No children in pub after 5pm

I don't expect peace and quiet in a pub..I do expect to hear the person I'm sat with to have a conversation with (unless there's a live band on or something obviously)..

Why do you feel the need to take your dog to a pub?

I wish our local would ban kids under 12 years after 7pm! They don’t serve food, adults are drinking to excess and the kids are feral. A lot of the locals drink elsewhere now, and it doesn’t have a good reputation. Strange business decision to continue running a pub (crèche)

That was to user12364

If you want peace and quiet, not sure the pub's your place, although I do love a pub with no screens, fruit machines etc

And loads of people avoid him. You just don’t notice them.

It comes down to noise for me but I do have misophonia. I like dogs but can't stand barking and when you get multiple dogs in who just bark their heads off at each other, i just want to leave the place because it goes right through me. A dog on their own tend to be lovely and quiet though, but I can't stand the barking.

Same with kids, if they're sat quietly then fantastic. Screeching, yelling and running around the place I can't be doing with.

It's hard enough to get peace and quiet these days (even just for a normal chat with a friend) between idiots on speaker phones, loud music blaring, TVs on loud. Everything is noise noise noise.

I wonder if part of this is simply that children are allowed to make more noises in pubs nowadays? Of course unruly children have always existed, but in (for example) 2010, no one would actually have brought a portable TV to a pub, plugged it in, and insisted that their child be allowed to watch it at full volume. Nowadays allow kids to watch/play on tablets in public without even wearing headphones because "it's the only thing that'll keep them in their seats". When you have continual beeping sounds from games competing with Peppa Pig, it all gets a bit noisy! Must be quite off-putting for childfree customers.

Kids have so many more spaces than they did before, ball parks, soft play, trampolines, nerf etc

They have their own cinema screenings, sports sessions -

Kids don’t need to be in the pub.

It really isn't. The kids will probably be knackered.

Unless of course, 'Southern European' children have some special gene which not only means they are impeccably behaved at all times, but that they can stay up until midnight bouncing with positive energy? And not being at all annoying to anyone else?

I wish our local did this. Myself and a group of friends got ‘told off’ by a pub landlord as someone complained we were swearing near their children at 10pm. Sorry but don’t bring your kids to a pub in the evening if you don’t want to hear the odd swear word 😆

It's not a great way to parent

And usually they are making a false comparison.

If you came to Britain and only ate in Nando's or Carluccio's, you'd probably think Britain was incredibly 'family friendly' too. So while children may be welcome in chain or family run restaurants in 'Southern Europe' I'm not sure a posh restaurant in Milan or Madrid would welcome your kids playing 'Baby Sharks' on a loop on their tablet while others want to enjoy their expensive dinner.

And while pubs aren't really a thing in 'Southern Europe', there are plenty of adult only bars where children will be no more welcome than they would in Britain. It's really just a cliche that everyone 'on the continent' loves having other people's bratty, sorry impeccably behaved, children running around in all circumstances.

Good we've turned round and walked put of pubs that have kids in.

It might depend on their licence, there are certain conditions placed on them, as one of the key licensing requirements is 'the protection of children from harm'
(For example, mine states no children after 7pm.)
Might be worth checking it, as this will be displayed on the premises as a requirement.
Or it could just be a business model they prefer too!

We visited Edinburgh a few years back for a short mini break with our kids - they were 13years old atm. Big difference between Edinburgh and the South East - you’d think 13 year olds would be fine - we sat there in an restaurant, eating and drinking but at 9:00pm we had to leave - licence requirements. And that was one of the places with quite a liberal licence - maybe it’s changed now, but back then had we known when we booked we’d have visited somewhere else.

This can't be officially approved because Wetherspoons won't even let dogs in their beer gardens - there is a big feature about this in the current edition of 'Wetherspoons News'.

https://www.jdwetherspoon.com/contact/faqs/pubs

I agree, this is also a popular opinion with me.

Having had kids myself i can fully understand the issue of finding babysitters and wanting to go out (so having to take the kids with you). Trouble is i dont want your kids either, especially as i'm not even being paid to have them running around my table.

"If by Southern Europe you also encompass France, they have tabacs/bars, truck stops, which are mostly for men/women and definitely not children."

France is obviously not in southern Europe.
I accept that the places you mention are mainly not for children, but do they actually ban children? That's a different matter.

I'm on the continent and we have cafes where alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks are served. Children can be found in them quite often during the day. Obviously, they're not in city centre bars because those are night time places, mainly for youngsters. Also, events for children quite often have a bar for the adults.

Our local pub tried enticing parents with children to eat after lockdown. It all fell flat when the regulars changed their regular eating/drinking hole to a venue who who didn’t allow noisy, screaming, children with ineffectual parents on the premises.

Thank God I no longer have to suffer eating in a zoo at my local, where I don’t need to drive to, is all I can say.

Pubs are not the places for children. Find a suitable child free venue for your kids OP (there are plenty of places where children are allowed to run feral) and leave the pubs a place where adults can be child free. There is nothing more frustrating than anticipating a child free evening, having paid a babysitter to look after your kids, to have to put up with other peoples kids screaming, shouting, running around - and standing at your table, picking their nose 🤢 - when you are eating.

Try soft play. No child needs a bar and no bar needs a child

My Mum and Dad went to the pub most saturday evenings in the village where we grew up, and we had to sit in the car or we could sit in the garden area if it was warm enough! Dad would regularly bring us out a small bottle of lemonade and bag of crisps or some foam shrimps.

Nowadays, few people actually parent their children and being around them is no pleasure for anyone except the indulgent parent.

Personally I wish all pubs did this and adults could have some child free space.

A friend owns a pub and they have a simple system to get around the parents who let their DC misbehave, the DP's are asked nicely to make them stop, if they don't then they don't get served again. It means the customers who parent their DC don't get penalized. They also serve minimal food so large family parties don't tend to go there