To want a coffee shop with a no children policy

I have a child who makes involuntary loud noises and another who cannot - because that's his flavour of autistic- handle loud noises without shutting down. So yes please to a quiet cafe, with clear signposting so we all know where to go/avoid.

What I suggest is no more segregation than the quiet zone on a train or a reading room. These places do have to work on the general population have manners and sense though which is the only downfall.

I would actually love more quiet places to be available to all people who need them including children but by all means keep inventing strawmen to fight against. 50 different types of cafe sounds amazing - I’m imaging cat cafes, dog cafes, sky cafes, jazz cafes maybe even a purely classical music one (I’d love that) etc etc - all appealing to different kinds of people - just my luck they would probably all be in London though.

Ok how are you policing it? Are they gonna get security on the door of a cafe to turn away any business that rocks up with a toddler 😂

Are you kidding? I think you’ll find what you are describing here is segregation. Imagine having 50 different types of cafe because a percentage of the community are completely intolerant. How far do you go with it? …it’s ageist and the reason you feel comfortable trying to segregate this particular section of society is because they can’t advocate for themselves! Can you imagine being sick and tired of older people’s behaviour and banning pensioners or something. Insane.

At the end of the day, a lot less people are choosing to have kids now and with that comes a fair and expected demand for more child free spaces. If you've made the choice to have a kid, crack on with your family orientated places but don't be jealous and resentful of those who aren't in to kids and want more adult orientated spaces!

I'm a traveller and these days I do notice far more babies and toddlers on planes, noisy and screaming kids in museums etc that are not meant for kids. The entitlement has got a bit ridiculous and parents have a baby but want to carry on living the life of someone that's child free rather than reining things in for a few years until the kid is older and it's more appropriate. It's not a big ask for kids not to be shoehorned into every conceivable space and environment when they are at an age of screaming and being noisy.

There's one in my small town in Sussex. It was soon followed by a Cornish Bakery coffee shop, and a few months later, the nicest of the independent coffee shops, which was really lovely, closed down.

I boycott them both and use the remaining independents instead, even though they're less convenient. I don't like the way big chains are turning small towns which once had their own unique character into what a friend calls "identitowns".

Why must we always have this sort of extreme comment on these posts? Nobody is saying we should shut kids in the cupboard and never let them out anywhere, FFS.

Why is it so awful to just want a few quiet spaces? Why must we be guilt tripped over SEN children when there are SEN adults who struggle with noise, and also struggled with it when a child.

Why must we be treated like we want the world on a stick? If you'd like everyone that doesn't like noise to stay home instead, you do realise that's going to include a lot of SEND children, people with hearing issues, etc. But that's OK. We shouldn't have any space, because the loud people are more important.

Because if you are going for a coffee before work on your dinner hour you don't really want to be seen walking into a pub by anyone from work in case the wrong conclusions are drawn.

I love this!!!

More people than ever are child free, don't put too big a ticket in your own importance! Don't minimise those that don't have kids! I went to a cat cafe at the weekend that had an age limit, it does perfectly fine.

There used to be a cat cafe where I live. Went for my birthday once and it was the calmest hour of my life. Children were allowed but it was understood they wouldn't be allowed to remain if too noisy because the cats might freak.

Sadly, it closed down, but I enjoyed the reverent hush, and the cats were beautiful.

Going by the thread about children in nail salons/spas, plenty of parents relish opportunities for childfree time!

Parents always go the extreme! I was in a cat cafe at the weekend that had ab age limit, get a grip!

I was in a cat cafe at the weekend that had ab age limit. Lovely place.

The thing is, you do not need to be child free to go to a café without your children 😂. Parents can use these spaces.

You think in an era where more people are child free than ever that they go into places that are always full of kids.

Why can't some of you accept that many people are child free now and it's not a problem to see child free spaces being a thing! There's nothing wrong in it! Don't be jealous and spiteful about it!

I'm pretty sure it would be, plenty of people stay child free now, I went to a cat cafe at weekend that has an age restriction, lovely place.

That token comeback is over used now, parents say it every time someone dares to criticise screaming kids on aeroplanes! I don't push my face closely into someone else's face to listen chewing or look for an open mouth. Inventing fake problems doesn't alter the issue.

Nobody has suggested that children be banned from all coffee shops, so why would parents have to stay at home?

I don't have children. As far as I'm concerned children should be welcome in cafés. Often they actually make the atmosphere more interesting, I like seeing them. Yes, sometimes there's noise, but that's life. And anyway what's the alternative? Should parents just stay at home?

I've never understood why hospitality places want to be family friendly
The kids food and drink is cheaper, so less profit. They are more likely to spill things and leave sticky finger prints. They are also more likely to have a screaming fit, or run off. Surely selling expensive cocktails to grownups is far more profitable for less effort?

The irony is you are being intolerant here. There are disabled people who have noise sensitivities. And what would be wrong with having several different cafes that serve different customer needs? Quiet ones, noisy one, ones catered to parents, ones catered to students, ones catered to pensioners? If there is a market, I say why not. Surely that is tolerance?

Mum of 3 here .
I don’t have issues with children making some noise , chatting away , playing, a delighted squeal .
I do have issues with screaming though if parent or carer isn’t trying to stop the screaming , calm the child down , interact with the child .
And just to add , one of my children is learning disabled with autism so I’ve always needed to keep an eye on noise levels and behaviour

Until and unless you open your own coffee shop you don't really get to set the rules around children, dogs or anything to do with their clientele. And you can huff and puff about how they're losing your custom but the fact is that your custom isn't as important to them as the custom of people with kids, or people with dogs.

I'm not a fan of hearing screaming toddlers in cafes either, who is? It's not a problem I actually have in my life though - if a cafe is full of toddlers, or if I know it's often frequented by them, I simply don't go in. There are plenty of hipster-style cafes around me that I've never seen a buggy in that I can use instead.