so why not just throw some clothes on and go down?

Yep I agree, she’s got an issue of hotel selection. I don’t think I’ve ever been woken up by a drunk person at a hotel, and we stay in hotels several times every year. We stay in nice hotels that are not geared to attract the drunk partying type, though, and have never been to an AI. I imagine that in the sort of place where the alcohol is flowing all day, you’d probably get some drunk people stumbling back to their rooms.

I have been woken up in a hotel by loud children on more than one occasion. I say this as someone with 3 young kids who is careful to make sure we are all very quiet if we come in late and quiet again when we wake up in the morning. Being woken up at 5am by someone else’s kids whilst on holiday is the absolute worst.

I stay in 4-5 star hotels only. No stags, hens, drunks and few kids. No AI resorts; i wouldn't stay at one of those if they paid me.

Sorry some of you can't fathom this but we all aren't wallowing around with the dregs, dodging drunks & boors.

When I was a child we were treated normally - eg strict manners etc but we were also allowed to join in the conversation at the dinner table. Not to take it over though.

We didn’t need crayons, toys, iPads etc to entertain ourselves, we might occasionally have brought a favourite toy like a teddy or doll along but that was it. We were expected to join in conversation. It helped as in one restaurant where they did have crayons and paper to draw things with and also signed photos of movie stars which impressed us.

As very few pubs allowed children (mostly in pub gardens sometimes or the games room) then though we did go to pubs we knew we had to behave, even in one that had a climbing frame in the pub garden.

It was a huge treat for us to go cafes, restaurants etc though it wasn’t a rarity. If we misbehaved at the table there we would be given a warning and as in one case my DM brought me to the toilets gave me a telling off but also checked if I was ok eg not feeling sick. We stayed out to eg 9-10pm but from 9 years old onwards.

this is 1970s onwards.

It's not hard to avoid noisy drunk adults if you stick to hotels that don't allow bookings from stag/hen parties, which are a recipe for a horrible stay.

Did anyone say that there aren’t drunk adults but there are noisy children?

I’ve stayed in plenty of hotels which have neither.