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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To not let 10yo wear football kit to pub lunch?

115 replies

Haveyouanyjam · 19/04/2025 10:12

Not super fancy but nice pub for lunch with family, AIBU to tell him to take his football kit off and put something a bit smarter on?

Or is that just snobbery?

It’s an all black smart ish kit if that makes any difference…

OP posts:
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Catterpillarsflipflops · 20/04/2025 19:03

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 16:06

So football kits shouldn’t be seen in public?

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In football stadia and pubs on match days?

Bubblesgun · 19/04/2025 19:33

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:11

No leggings or hoodies to go to a pub? I don't think DDs owned much in the way of other clothes between the ages of 10 and 15. Some people really are so insecure about their status that they make their kids overdress instead of letting them feel clean and comfortable.

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🤣🤣🤣
i love how you jumped to conclusion. Insecure really?

Enrichetta · 19/04/2025 18:33

VeterinaryCareAssistant · 19/04/2025 16:38

Nobody cares what children wear when in public eateries. The public just want them to behave and be quiet.

Isn't that the truth... 😎

AmusedGoose · 19/04/2025 18:14

Will it affect DS behaviour? Just wondering if he will be more excitable. My daughter was a huge sporty spice fan and lived in tracksuits for a decade! It caused a few arguments and looking back I wished I'd let it go.

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 18:02

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 16:10

Btw we were seated next a family with boys about 9 or 10. Mother was in a lovely dress, boys like father in suits with button down shirts. It can be done.

They were quiet, with good table manners, too.

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In a pub?

My DT’s managed to be well behaved in a football kit and in smarter clothes. It’s not their clothing which determines their behaviour.

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 19/04/2025 17:54

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 16:10

Btw we were seated next a family with boys about 9 or 10. Mother was in a lovely dress, boys like father in suits with button down shirts. It can be done.

They were quiet, with good table manners, too.

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Children wearing football kit can be quiet and well mannered too. But I extremely doubt that the OP and her family were off to a formal London restaurant, so that’s all a bit irrelevant. You are just stirring stuff up, off topic so you can be unpleasant. As usual.

ShinyAppleDreamingOfTheSea · 19/04/2025 17:48

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 16:03

I don’t know about god, but the manager at Rules wasn’t about to admit chavs to his dining room. Thankfully.

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Picking up on your earlier comment about the customers wearing cheap caps, would one of the totally naff caps with Rules embroidered on the front have been acceptable, I wonder?

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 17:47

Comedycook · 19/04/2025 17:42

Circa 1990 we would go on holiday with our parents to a hotel...very nice place. Men had to wear ties for dinner...they even had a basket of ties at the entrance for those who had forgotten. Seems so dated now!

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Last year a friend in PR was having a business lunch with a famous F1 driver and invited me along. We arrived at the club restaurant where the meal was arranged to find the driver standing on the pavement.

He was wearing denim and the management declined to make an exception. We walked to a nearby pub instead.

I appreciate establishments that uphold their own standards.

Comedycook · 19/04/2025 17:42

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:12

I think people are replying who last ate out in 1990.

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Circa 1990 we would go on holiday with our parents to a hotel...very nice place. Men had to wear ties for dinner...they even had a basket of ties at the entrance for those who had forgotten. Seems so dated now!

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 17:16

ZenNudist · 19/04/2025 17:07

Depending on the pub really and the company:

Posh gastro pub with grandparents: nice clothes

Nearby not posh but reasonably nice with or without friends: they can wear what they like but I'd draw the line at full kit, but a club t under a tracksuit would be fine (we are in Manchester though)

Hungry horse or similar mersery farm chavtastic place- full kit or if under 5 a spiderman/hulk/Elsa costume

Posh and gastro pub are not parts of the same sentence. Pubs, of any type, are not posh.

ZenNudist · 19/04/2025 17:07

Depending on the pub really and the company:

Posh gastro pub with grandparents: nice clothes

Nearby not posh but reasonably nice with or without friends: they can wear what they like but I'd draw the line at full kit, but a club t under a tracksuit would be fine (we are in Manchester though)

Hungry horse or similar mersery farm chavtastic place- full kit or if under 5 a spiderman/hulk/Elsa costume

Poppins21 · 19/04/2025 17:02

Bubblesgun · 19/04/2025 10:18

Not snobbery no. I do excatly the same. I often say to my girls no leggings/tracksuits/hoodies. It s perfevtly reasonable they need to learn how to dress appropriately for an event/venue/ etc

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I agree ☝️

rainbowstardrops · 19/04/2025 17:00

For an adult, I’d say no but he’s a 10 year old lad going to a casual pub lunch!
I couldnt get worked up over a fairly young child feeling comfortable at a pub lunch to be honest.

MyNattyLion · 19/04/2025 16:48

JustFrustrated · 19/04/2025 16:30

I mean, that's hyperbolic isn't it? Jeans are often "smart casual".

If it's good enough for the royal family....

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Jeans can be smart casual but not smart. It’s only a pub, the poor lad should be allowed to wear his football top. Just because his Dad is wearing a shirt and jeans doesn’t make his outfit superior to a football top. Are the jeans washed out, stone wash, acid wash, ripped, frayed at the bottom, ill fitting or the same ones Prince William wears?

LlynTegid · 19/04/2025 16:45

Glad you had a positive response and I agree with you.

Original poster
Haveyouanyjam · 19/04/2025 16:41

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:14

Indeed. So insecure.

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If this is at me, I didn’t say I wanted him to change because I cared what the other diners in the pub thought, I was interested if I was being unreasonable. To me, a nice meal out is a treat and therefore wearing something slightly nicer than what we wear every day, it just makes it a little bit more special. I think it can also help DC switch into knowing they can’t just run around and play like they can at home, and I was just interested what others thought. My daughter has been asking to wear a relatively new dress all week but we have just been to the park, swimming etc, so I said she could wear it to lunch.

OP posts:
Parker231 · 19/04/2025 16:41

fluffiphlox · 19/04/2025 16:34

Football kit is for the sports field or the stadium. I think it’s quite unclassy as casual wear. Even worse for adults.

Unclassy? We’re talking about children wearing an outfit representing their favourite football club. Going to a pub is a casual event.

VeterinaryCareAssistant · 19/04/2025 16:38

Nobody cares what children wear when in public eateries. The public just want them to behave and be quiet.

fluffiphlox · 19/04/2025 16:34

Football kit is for the sports field or the stadium. I think it’s quite unclassy as casual wear. Even worse for adults.

Lovelynames123 · 19/04/2025 16:31

It depends how smart the pub is I think...we went out yesterday, my dn had a football strip on, that's pretty much all he wears. Clean on,black and pink. My dds had leggings and hoodies on. Pretty sure even my dsis had leggings on actually and I was wearing jeans and a hoodie. I think we were all dressed appropriately for walking to a local pub at lunchtime on a chilly day.

For an evening meal we'd probably all dress less casually, but I think since covid people dress more casually and for comfort, I usually wear trainers even for a night out!

JustFrustrated · 19/04/2025 16:30

MyNattyLion · 19/04/2025 13:13

Jeans are never smart!

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I mean, that's hyperbolic isn't it? Jeans are often "smart casual".

If it's good enough for the royal family....

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 16:20

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:18

Personally I'd prefer Rules focus on brushing up their standards in cooking rather than patron's dress as it had really taken a nose dive last time I went.

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The food in Rules is often no better than a high street pub chain.

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:18

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 16:03

I don’t know about god, but the manager at Rules wasn’t about to admit chavs to his dining room. Thankfully.

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Personally I'd prefer Rules focus on brushing up their standards in cooking rather than patron's dress as it had really taken a nose dive last time I went.

Topseyt123 · 19/04/2025 16:17

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 14:35

Dresses in a pub????

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I agree. In fact, I am not sure I ever bought dresses for any of my three DDs. 🤣 So perhaps I shouldn't have taken them out to pubs or restaurants at all.

All three are now in their twenties and buy their own clothes, many casual and some not so. No issues there at all.

SharpOpalNewt · 19/04/2025 16:14

Comedycook · 19/04/2025 16:06

It's rather petit bourgeois to care so much about what other patrons in a pub at lunchtime think of what your child is wearing .

Indeed. So insecure.