to be not keen at husband taking nearly 7-year-old daughter to pub to watch footie?

[parakeet]

He says it is a family pub, with other children present. We are talking about afternoon footie games, say about 5 til 6ish. I do trust him that it is not a rowdy place packed out with cheering swearing men, but I just find it a little odd, the thought of my 6-year-old spending leisure time down the pub. I'd feel the same if it was a boy.

He says it's a nice way for them to spend quality time together (although to be honest, this is not in short supply as he works mainly from home and sees her plenty). Daughter is happy enough to go as she gets the treat of a bag of crisps and a drink of coke (something we only allow occasionally), and she's mildly interested in football.

I actually suspect the main reasons he wants her there is (a) some company for him as he watches the match and (b) he's trying to "toughen her up". It's true she can be a timid little thing, prone to Disney princess adoration.

There is an alternative though - a local leisure centre with a TV bar, which seems more family orientated. So WIBU to ask him to only take her to the leisure centre bar instead?

parakeet good for you for admitting defeat!
I'm a recovering alcoholic and although I avoid pubs (because they're boring for me) I have no problem with DH taking the DCs, particularly for a reason.

Seems a weird thing to do with a child to me, it's not exactly an activity is it? They could sit and watch football at home together, if he wants to spend time with her, why not go on a bike ride / feed the ducks at the park / fly a kite etc.?

How do you know they're not doing all those things as well, Malificence? He sounds like a great dad and OP says he spends lots of time with his daughter so I'm sure they do lots of other stuff as well.

Anyway, what does it really matter what the activity is? They're spending valuable time together, no doubt chatting about lots of other stuff during half time, on the drive there and back etc, the relationship they will be building during this time is what matters, not the activity.

Worshipping at the altar of almighty football, in a pub of all places, is the very last thing I'd want a child of mine participating in.

Get over yourself...

I work in a pub and we often get dads and daughters in doing exactly as described. The kids are doted on - all the dads/grandads keep buying them juice and crisps and bored bar staff are inclined to play card games with them. 90 minutes of that once a week? No harm done.

Hear hear Numberlock! Not every activity has to be child centred! That's one way to bring up a brat in my experience.

Depends if shew wants to go. Dh has taken ds1(now 8 3/4) a couple of times int he last few years - like a Spurs v Chelsea match. Ds1 thought he had died and gone ot heaven.
I too thought it was a fab idea. Ds raved about it fdor weeks to come.
Find some of the attitudes on this thread very .... puzzling... sanctimonious.

My M&D used to take DSis and I to the pub, and leave us in the car! (This was a LONG time ago)

Friends of M&D would periodically come out with bags of cheese and onion and cokes.

Noone thought it odd, it was perfectly acceptable.

It might not have 'done me any harm', but I'm glad we do things rather differently now.

This has reminded me of happy times as a little girl when my dad and granda took me to the park on a Saturday then to the pub, I would have an orange juice and some crisps as they had a pint, then we would all go home. Lovely memory, so thank you for posting OP!

Used to love going to the local football club bar with my dad. I won 10 Players No. 6 in the raffle once. I am very old.

my dh takes dd2 who is 6 to the pub sometimes to watch the football. She is not the slightest bit interested in football but loves sitting on the big stools with a packet of crisps and a coke chatting to dh's friends. It's great - they have a good time together and i get a couple of hours peace and quite. Win win. Ds (15) has also been going with dh for years - they have a fab relationship. Presumably not all to do with beer and football but it's all part of a wider good relationship.

As a child, I would have loved going to the pub with my Dad to watch sport!

I used to go to the pub and watch football with my dad, then, as I got older we would go to the game. We had Arsenal season tickets for years.

We gave them up two years ago when I was pregnant with dd and dad decided he was getting too old to make the midweek games. :(

We are extremely close though, and I have so many wonderful memories, stretching over 30 years, of my dad and I watching football together.

Please let her go if she wants to :)

Took my youngest daughter to her first game snuggled inside my coat as she was still being bf. Many years and matches later she is still going to football with her dad and I. Blames us for her teenage worry lines. Hello all by the way, first time poster.

Course it's ok to take a kid to a family-friendly pub. Not too much chance of seeing mindless thugs hurting people. But at a Stoke match?.. Hmm..

Hi aderynlas , nice first post

YANBU by realising Y were BU. IYSWIM.

My Dad took us to grotty, dirty, seedy pubs all the time, in fact he still does . I still like going with him. and I am in my forties