Banned from Starbucks

[Monicachoux]

I am part of a group of new mothers who used to meet a local Birmingham Starbucks for a coffee and chat once a week. The Starbucks is located within a hotel, and both businesses share a lounge area big enough for us, our babies and baby equipment.
We have (after about 6 meets) been told we are not welcome to meet there anymore as the "venue has been booked for corporate seminars and events on the days you meet, and this will be taking place for the next few months".
Starbucks boasts a sign stating "Sit and relax in our lounge area at the back", yet, we are no longer welcome to relax here with our babies anymore... Numbers for our group range from about 4 or 5 mums with their babies up to about 7 or 8 (so we're hardly an army) and each of us consumed drinks and snacks from the coffee shop and hotel when we went there... Are we being unreasonable by expecting to be treated like any other Starbucks customer in spite of (the horror!) having babies? I have to say that I for one was quite shocked when they (very nicely) informed us we couldn't meet there anymore- this is DEFINITELY NOT a baby-friendly establishment

There are also plenty of more child-friendly venues. A city like Birmingham must have soft-play places, child-friendly cafes with toys and play areas, cafes that are more spacious and have room for buggies etc.

I wonder what the mothers of yore did before there was a shitty American coffee shack on every corner?...

nice turn of phrase there too!

I suppose they survived exactly the same way people without children survived before "there was a shitty American coffee shack on every corner" hardly the point though.

Actually, I want to say "FFS! They are booked by someone else. Get a grip" but I wont.

[Doh]

Did you put a rug on the floor with battery operating toys that repeat 'the wheels on the bus..'?

Well, it kind of IS the point. Mothers moaning like it's a rite of passage of motherhood to be granted unlimited access to

Coffee shops are a relatively new phenomenon. One most of us can manage without. It's not like they're being denied the right to oxygen.

they're not that new - well in their current guise they are - but I'm 32 and my mum used to take me for coffee (well hot chocolate for me and tea for her ) at quaint little coffee shops when I was much muc younger than I am now

I used to work for a vary busy, child friendly cafe restaurant. We had a large group of mothers who would come in every week, with their babies and prams and best friends. They were lovely, their babie were lovely, and they spent money. However. our hearts used to sink every time they arrived. They took up so much room. The noise from eight or nine fractious babies was overpowering, and they often smelt quite suspect. Now I know none of these issues are intrinsically wrong, but we often had other customers who refused to sit near them, or complained about the noise. Its very hard to eat your lunch when the mother at the next table is changing her baby on the table or in her pram.
We never asked them to leave, but it definitely didnt help us do our jobs and make money, having them there. Starbucks has a high customer turnover, and even though I am a baby lover, I can see their point. sorry.

I wasn't arguing for meeting in coffee shops btw!

We stopped meeting in coffee shops for these exact reasons- we thought it was unfair on other customers and the (independent) cafe owners as we took up too much room!

and I live in Birm ingham!!

Also op give it 8 months.

When your little ones have all started moving,sqwarking,teething etc,etc believe me you'll be the same as the rest of us ie craving the odd half hour when you can dump said baby and dive into Starbucks with the paper which you want to read in peace with an overpriced coffee.

You'll be glowering at the noisy pfb packs hogging the sofas,floorspace etc along with the rest of us.

and rofl bupcakes- the first lyons' opened in 1894, so not exactly a new phenomenon...

oo no, coffee shops in reality are NOT a relatively new phenomenon. Only the main drink of choice has changed. Chocolate shops had been around for centuries, until in the 19th Century some clever bloke (Joseph Fry) worked out how to make solid chocolate - and then they rather lost popularity.

Tea shops have also been around for centuries.

Pubs too - only difference is those are licensed premises of course but before they were, no doubt babies ended up there with their mums.

So - beverage shops per se are defo not new.

damnation - xposted with montmartre (although I have more FACTS)

Oh don't be silly. I know tea shops and such have been around for donkeys. What I am talking about is this coffee shop culture where people congregate for hours with a cup of coffee-flavoured foam. People carrying tall skinny lattes round in stupid cups with paper jackets on, like they are carrying batons in a relay race of wankery. "Let's do coffee"

ARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH.

you mean the wanky-coffee-with-poncy-names shops then?

Eww, saggy - they used to change their babies on the table???? Gak! Surely that's against H&S rules in a coffee shop or eating establishment of any kind?

I blame Friends

And yet Emma, Ben and the various other occasional babies were barely ever in Central Perk...

roar @ 'relay race of wankery'

Yes. And these were posh women from expensive 'constable country'!

I'm a new mum who meets up with six other mums once a week and I can understnd completely why both the cafe and the other customers might be miffed when we turn up with our babies and all the prams. In fact, if I have driven I do try to limit the disruption by only bringing the carseat in with me.

Yes, places should be bsby friendly but I've been in cafes where 2 and sometimes 3 different nct groups are meeting up and it's chaos.