Children / young adults in pubs

[msmith501]

Just been sent this link by a friend after an evening in a pub (not our local) where a group of young women got noisily merry (pissed) whilst the rest of the pub had the job of babysitting their offspring who were in other rooms, climbing over furniture, shooting foam pistols and basically being very very loud. In one instance a child collided with a small table and knocked a whole round of drinks over and in another, a smaller child (still using a dummy) pulled its dummy out and dunked it in someone's drink. The final straw was a small dog kindly leaving a present. I'm totally fine with children being brought into pubs as it's another chance for them to interact, learn how to get along and not be apart from their parents on a night out BUT I'm also for the parents demonstrating a bit of responsibility. What do you think? Link below:

www.msn.com/en-gb/foodanddrink/foodnews/pub-branded-ridiculous-for-strict-new-rules-where-children-cant-roam-free/ar-AADsj5I?ocid=spartandhp

And if MNHQ think this would be better in (say) parenting, then I'd be happy for it to be moved as it's not really an AIBU, it's more of a discussion point to elicit thoughts and views of others

I'm with the pub. Pubs are not playgrounds.

I think it's shite that kids are allowed in pubs. I don't know what the parents are thinking really. Just accept that there are some things you can't do once you have kids. There are plenty of places you can go.

Sometimes adults want to just relax without worrying about kids running around.

Still bitter about the time a mum asked me and my friend to stop swearing in the pub because her kids could here.

And this kind of shite: ""There's no way you can get a child to sit down for the whole time, putting that pressure on parents is unfair."

WHY is there no way? Sorry that you can't parent your kids, but most of us are perfectly able to make our children sit down and shut up for an hour.

The problem is these parents want to have their cake and eat it. They want to have kids but they don't want to give up their fun. If you must bring them into the pub, at least make them sit down quietly.

It’s not unreasonable to expect parents to supervise their children.

“Children must be supervised” is not a new concept.

I wouid leave a pub that tolerated the behaviour you described. Not because it admits DC, but because that sort of appalling behaviour beggars belief

I think it entirely right that there are both family friendly pubs and ones which impose age restrictions. There is plenty of scope for both types of establishment to co-exist.

I live near this pub and drunk in there a lot pre and post children. Completely support this, it’s dangerous and disruptive letting kids run around. When we go out we take books and toys for our toddler, he’s not allowed to go wandering off. If he kicks off, we leave. Aside from the fact it doesn’t bare thinking about what would happen if he knocked into something, had food dropped on him etc, why should my life choices impact on other people?

Totally agree with you. There are loads of child friendly pubs and restaurants and there are also loads of place you can take your DC if you want them to be able to run around and be loud. People often go to a pub to relax not to be around screaming children.

I'm slightly shocked that a pub is being seen as unreasonable for expecting children to be supervised and kept safe. Apart from annoying, it's dangerous for anyone to be running around and climbing on furniture, adult or child. And yes, working in a similar environment I've had to tell adults to stop climbing on furniture as well as children! There's glass, hot food, hot plates etc, it's not a suitable environment for children to be running around is it?
It never fails to amaze me how people think that they can abdicate parental responsibility in a pub or cafe or hotels, I've found free range children in walk in fridges, turned round and tripped over quite a few behind the bar and had to once shut down an entire venue because it was suddenly realised a small child had been missing for over an hour. He was found sitting under the reception desk after having climbed over said desk into a staff only area.
I don't think anyone expects children to be silent, but yes, they need to be supervised, at the table, and anywhere they go in the pub/venue.

I'm with the pub, they are for eating and drinking (unless they have a wacky warehouse type place) kids should sit at tables and talk with parents (and parents should talk back!) less gadgets more crayons too. My dd at about 5 said she wanted to leave a particular pub (with a play area) her relatives had invited us to because there were so many naughty children who didn't sit still!

Child friendly doesn't equate to let them run riot.
This place is absolutely fine with its rules and more should do the same.

Even the pub round here that has a soft play area expects parents to keep their kids behaved.

It does require the pub owner/manager to be willing to ask people to leave if needs be and so many won’t.

OP, was the pub you and your friend were in the type of place, rural/in a holiday/camping route? If the pub carried on serving them, whilst they lost control of their children, then it acted illegally.

What happened when the child dipped it's dummy? The Landlord has just broken his licencing agreement.

Tbh, it sounds, far fetched. The rest of you shouldn't have sat and watched.

My concern with overstrict rules is that we've got Weatherspoons buying up pubs, or putting pubs, out of business and then they completely change the pub they've bought. I've known them to buy family pubs and turn them into hangouts for scumbags. But before that's happened, they've put smaller restaurants/cafes out of business, so there's no alternatives.

There's middle ground, when it comes to children. The link includes staying sat down outside. The Adults don't stay sat down, why can't the children stand up, to stretch their legs? I agree with the times, but i live in a big enough place that i can choose a pub that doesn't serve food and have Families in.

This stood out in the link "pubs, cafes and restaurants should be for the whole community". I don't think that they need to be.

Once on a Friday evening after a long week by a mother whose child was constantly running around our table and banging into it - even climbing over me to get to her Mum. I asked the child to please stop running around the table and to sit down (I had asked the mum first to intervene but she was rat arsed). The mother then proceeded to tell her DD that she'd "...have no horse riding / ballet or sleep over the following day..." to which her darling daughter mimicked beautifully "you'll have no horse riding / ballet or sleep over the following day". A friend of the Mums then put on her best voice and said to friends DD that "MSSmith501 didn't mean to say what was said..." to which I replied "I meant to say exactly what I did say and I'd appreciate it if her DD was a little more considerate to others and if she (the parent) could actually take some responsibility"... well that got me told!

It does require the pub owner/manager to be willing to ask people to leave if needs be and so many won’t.

Agree, however you can get some nasty reviews left if you dare to. I was once named on TripAdvisor as being the worst example of customer service ever encountered. My crime? I said I couldn't watch a baby in a pram while the parents went back to the wedding reception to get more pissed. I was working behind a busy bar at the time.

The parents are clearly wrong for not supervising their children.

The pub staff should have told the parents to supervise their children or leave. I suspect this isn't a situation that happens often so they may have been unsure.

If I was at the pub I would have brought the child back to it's own table if bothering me.

Children in a pub for an hour socialising with parents or having dinner is fine. What you have described is not acceptable. Poor children.

The pub in the post was a village pub where most people probably know each other and want to try to get along or at least not fall out over child-related issues as small communities can be difficult when people know there's been some trouble between locals. What I described may sound far fetched... and I guess it does - but it happened nonetheless and yes, words were had with the parents but the type of parent who turns a blind eye to their kids behaviour, preferring to get drunk instead, isn't that responsive to a stranger berating them for poor parenting. Anyway... it was the link that I wanted to elicit some discussion on as it's interesting and current.

I wish more places did that. So many people just let their kids run around unsupervised these days.

Agree 100% with the pub. If the kids can't behave or the parents can't keep them under control sat at the table including without having iPads on full blast then they shouldn't be in there. I used to prefer it when most pubs were no kids.

I have no idea why this would be considered newsworthy enough for an article. Most pubs have rules around children’s times.

Of course it’s not ok to leave your children unsupervised why would anyone think differently? The parents who do that are very much in the minority though

Lol at ‘no scootering’

Tells us exactly what has been going on.

Of course pubs and restaurants cannot have kids running under the feet of people carrying plates of hot food and glasses.

I wonder if it's partly to do with location eg a random pub in a city where the customers are transient and not locals might find it easier to enforce / have strict rules and regs, whereas a small pub in a village where there may be two pubs and only a handful of locals may feel more obliged to be flexible to avoid closing down. I think it must be hard running a pub today.

I'm 100% with the pub.

Some parents think that it's all right to get pissed while leaving their offspring to run around without supervision. t's inconsiderate to others. A small minority spoil it for everyone else.

I also think a lot of it depends on how the pub expects adults to behave as well.

There’s a pub here that caused ructions when they wanted people to make their kids behave like the other pub do. People felt it was a bit rich when it’s a place that allows customers to get ridiculously drunk, often has fights at closing time and lets lots of groups get rowdy (personally I don’t know why folks take kids there, but that’s by the by). So people were annoyed when the pub manager, who would clap along with a drunk man standing on a table singing, suddenly wanted children to be quiet.

In a pub or restaurant where adults are expected to be mannered and behaved it’s generally follows on that children are in my experience. Whereas when the adults are shouting and yelling to each other then kids follow that example.