Coffee shops on a Sunday morning and children

[Needmorecaffine]

This will kick off no doubt but hey. Slightly tongue in cheek.

Coffee shops on a Sunday morning should be a haven for adults who seek to get away in piece and quiet from every day life for an hour. That means getting away from your own children , DH etc

So been here 5 mins , had to queue behind a mother with her toddler using the display of pastries like choosing sweets in a sweet shop ! Just pick up a croissant get your latte soya single shot and move along !

Then we have the child , mother and grandmother. The GM doing the exaggerated parenting in this case with the GC much to the horror of her own DD. Thankfully they've gone.

Piece and quiet now reins ....

There used to be a cafe about 15 years ago that I used to love going to. Kids were banned, it had big comfy armchairs, and delicious home made cakes. It felt so relaxing.
Now anywhere that does not actively welcome kids tends to get slated online.

🤦‍♀️ presses post too soon.

In the coffee shops near me no ones DC run around the place, some parents do struggle to get their rouge toddlers to sit down but they manage it. There is one place that most parents locally tend to avoid because it’s a bar too.

Dogs, I just can't stand them, and more and more places let them in now. Take it to a park where it can sniff its arsehole without impinging on my latte time fgs

Are dogs really any less hygienic than small children who stick their fingers up their nose/down their nappies and who vomit and poop everywhere?

I'd rather go to a cafe that has a dog sitting nicely under a table then into a cafe with a weaning baby!

How come? Are the noises they make quieter than older children?

Generally, yes, lower volume and less frequent. They mostly sleep.

Do their nappies not stink when they are filled

I’ll take newborn over toddler nappy any day. Much less unpleasant.

YANBU. You might not be able to expect a public space to be child free but you can certainly hope for it, and be disappointed when it's not.

p.s. if passive aggressiveness were banned, then this thread would only have about 3 posts in it.

I don't think anyone is saying don't have places for families and children - but it would also be nice to have places just for adults that aren't pubs/clubs.

Adult only and dog friendly would be my particular preference, but I'd happily leave the hounds at home for a peaceful, quiet, no children allowed coffee. And yes, I can drink coffee at home. So can parents. That's not an argument.

This is not AIBU!

@adaline just saying what I prefer. I don't like dogs and I don't like seeing animals in places that sell food or any shop really. At least children are people!

Those cat cafés that appeared everywhere a couple of years ago are like my idea of hell! I couldn't imagine anything worse.

Anyway the one adults only no dogs café we do have gets plenty of business so hopefully we'll get to keep it as it is.

I've taken my children to restaurants, cafes etc since they were 2weeks old. They very quickly learnt what was and was not allowed. I have never had shouty screams running around children in cafes and restaurants. On the one or two occasions I've had a child cry, ive simply taken them outside, there is absolutely no was I think it's fair to subject other customers to unrulyor noisy children whilst they eat. It's also not fair to allow your child to get worked up because you went to sit and have another sip of latte.
Recently I've been really shocked at the behaviour of a couple of children in some lovely nearby cafes as they run around creating havoc and the parents ignore them. My 2.5 year old is clearly confused by this and whether she is supposed to stay at the table of join in the "game". These parents are the ones with the issue as far as I'm concerned it's not the childrens fault

I think it depends where the cafe is situated with regards to dogs. On the edge of a popular park where dogs go then that should be dog friendly and customers should realise dogs will be there. In the middle of a town centre then I totally understand why dogs may not be allowed to go there

In the 90s parents and children did not frequent coffee shops in the same way they do now. We never thought to meet outside of our own homes and our get togethers were always there. Children could run around and play in their bedrooms and gardens whilst we chatted. Now huge parts of coffee shops are sometimes taken over by large groups who are often pretty noisy. It seems a pretty boring place for children to meet their friends.

It depends really the stage of life you are at. Some of those being so outraged at the thought of child free coffee shops think that view will never change. But just you wait until you are finally child free, amazingly you might just start to feel differently!

Actually there were coffee shops when growing up in 80/90,s.

In fact, whilst friend and I sat in Costa this morning I was discussing how I remember growing up and all my aunts, mums etc sitting at one table chatting and all us kids at a long label with a drink and colouring, travel games etc. And that we were not allowed to interrupt the adults expect for life or death reasons!

I do just think behaviour expectations were different back then. My parents sacrificed a lot for me and my siblings to do our hobbies. But we were expected to respect they had their own lives as well.

The trick is to get there when they've just opened. Families don't normally rock up until 10 onwards. You'll still get the odd dog walker though.

It does sound at the very least that there are some childfree cafes around and maybe there is a market for an app to locate the nearest one so people who prefer them can find where they are.

Well live and let live OP
Just tune them out.

Actually there were coffee shops when growing up in 80/90

No-one's sad that they didn't exist at all in the late 80s. But coffee places as we know them now, were few and far between. There certainly wasn't one within ten miles of me. Little cafes/tea shops, yes, but not relaxing places where people could chill out, and no chains that I can recall.

I'm going to guess that they were around in about 1% of today's numbers.

I just checked. Starbucks didn't arrive here until 1998. Costa became a chain in 1995

Go to the pub if you expect somewhere to be child free. Coffee shops are often a haven for Mum’s like me who require lots of caffeine .

YA(a bit)BU but I get where you are coming from. I have a 1 and a 2.5 year old and I just don’t take them to coffee shops because it is a nightmare for everyone involved. 2.5 year old would want to run all over the place and 1 year old would scream his head off at having to sit still for longer than 5 seconds. So when I get the chance to go to a coffee shop alone it is a real treat and to hear other people’s kid’s being loud and annoying is not what I want to hear.

In my view it’s literally about socialising your children. I am happy to share a public place with small children if they are well-behaved
This

Pubs are not child free, or certainly none where I live are.
The only places that are child free are night clubs, and from queues up outside they seem to be mainly late teens and young twenty year olds who go there.

In the 80's you had tea shops. Coffee was nearly always instant, and it was rare to see kids in them.

I agree that a coffee shop looks boring places for kids to be for more than about 20 minutes.

We tend to go at about 3pm on a Sunday, I guess this is acceptable.

They also seem to come in gangs - these mothers who sit with their one drink then proceed to unpack half of Ocado out of their bags for the kids . They are like an island surrounded by all the buggies and high chairs . Oh it's great catch up and sod everyone else in the cafe or pub - let the kids wail . John Lewis/ Waitrose cafe a fave of this lot . Grab loads of seats from other tables to make a giant circle of noise . You know who you are :-P

It's perfectly reasonable to expect a fine dining restaurant that serves alcohol to be childfree on a Saturday night. I agree but it's the restaurants choice. If they allow it, it's reasonable for people to think it's acceptable. How noisy s the actual baby?

Bloody kids, don't they know they should only be seen if completely unavoidable and definitely not heard.

And on a SUNDAY MORNING as well. The absolute horror.
Whatever happened to respect for elders?!
I blame Brexit.