Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Noisy children in pub

205 replies

retirementrocks · 25/03/2018 19:21

AIBU to think that it is not ok for parents to allow their children to run around a pub and in and out of the toilets making one hell of a racket whilst they sit and chat to their friends? Just visited our local...expect it to be busy as it is Sunday and it is a popular pub for a family lunch, but we left after one drink because the noise was just too much. It took one of the bar staff to politely twice ask the parents to ask their children to be a bit quieter and not to run around but to no avail. It's a pub not a frigging playground!

OP posts:
Bramble71 · 27/03/2018 13:40

I don't think you're being unreasonable. Just because it might be thought of as a family friendly pub, doesn't mean that parents can let their kids run riot. It smacks of lazy parenting when they do that.

I don't think pubs should allow kids at all. There are few enough places for adults to go when they don't want kids around.

Lethaldrizzle · 27/03/2018 13:42

I'm sorry but that's just absolute bollox. There's plenty of places to go where there are no kids. And a bookies is not the same as a pub.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 13:47

Gromance our literary society meets in a pub. The DC are members. It's really no different from taking them to Pizza Express, except there's more choice of food. Hmm

Gromance02 · 27/03/2018 13:51

I'd imagine that the children aren't toddlers if they are members of a literary society?

Lizzie48 · 27/03/2018 13:53

I do get that it's inappropriate to have kids in a pub late in the evenings, say after 8:30pm, and actually I hardly ever see kids there after that time. Wacky warehouses aren't open then, and often neither is food. But at times when food is served in the restaurant area, there is no reason why kids shouldn't be there. If there is a kids' menu then there isn't an issue with them being there.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 13:55

SpringNow The Beehive in Brixton. The Fitzroy Tavern in Fitzrovia during the week. HTH.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 13:58

Gromance did I say they were? DD's 10, DS2's 6. Plenty of toddlers are members though, the society has a children's publication. My 2 youngest have been going since they were babies.

Lethaldrizzle · 27/03/2018 13:59

How about a gay bar playing banging house? No kids there

Creambun2 · 27/03/2018 14:09

Oh sod off with stealth boasts about your precious 6 yr old being in a "literary society"

Pretentious idiot.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 14:20

It's not a stealth boast and I have no need to be pretentious. My 6 year old can talk about The Hobbit as well as the next man. Tolkien wrote quite a few children's books. My DC are members because it's cheaper to take them to the annual gathering that way. Hmm Also, as I said, they get their own newsletter bimonthly.

expatinscotland · 27/03/2018 14:37

A toddler literary society, yep, I've heard it all now. When Tarquin was 2, we used to hang round The Savoy discussing Joseph Brodsky.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 14:43

For expat and Creambun:
www.tolkiensociety.org/society/publications/amon-hen/

HarrietKettle · 27/03/2018 14:44

Round here, you'd get kept back a year if you couldn't discuss War and Peace at length by age 5.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 14:44

I don't think I said it was a toddler literary society. Hmm

expatinscotland · 27/03/2018 15:26

'Round here, you'd get kept back a year if you couldn't discuss War and Peace at length by age 5.'

Pah! Must be a crap state school on a council estate, surely they should be quoting Chekov by the time they're in nursery school.

YouTheCat · 27/03/2018 19:24

My dd was quoting Monty Python by year 1. I was ever so proud. Grin

MolliewithOllie · 27/03/2018 19:44

YANBU
There is a forum called the child-free life where others have bemoaned the lack of child free venues - whether pubs/restaurants/cafes or theatres.

expatinscotland · 27/03/2018 19:46

'My dd was quoting Monty Python by year 1. I was ever so proud. grin'

Mine was laughing at her own farts by 10 months. I'm blessed.

PerfectlySymmetricalButtocks · 27/03/2018 19:56

Do you ever wish you'd never mentioned something? Hmm Gromance said she finds it odd taking children into pubs. That's my reason.

YouTheCat · 27/03/2018 19:56

Aw bless, Expat! Grin

Why do some people assume that just because I don't agree with kids running riot around a pub that I must be anti-kid? I'm not. I'm happy to share space with children and adults who behave appropriately for the venue.

It's not a lack of child-free places. It's a lack of spaces that aren't occupied by obnoxious, self-entitled arses.

CalmBeforeTheWave · 27/03/2018 20:06

There is a difference between 'family-friendly' and 'dysfunctional family-friendly' .

A massive world of difference.

MoorMummy · 27/03/2018 22:04

calm got it in one

MaisyPops · 27/03/2018 22:49

I'm with calm.

Family / child friendly does not mean 'allow your children to behave like disruptive brats whilst you either sit on your phone/ ignore them / laugh and encourage poor behaviour'.

billysboy · 13/01/2019 16:54

Good comment calm

I went out last night with my partner to find local pub full of unruly kids about 7yo running riot and the parents didnt give a shit while they were doing laps of the bar and wc

bar staff just shrugged their shoulders
Amidst all the chaos one mother from another table held her daughters hand and escorted her through to the loo
Gold star fantastic example

gimmeadoughnut123 · 13/01/2019 17:06

YANBU. Some pubs are also dog friendly. If I were to let my dog run around the place barking, everyone would have an issue. They wouldn't mind his presence in there, if he stayed at/next our table and wasn't everyone else's problem.

Same goes with kids. Fine in pubs. It's when they start legging it around everyone else and making ridiculous amounts of noise whilst doing so that it annoys me.