Children in pubs

[Bleakhouse1879]

Is it unreasonable to take young children in to pubs?

This evening whilst I was enjoying a birthday pint, there were two ladies with their children in the pub, the children ran round the pub, climbed on the furniture and screamed and shouted. This continued for nearly an hour. Being a rather polite young man I didn't want to cause a scene so I left the pub.

I would like to know if there is a form of etiquette when approaching the parents to ask them to keep their children under control.
I understand children can get a bit mardy and it may be difficult for a stressed parent to bring under control, that's why I want advice from you my wonderful Mothers on here. Am I being unreasonable?

I am in Scotland . Children under 14 years are only which hold a "children’s certificate", and are restricted to areas which have been deemed suitable for young children, usually a restaurant type area.

Most pubs in my town don't allow children at all.

I would far rather go to a restaurant with my kids, the food is generally much better.

We take our kids to the local pub on a sunny evening for a drink. It's a lovely walk over and there and toys in the beer garden. We would not go if the weather was bad as I would exhaust myself trying to keep the kids quiet and none of us would really get an thing out of it. YANBU at all to be annoyed about these children and their poor behaviour - I would not have approached the parents myself but would hope the management of the pub would sort it out (but I am a coward) There is no excuse for behaviour like that.

Of course Hungry Horse type "pubs" are a different kettle of fish and appalling behaviour from adults and children is par for the course

I sat on a jury once over the use of teargas in a Hungry Horse. Sunday lunchtime IIRC, when 2 members of a Fenland tribe settled an argument about who got their cousin pregnant.

The Hungry Horse is the only pub here with a garden - but you do have to be careful about when you go

Hungry Horse? I have never heard of them.

I have no problem asking parents to control their children, whether at a pub, grocery store or a coffee shop. I was recently at a lovely high tea with friends and two small children were running around squealing like wild beasts, completely ruining the experience. I marched right over to the parents' table and told them to control their children, unless they preferred for me to. The children were suddenly brought back to the table and made to behave appropriately, as they should have been from the beginning.

four think of football shirt dads, oversized portions of microwave food, sticky tables and blackcurrant fruits boots - you're just about there.

Fruit shoots that is.

Sounds lovely.

It depends on the pub, but children shouldn't be allowed to run around screaming in any restaurant/pub/cafe/shop.

You could have started swearing loudly and telling rude jokes. That might have got the parents to bring their DC under control.

I definitely think kids under 10 should be gone by 8pm. Then there is time for family time, and for adults-only time. Some pubs near me have that policy on a Friday and Saturday night which I think is reasonable.

And of course kids should sit quietly and behave. People always say we are a child-unfriendly country but I can't say I've seen kids running around misbehaving in either Italy or Germany when I've been there recently so being child-friendly doesn't mean that you have to tolerate them spoiling your evening.

PunkrockerGirl - since you brought sn up, it is unlikely the children had sn since running around a pub would be particularly dangerous for a child with less understanding.
Generally running around- not ok.
Noise- do what you can but other people have to accept that some children cannot and perhaps never will be able to control the noise they make.

Depends on the pub op. Where I live there are lots that are great for families in the summer, though of course we wouldn't take ds to the spit and sawdust variety. Having returned from a holiday to France, I loved that their culture encourages family meals/ drinks out and that we'll behaved children are always welcome. Parents want to relax with a drink too and not be confined to their own home in order to do it.

But I'm with you on the behaviour issue and also hate seeing children who are blatantly exhausted falling asleep late evening on chairs in pubs because their parents are enjoying their drinks too much to put the children's needs first. Awful.

As for entertaining children with toys and colouring books though - try having a child like mine who has never been interested in toys and colouring books and would much rather play with any of the table condiments or engage others in conversation (including strangers). When he gets rowdy we take him home, but it can be harder than you think to keep them occupied depending on the child.

Plenty of pubs DON'T allow children in though, generally ones that don't serve food. If it annoys you that much, surely you can go to one of these?

That aside, the parents should be making sure their children behave, and that obviously applies to all situations, not just pubs.

Well behaved allowed until 8pm. No idea why anyone would enjoy having tired bored kids in a pub at night.
About 4 years ago we were in a pub in London meeting with friends before heading to a wedding elsewhere.
There was 2 families with 5 kids having lunch and after the kids ate they started a game of chasing. The manager asked them twice to keep their kids under control and they apologised and promised to. But promptly went back to their chat and the kids carried on.
One of the kids eventually crashed into a table with tea and coffee urns and got a small splash of hot liquid. The parents went postal, threats of suing etc.
The manager was very good in his handling of the situation but the families were disgusted they had to leave with a screaming child.

Children should not run wild in pubs. I know that this is debated on Mn a lot but it is dangerous! In country Australia there is a huge pub culture, especially on Saturdays after netball and footy. Kids are welcome and encouraged but I do not see any kids going wild.

There are people every where and they may get hurt.

Had this the other week a family was there with children I think actually 2 families, 1 had young children and baby, the other had young children - they were running a bit but it was 6-8pm time - and there's a garden outside.

it depends I didn't mind then (works drinks) and I think after 9pm the children were gone but if I was there with more of an adult clientele and children were running around and screaming I'd probably be a bit pissed off.

Poor parenting and poor pub management is the problem here.

You shouldn't have to approach the parents. The staff should be dealing with it.

Before I had a baby of my own kids in pubs did annoy me a bit, but then I deliberately avoided family friendly pubs because of this. DP and I would only go to family friendly pubs for food if it did good Sunday Roasts for instance, knowing that there would babies and children there and that it would be noisy.

Now that we have a baby of our own I do still go to the pub occasionally but to family friendly places for food and not just for a few drinks of an afternoon - and certainly not of an evening.

I don't generally think pubs are the place for babies and children but the sort of family friendly pubs that offer childrens menus, highchairs, baby changing facilites and toys/play area/colouring in books etc are obviously more than happy for the trade and have deliberately catered for it. Pubs that don't offer these things and all pubs after around 7pm should be child free IMO.

Depends what kind of pub you were in and what time it was.

Another one here who thinks children shouldn't be in pubs at all. I don't think they should be around adults drinking.

We occasionally go to our local and take the DCs (and dog). The DCs are generally very well behaved, though, and if they were running about misbehaving I'd take them home. Same for the dog; she's lovely and friendly so I trust her.

I agree with Purple though that pubs aren't generally the place for children, and certainly not drinking pubs.

I have regularly taken my kids into pubs, I have never allowed them to run around or climb on the furniture.
If other kids are behaving in such a way, I would have a word with the staff.

Depends on the pub. If they have a beer garden with play equipment I will avoid that pub like the plague would expect to see children there but it absolutely depends on the usual atmosphere and clientele. And there's never an excuse for letting your DC screech and climb and run riot in a public establishment, licensed or not.

Obviously it's a bit different if you are in a pub with a large garden and playground, but the same rules apply in pubs as in restaurants - it is unsafe for children to run around and they shouldn't excessively disturb other customers (definition of excessive depending on the business).

Both in a restaurant and a pub, approach the staff, not the parents. They can ask the parents to leave, you can't . Equally they can say they don't mind the noise, in which case you can choose to take your custom elsewhere.

Just pick your pubs carefully. I've often taken DS to pubs (usually when out with fellow Morris dancers - some people find Morris even more annoying than noisy kids, so picking and choosing pubs is always important.)