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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think people that dislike kids eat for free are mean

153 replies

sevnuwt · 25/02/2018 08:49

My brother is saying he boycotts anywhere where the kids eat for free as he feels like he's paying extra as an adult for other people's kids to eat for free.

Aibu to think he's just being mean?

OP posts:
tortelliniforever · 26/02/2018 18:50

I never go to somewhere where kids have to pay for breakfast as inevitably my daughter will have a teaspoon of cocoa pops and then decide she doesn't want anything - and be ravenous after we've checked out.

Dungeondragon15 · 26/02/2018 18:53

He's not mean. He is just using his common sense! In order to make a profit they will need to charge adults more to make up for the fact that kids eat for free. Therefore the food for adults won't be good value compared with a restaurant that charges children. Why should he want to subsidise anyone else?

tortelliniforever · 26/02/2018 18:55

In order to make a profit they will need to charge adults more to make up for the fact that kids eat for free.

That's not logical actually. Unless you have seen their business plan, you don't know this. Maybe they have worked out that by offering free child's breakfasts, they more than make up for it on extra rooms? Or they manage to fill rooms to capacity at weekends with families that otherwise would remain empty? The actual cost of providing breakfast for children is extremely small.

Foslady · 26/02/2018 19:10

I like them - it helps offset the holidays I’ve had as a lp and had to pay for dd as an adult on an all inclusive holiday

Butterymuffin · 26/02/2018 19:19

He's cutting off his nose to spite his face. I love a Premier Inn breakfast. Cheerfully remind him that other people's kids will be the ones wiping his arse in the care home in his declining years so it'll all even out eventually.

Get me a maccies breakfast over that shit any day

Yes, because no kids are ever to be found in a McDs...

doesthislookoddtoyou · 26/02/2018 22:36

He is just using his common sense! In order to make a profit they will need to charge adults more to make up for the fact that kids eat for free

He's not, you're not, and that isn't how it works.

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 08:28

He's not, you're not, and that isn't how it works.

Of course it is how it works. That is basic economics. If you don't charge some people you will have to charge others more than you would have done to make a profit.

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 08:31

That's not logical actually. Unless you have seen their business plan, you don't know this. Maybe they have worked out that by offering free child's breakfasts, they more than make up for it on extra rooms? Or they manage to fill rooms to capacity at weekends with families that otherwise would remain empty? The actual cost of providing breakfast for children is extremely small.

It wasn't clear in the OP that she was talking about a hotel. In that case perhaps they do make their profits elsewhere by offering free children's breakfasts. If it is just a restaurant and not a hotel where else would they make a profit?

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 08:34

Having said whilst Premier inn is good value for families as children can stay in the same room, the double rooms aren't particularly good value suggesting that they are not making their profits elsewhere.

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 08:40

It's the adults that come with the children. Who will buy a couple more drinks, dessert, coffee etc that will all more than pay for a pound or two cost of the kids meal.

Eh? Why would the adults eat more than adults without children. I certainly wouldn't.

He's not subsidising anyone, the fool.

Unless they are making money in some other way by having children, of course he is!!

TroubledLitchen · 27/02/2018 08:47

I suspect that the free kid’s breakfast is a marketing ploy. Makes the place seem really family friendly but in reality costs then next to nothing. All of the children I know would have half a glass of juice and maybe a small bowl of cereal or a pastry and nothing else. So it literally costs them pennies.

If I have a choice of restaurants though I do avoid kids eat free places, because they’re generally shit!

Houmous in the room is rather odd though, does he have form for unusual breakfasts and/or excessive sulking?

Dipitydoda · 27/02/2018 08:53

Having recently sat in a kids ear breakfast free hotel with my 5 year old listening to a couple on their phones talking very loudly about the ins and outs of some bowel surgery whilst me another family and us tried to eat breakfast peacefully I would have been so pleased if the couple had decided to be upset by the kids eat free and pissed off elsewhere to make other people feel ill over their breakfasts!

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 09:00

I suspect that the free kid’s breakfast is a marketing ploy. Makes the place seem really family friendly but in reality costs then next to nothing. All of the children I know would have half a glass of juice and maybe a small bowl of cereal or a pastry and nothing else. So it literally costs them pennies.

Ha ha! You obviously don't know any 11 or 12 year olds if you think they eat next to nothing. They eat for free in places like premier inn and many would eat more than an adult.

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 09:15

Actually in Premier Inn they eat for free up to the age of 16. Does anyone think a 15 year old boy eats "next to nothing" !

storynanny · 27/02/2018 09:24

I dont mind as Im glad my children are able to take advantage of the offers with the grandchildren and Im happy to take them there as well.
However, when we are having a meal out without little ones there is one carvery we avoid on a sunday ( only day they do children eat free) as it is too crowded so I sort of get why child free avoid them.

ginghamstarfish · 27/02/2018 09:28

Great for families, but yes I would avoid for the same reasons PPS have given.

tortelliniforever · 27/02/2018 11:46

Ha ha! You obviously don't know any 11 or 12 year olds if you think they eat next to nothing. They eat for free in places like premier inn and many would eat more than an adult.

Ha, ha! You obviously don't know all the 11 or 12 year olds in the world. Plenty of them only have small breakfasts. Hmm

Dungeondragon15 · 27/02/2018 13:22

I don't have to know all the 11 or 12 year old in the world to know that, if they were having breakfast in a hotel which serves a cooked breakfast and/or alternatives, few eat "next to nothing" and some would eat more than the adults, especially boys. By the age of 15 many eat more than adults, especially teenage boys. That isn't just my opinion, it is a fact that the calorie requirements of teenage boys are on average higher than adult women for example.

TroubledLitchen · 27/02/2018 14:45

Going on my teenage nephews they’d probably sleep through breakfast then complain later they were hungry! But that’s a whole other story... And the older girls and little ones in our family tend to pick at food and eat very little, especially at breakfast. However, a lot of hotels include breakfast in the room rate so it seems to me that Premier Inn are cheaping out by only offering it to the kids! I wouldn’t go as far as to eat houmous in my room as a form of protest though.

MrGHardy · 27/02/2018 18:38

"Does he also think he's paying for people who eat more than him at all-you-can-eat buffets?"

As long as he eats more than the average person, and given he is a man that is likely, then no.

I see no problem with this. Obviously these kinds of restaurants use this marketing to attract families. Sure, more business is one aspect, but higher prices is likely also one to make up. Why would he pay those higher prices for himself, when he has no kids to make up for the higher prices?

VladmirsPoutine · 27/02/2018 18:40

I don't blame him.

Lokisglowstickofdestiny · 27/02/2018 18:44

These places are great - they suck in the families and leave the rest of us to enjoy less kids elsewhere. It's a win win surely?

Cleanermaidcook · 27/02/2018 20:12

Oh I love a premier inn breakfast, then again I usually have 2 kids with me.

restingbemusedface · 27/02/2018 20:14

He thinks about stuff way too much

blackteasplease · 27/02/2018 20:31

Well it's fine to have these offers and fine for him to avoid these places when he has a choice. Weird for him to object so greatly that he sits in his room eating something meagre for that reason though. If he just couldn't afford it or didn't want to pay for the breakfast that's his choice. But I don't think he needs to trumpet his objection to "kids go free" as some sort of personal crusade!

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