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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to be shocked at toddlers & young children in bars at midnight in Benidorm

36 replies

chocolateteabag · 24/10/2011 22:30

Was on a Hen weekend in Benidorm this weekend - not somewhere I'd normally go TBH but had a good time. However - while we were out in the trashy bars I couldn't help but notice lots of pushchairs and babies/toddlers/young kids still out with their parents/extended families.
Now I know they are all on holiday and it's normal in the med to have your kids out late in restaurents etc, but these were the tacky bars with drunken hen/stag parties and live sex shows going on. The bars all made a point of ensuring doors into the bars were closed and children cleared out when the nude/rude bits started - but that they had to make announcements for the children to leave at 11pm-1am is surely just wrong?
Am I just being naive?

OP posts:

Thingumy · 24/10/2011 22:32

Never been.

Sounds classy.

AnxiousElephant · 24/10/2011 22:33

At least they put out an announcement!
It wouldn't be something that I would do tbh, like you said it is one thing having a few late drinks in the hotel bar or a restaurant but not in tacky loud and lairy pubs.

HerScaryness · 24/10/2011 22:35

YABU for going to benidorm sadly

Tip: don't go to Egypt then, kids are up literally ALL night. there is never an hour that goes past without you hearing the wretched cries of a poor totally exhausted child screaming, while all manner of parents/extended female members look on with a bemused and clueless expression.

Original poster

chocolateteabag · 24/10/2011 22:36

Exactly - I was prepared for a tacky and class free hen weekend which it totally was - but seeing small children when I am wearing a willy whistle and am three sheets to the wind is unnerving.

OP posts:

AgentZigzag · 24/10/2011 22:37

I wouldn't say it'd be 'wrong', but I would probably make a distinction between the different types of bars there can be.

If the children were cleared out before any adult stuff started though, surely it'd just be a normal bar up until that point and so not a problem with children being there?

The problem I might have with it myself is that the adults might be getting a bit lairy by 11-1, which might mean they aren't tailoring their behavioiur to children being around.

Plus, some people go out to get away from the DC, and if the DC in the bars aren't sleeping and instead running about etc, that might not go down well?

AgentZigzag · 24/10/2011 22:38

Bit of an overuse of 'might' in my post there

I should be more assertive

MrsSchadenfreude · 24/10/2011 22:40

Tis Benidorm. Waddaya expect?

kerala · 24/10/2011 22:43

YABU - in Spain the kids stay up super late because its so scorching during the day and the evening temperature is perfect. Our 4 and 2 year olds went to bed at 10, sometimes 12, we went to bed at 1am and we all got up late. It would have been madness to put them to bed at 7 as usual when all the other Spanish children were playing around in the playgrounds because it was too hot to run around at midday. Its just the English that seem to have this bed at 7pm obsession.

margerykemp · 24/10/2011 22:45

Yabu, why should having a child exclude you from mainstream society? I wish the uk was more like spain.

Original poster

chocolateteabag · 24/10/2011 22:45

These were the lairy bars - neon lights, willy shaped bottles, large drunken groups, bunking bronco in the shape of a willy, topless dancers. They cleared the main bar bit and closed the doors when the live sex show/lady who pulls things out of her fanjo were on but the kids were all still out side in the covered over bar bits.
As my friend the hen put it, "I felt a bit odd walking past kids wearing my c*ck nose and willy apron".

OP posts:

Original poster

chocolateteabag · 24/10/2011 22:48

I totally get having your kids out with you in restaurents and family friednly bars - and I know that even in Benidorm, those bars do exist (having accidentally walked into one)
it was the kids in the bars with the drunken stag/hen parties that felt massively wrong. We were all pretty sloshed - but there were far worse sights while we were out.

OP posts:

kerala · 24/10/2011 22:48

Yes that does sound rather grim. Our late nights were seaside restaurants full of Spanish families and a night time family festival in a castle. Wtf was the hen organiser doing taking you all to Benidorm there are so many gorgeous places to visit in Spain.

Original poster

chocolateteabag · 24/10/2011 22:48

oops restaurant and friendly

OP posts:

QuintessentialShadyHallows · 24/10/2011 22:51

These parents have probably been listening to the parenting advice of "she who must not be mentioned."

I went to a talk with her, and she said that young babies and toddlers were quite happy in their pushchairs, in pubs and clubs, on holiday. And their pushchairs were handy for steading oneself on, when walking home after a few coctails. Because even nannies deserve holidays......

AgentZigzag · 24/10/2011 22:52

What kind of sights choco?

Purely for contextual reasons

squeakyfreakytoy · 24/10/2011 22:52

So the kids were removed before any of the adult acts came on... dont see the problem really..

Most kids in their pushchairs are asleep or paying no attention to their surroundings really. So long as everyone in charge of them is not blind drunk and staggering, and they are under proper supervision, they are on holiday..

What are people meant to do, stay in their hotel rooms all night ..

LynetteScavo · 24/10/2011 22:53

Keeping DC up late isn't the issue...taking children where there are lots of leary drunk people is a bit . I wouldn't take my DC for a stroll in our local town center at midnight.

YABU to even let us know you had a willy whistle about your person. What ever one of those is.

LynetteScavo · 24/10/2011 22:53

And what exactly did the lady pull out of her fanjo????

LynetteScavo · 24/10/2011 22:55

squeakyfreakytoy, personally I would spend the evening in my hotel room, after going out for a meal if I had toddlers.

timidviper · 24/10/2011 22:56

It does sound horrid and my judgey pants are somewhere up around my armpits even thinking about it but Margery makes a valid point. It is not the having children out late at night that's the problem, it is the type of bar they're in which sounds awful for anyone, child or adult.

At least the parents have the children with them and haven't left them unattended in their hotel rooms.

AgentZigzag · 24/10/2011 23:01

'And what exactly did the lady pull out of her fanjo????'

I wondered that but was far too inhibited to ask

I had images of a line of bunting (like a magician) for some reason

ShellyBoobs · 24/10/2011 23:05

And what exactly did the lady pull out of her fanjo???

Would the lady be 'Sticky Vicky'?

If so, I have it on good authority that she intends to retire and so is now training her daughter up to take over the act.

Now that is classy!

HauntedHengshanRoad · 25/10/2011 04:11

The very description of these bars makes me ashamed to be English. What must the Spanish thing of us? Why must we behave like such puerile, gutter-minded animals while in Benidorm?

MoaninMinny · 25/10/2011 09:23

shudders

i hate seeing kids in any bars/pubs after 8pm, especially when they are obviously tired and should be at home in bed.

altinkum · 25/10/2011 09:31

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

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