Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
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:
novalia89 · 19/04/2025 15:03

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

Show quote history

Yes, people have forgotten how to dress up these days. I don't mean something really fancy, just not casual wear. I'm surprised that my friend finds no issue in going to a restaurant in leggings and a hoodie. I once wore running clothes after a run and it felt very wrong and disrespectful. To the owners and also to the other people who may only be able to afford a meal out occasionally and I look dishevelled.

TheHerboriste · 19/04/2025 14:59

Blankscreen · 19/04/2025 10:18

I agree with you.

To my kind it just looks chavvy wearing a football kit out and about.

Agree. Don’t let him fall into sloppy habits.

Parker231 · 19/04/2025 14:35

Haveyouanyjam · 19/04/2025 10:31

Dad will be in button down shirt and smart jeans. Girls will be in dresses.

He fairly easily agreed to put on a polo shirt and jeans of his choosing.

Show quote history

Dresses in a pub????

Romeiswheretheheartis · 19/04/2025 14:13

Topseyt123 · 19/04/2025 13:59

For a pub lunch? This wouldn't be an issue for me. He could wear his football kit provided that it was clean and not inches thick in caked on mud from the football pitch.

I might ask him to change later for the Italian meal with auntie and uncle if appropriate.

I agree. In fact I'd have marked the distinction between a pub lunch and being taken out to an Italian restaurant by specifically telling him to wear more casual clothes eg the football kit for the pub lunch, and then to get changed into something smarter for the evening meal. He could spill sauce or something on his 'smart' clothes at lunchtime then have to get changed again anyway.

Topseyt123 · 19/04/2025 14:09

BlondiePortz · 19/04/2025 11:03

Maybe not to a funeral or christening but although I personally think it should stay at the football I am not the person wearing it and don't see it as extension of me so why would I need to have that much control

I have been to a funeral where the family and friends of the deceased wore the football strip of his favourite football team. 😃 So it can be acceptable if specified. 😃

Those of us unable to do that were to come casually dressed, with jeans and t-shirts also perfectly acceptable.

Catterpillarsflipflops · 19/04/2025 14:04

Teaching children to dress for sn occasion is a good skill. I see so many adults who look really scruffy in restaurants.

Football kits are for playing or watching sports or being in the garden. I might be snob but I think they look very chavvy when worn to go out in.

Bedknobsandhoovers · 19/04/2025 14:00

Our child no.1 would wear football kit everywhere. Or a football and a short skirt. All sorts really in every colour - matching or not.

But she was happy. Now at just off 40 she jokes, when looking at old photos -"Why did you let me go out like that?!"

There are more important things in life, better battles to fight.

She said last week that she'd had a happy and relaxed childhood.

What more do you want.

Topseyt123 · 19/04/2025 13:59

For a pub lunch? This wouldn't be an issue for me. He could wear his football kit provided that it was clean and not inches thick in caked on mud from the football pitch.

I might ask him to change later for the Italian meal with auntie and uncle if appropriate.

ItGhoul · 19/04/2025 13:48

I’d let him wear a replica club shirt with jeans and smart trainers. Not a full kit, and not the team shirt he actually plays in.

blackbird77 · 19/04/2025 13:26

Strongly agree with you OP

EmmaEmEmz · 19/04/2025 13:20

Not something that I would worry about. I'm going for lunch in the pub today and have a football shirt on!

noctilucentcloud · 19/04/2025 13:19

NeverDropYourMooncup · 19/04/2025 10:30

What's the pub's policy on football shirts? A significant number ban them - and will not differentiate between an adult and a child in refusing entry.

Might be an easier way to get the desired outcome.

This was my thought too, pubs are often no football colours. I thought this was what the thread was going to be about!

MyNattyLion · 19/04/2025 13:13

Haveyouanyjam · 19/04/2025 10:31

Dad will be in button down shirt and smart jeans. Girls will be in dresses.

He fairly easily agreed to put on a polo shirt and jeans of his choosing.

Show quote history

Jeans are never smart!

Needmorelego · 19/04/2025 12:19

Here we go with that awful C word again.
Horrible word.

HonoriaBulstrode · 19/04/2025 12:17

Is it a normal sort of pub with no dress code?

It's not just about the pub, imo. It's a compliment to the people you'll be with to wear something a bit smarter. It shows you think they're worth making a bit of an effort for.

zeibesaffron · 19/04/2025 12:14

I am in the minority I think but for me there are bigger hills to die on! Clean, fresh football top is fine for a casual pub lunch.

Lorlorlorikeet · 19/04/2025 12:12

Yikes, no. I’d not let my child go out to lunch in a football kit. Clean or otherwise.

Singaporeannoodle · 19/04/2025 12:11

User79853257976 · 19/04/2025 12:09

To your kind? Wow 😂.

Show quote history

I assumed she meant mind lol. But how is a football kit chavvy?
When everyone else is dressing their kids in tracksuits which actually does look chavvy.

User79853257976 · 19/04/2025 12:09

Blankscreen · 19/04/2025 10:18

I agree with you.

To my kind it just looks chavvy wearing a football kit out and about.

To your kind? Wow 😂.

IAmNeverThePerson · 19/04/2025 12:05

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 19/04/2025 11:19

Even a casual pub lunch?

Show quote history

Yes DS1 is autistic and the rules have to be the rules otherwise that way madness lies.

Crazybaby123 · 19/04/2025 11:40

Depends in the pub and the occassion and the lunch type.
If it was just us four, casual sunday and popping out for lunch after a walk then it would be fine if it was clean on.
If it was a birthday or something a bit more sit down for an occassion and it had proper pub dining then we would go more formal.

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 19/04/2025 11:19

IAmNeverThePerson · 19/04/2025 10:39

Trousers/jeans/smart shorts and clean t-shirt/shirt are the non negotiables for meals out here.

Even a casual pub lunch?

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 19/04/2025 11:18

For a pub lunch?
No problem.

My 10 year old lives in a football kit unless we're going somewhere that would require something smarter.

A pub lunch around here would be pretty casual.

Singaporeannoodle · 19/04/2025 11:06

Blankscreen · 19/04/2025 10:18

I agree with you.

To my kind it just looks chavvy wearing a football kit out and about.

No it doesn't. Loads of boys that age love football live and let live you're only young once and it isn't a big deal.

What does look chavvy is tracksuits but that doesn't seem to stop almost everyone dressing their children in them

BlondiePortz · 19/04/2025 11:03

Maybe not to a funeral or christening but although I personally think it should stay at the football I am not the person wearing it and don't see it as extension of me so why would I need to have that much control