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 ....

It’s actually the reason the local gorgeous cafe is so popular with adults. No kids

You just said above you have seen kids in there. So, its not "banning" them is it? lol

ironically the dog friendly cafe owners will ask owners to remove a badly behaved dog,

Our local coffee shop has a well-advertised "three barks and you're out" policy when it comes to dogs. Would be LOVELY if they implemented a "three shrieks and you're out" policy for toddlers or "three occurrences of uttering sorry as you try to manoeuvre some ridiculously sized buggy between the tables and you're out" policy for the parents.

It's not really families/ children that are the problem, but the families that don't consider their surroundings.

Exactly, but sadly, far too many parents are so besotted with their little poppers to imagine they are disturbing other people, so on that basis is unreasonable to expect a nice environment as it only takes a single over permissive /over indulging parent to ruin the outing for every other client at the place.

You just said above you have seen kids in there. So, its not "banning" them is it? lol

Did I say they were banned? No! I said it was not child friendly so lol, yourself.

I still haven't mastered the manoeuvring of said pushchair grin so yabu

So because you are incapable of a simple thing like manoeuvring a pushchair without hitting chairs everyone else is 'unreasonable'? Suggest a look in the mirror would show who is unreasonable, you'll see the epitome of selfishness. Well done.

Theres nothing wrong with it, but its not going to happen

Why on earth not? Lots of people want to go out and have coffee/cake/lunch in a nice quiet establishment without small children running about, and they don't want to have to go to the pub to do so.

Establishments shouldn't have to be alcohol-orientated (eg bars, clubs, pubs) in order to exclude children. Plenty around here aren't specifically child-free but do make it difficult to bring children in - eg. no children's menus, no high chairs, no room for pushchairs etc.

Not everyone has children or wants to be around them all the time. But saying that appears to be massively controversial for some reason!

Did I say they were banned? No! I said it was not child friendly so lol, yourself

Exactly- which means they still welcome kids. So my point stands- a coffee shop that bans kids would be a poor financial business decision

TheMotherOfAllDilemmas Can't come soon enough.

MimiLaRue Many older people are single/live alone. Going to a coffee shop is their only means of social activity. I see the same people in one near me when I go there. Sometimes there is the odd mum with a buggy in there too but not a whole gang of them.

Not everyone has a house big enough to host the size of the groups that meet. Not sure my friend's mid-terrace two-bedroom house would fit 5-6 mums, their children and all their stuff.
How do you think us Mums managed in the 1980s and 1990s then? There weren't coffee shops like there are now. We managed in our small houses just fine. So do my DD and her friends, not all of whom have large houses at all.

Yabu

It's a public space...expect there to be members of the public there of varying ages and degrees of annoyingness. C'est la vie!

Why on earth not? Lots of people want to go out and have coffee/cake/lunch in a nice quiet establishment without small children running about, and they don't want to have to go to the pub to do so

So where are they then? if this idea is so lucrative and a goldmine waiting to happen, why aren't they everywhere? why has noone cottoned on to this brilliant business idea??

When you have a business you want as many customers as possible- cutting your customer base in half makes zero financial sense

In my experience, families with small children don't tend to spend a huge amount. Parents might order coffee/cake/lunch but the children often share food between them, or the parents will bring out snacks for the kids, so the coffee shop is actually losing custom by allowing them in.

They take up a table of four, but don't spend as much as four adults would in the same situation.

Going to a coffee shop is their only means of social activity

Oh I totally agree- which is why i said limiting your customer base to a narrow population is a poor business decision

How do you think us Mums managed in the 1980s and 1990s then? There weren't coffee shops like there are now

I have no idea where you lived but I'm 54 and was taken to cafes in places like garden centres where my Mum met my friend. I had my own children in the 1990s and would go to coffee shops to meet people.

Mum met my friend.

^ Mum met her friends! (and their children)

So where are they then? if this idea is so lucrative and a goldmine waiting to happen, why aren't they everywhere? why has noone cottoned on to this brilliant business idea??

Plenty of places ARE like that, though. They just don't necessarily advertise it. Or they purposefully make it difficult for families with small children to go there.

We have a cafe near us that only allows children over 10 years old. At night it's a bar, but during the day it serves coffee, tea, sandwiches and cakes. It's hugely popular and does a roaring trade. There's a roaring fire, books to read, board-games - it's fantastic and excellent value for money.

You wouldn't know it was child-free if you walked past it though.

It's peace, not piece.
YABU

The only time I've objected to children in a public space was when I went with my dh to a very expensive restaurant in the evening. It was my first night out since dc2 had been born six months previously. We were paying for a babysitter. A couple came in to have dinner with their newborn baby with them. I asked if we could move tables. I was looking forward to and paying a fortune for a childfree evening and a few cocktails. No way did I want to sit in close proximity to someone else's baby.

We have a cafe near us that only allows children over 10 years old

Thats a bar though. I can see this if its more like a pub type atmosphere - serving alcohol etc
But for just coffee if you aren't serving alcohol, your customers would be limited

I've never seen a child in the small trendy coffee shops I've mentioned but I'm sure they get the occasional one. They make no effort to accommodate them though and it doesn't seem to be hurting their business.

I think there might be certain areas that could support a child_free cafe but you need a big enough customer base for it to make financial sense. I have seen a couple of cafes in London that do this not by explicitly banning children but by not offering a kids menu, high chairs or baby change facilities and by not having space to bring pushchairs in. I think this is fine if there is a market for it. I would probably go for some adult time myself!

Surely it's not about no children in coffee shops, it's about people being considerate of others.
Children do not need to run around or shout, and if they are sitting with their parents with everybody talking at normal volume there should be no impact on other customers.
Unfortunately some parents don't teach their children how to behave in public and feel a need to speak to their children loudly, so everybody can hear them.

three occurrences of uttering sorry as you try to manoeuvre some ridiculously sized buggy between the tables and you're out" policy for the parents
We went to get food last week. A man in a wheelchair came past us 4 times, each of these times he bumped into friends chair. Would it be ok to request he leave? Both are needed to transport a human unable to walk?

I’m currently child free and don’t always want to be surrounded by children but it’s a coffee shop, it’s to be expected and it’s even more ridiculous when you have children to have this attitude. YOUVE been that inconvenience before so perhaps give mothers a break who are just trying to enjoy a breakfast and a coffee with their kid.

This is CHAT, people! not AIBU!

there were no coffee shops when I was bringing my kids up in the 80s/90s.

Where did you live?

I keep thinking about opening up my own adult only cafe

Please, please, please do this! I will travel the length of the country to visit a cafe like this. I'm sick to death of everywhere being overrun by young children and their annoying parents. I'm old, grumpy and childless. I want peace and quiet and no kids!

You are absolutely being unreasonable and sound like a dick.

So now your kids are older suddenly you don't want to be around small children? Bet you didn't care about others when you had smalls, and took them wherever you wanted (as was your right).

Sorry, but the world is not designed for you. They are paying customers too and if you don't like it you can vote with your feet and go elsewhere.

I absolutely have no time for child hating and whinging, especially from people who have had kids themselves. If you were complaining about kids in public in an inappropriate place/time, that would be another matter, but Sunday morning? Get a grip. Children have just as right to be in public spaces as you, and if you don't like it you can piss off back home.