Cafes are no longer pleasant experiences

It’s not about hating everyone. I too dislike going for lunch or a coffee and lazy parents are allowing their children to scream and run around. As my mum used to say ‘there is a time and a place’’. Fortunately it seems to happen less recently.

100 agree

How miserable you must be if you wish for kids to injure themselves! So hateful!

Ps my DC grew up, never had any injuries, behaved like typical toddlers when they were small. Get a grip on the reality

Don’t agree at all. I stopped going out for exactly the same reason.

People have completely lost the ability to behave appropriately in public. There seems to be this ridiculous attitude that “I do whatever I want, and it’s none of your business,” as if being in a shared social space means everyone else has to put up with your lack of manners.

People watching TikTok videos at full volume, kids running around screaming and practically destroying the place while their parents sit on their phones, people having zero awareness of how disruptive they are — it’s honestly exhausting. And don’t even get me started on the prices you’re expected to pay while dealing with all of this.

We need to stop normalising this behaviour and stop pretending that anyone who finds it annoying is just “too judgmental.” There’s a difference between being judgmental and expecting basic consideration for other people.
If your idea of enjoying yourself is making everyone around you miserable, maybe stay home.
I’d genuinely rather stay home than become one of those people.

Good luck with suing the cafe when your little angel who is running round the cafe injuries themselves.
Get practicing on your compo face for the local paper

Nobody " hates everybody" The whole experience has changed, society has changed.

You need to go to nicer cafes. I don’t recognise any of that at all and I frequent a couple of cafes a week! Apart from the dogs but dogs don’t bother me.

Well good luck with it!!! Keep quietly sitting in a cafe and hating everyone around you. You'll never realise the problem is you, not them

What a whole lot of dramatic BS! There are plenty of elderly people on the streets, in parks, etc.

I bet you never even saw a single accident with a toddler in a cafe in your life - why are you posting this BS?

💯
The entitlement of some parents
I want to enjoy my coffee
Not hear ear splitting screams and a passive parent

Can't stand the bloke in charge but Spoons is a revellation. The small breakfast and coffee was about £4.00 I think?

Oh! That is pretty outrageous! Cost of living/running a business or not, that's just mean.

And if your toddler trips up an elderly person they could end up in hospital and come out in a coffin. Elderly people are very vulnerable to falls so tell your kids to sit down and make sure they do.

Tiny soup portions aren't new. Years ago I went to a cafe in for lunch and ordered soup. When it came I only had half a bowl. I asked them where the rest of it was. They reluctantly gave me more but didn't charge me any extra.

Regarding coffee shop chains, the Costa closest to us is lovely. Really friendly staff, tables always cleared away and cleaned very quickly. My eldest and
I used to go in occasionally when he was having a wobbly about going to school (he has ASD) and it was always very calm and pleasant. We still go there now that he’s at college as he likes the fact that their toasties are exactly the same every visit😆 I think the atmosphere in chain coffee shops can definitely vary from branch to branch.

I couldn’t care less if people are tapping on laptops (can’t say I’ve ever noticed any noise) or if they’re scrolling on their phones. I don’t even care if entire families are ignoring each other. Doesn’t affect me. I don’t like dogs in food places but every cafe in my local area permits them (including the Costa we go to near DS1’s old school), so I have no choice but to suck it up. So far I have only seen a dog once in a blue moon. If the cafes started to become overrun with them, I just wouldn’t go in.

i have been on MN for yonks. And this, this is simply the BEST post there has ever been.

(and because this is the internet, the next two words i write make that statement true and unchallangeable)

End. Of. 😂

The business must be ok with it.
I simply just don't go there. You don't have to.

This is called "your own living room". You can have a nice cup of tea there without being bothered by the rest of humanity.

I thought people who went to cafes did so because they liked being around the hustle and bustle of other humans? It's not mandatory. It's never been my thing (I like peace and quiet) so... I just don't go to cafes.

I agree, OP. I treat myself to a quiet breakfast in the city one day a week on my office day, first time I get to sit down and eat a hot meal since being run off my feet parenting all weekend, and it’s just ruined. Even early morning, all types in the cafe and can’t enjoy it. I’m opting to grab a quick bite and coffee at my desk instead.

For me my biggest cafe gripe is loud talkers and people who laugh every second sentence or so. Maybe the person they are speaking to is hilarious. The sounds always carry across the cafe floor and it’s grating.

It is annoying but the costs are so high now for businesses that they have to try and cut corners. Cafe owners are not millionaire's.
The government is grinding businesses into the ground unfortunately.

I went in a Costa (always shit I know but my Dd wanted to go) the other day. Four individual people with laptops taking up four person tables each! It’s not a fucking office. If you want to work there fine but at least use the smaller tables if you are on your own. The independents near me are no better because they are full of 20 year olds filming themselves.