Witherspoon’s 2 drink limit for parents

[Leaannb]

I just saw an article about Witherspoons deciding to impose a 2 drink limit with parents who have their children with them. How do you feel about this? Is this being unreasonable?

If someone wants three glasses of wine they can have it at home! Not in a restaurant with children.

I've voted yanbu, as I think Wetherspoon's IS NOT BU, it's just a sad state of affairs that they feel they have to implement this, and says a lot about their clientele.

Thank goodness in Scotland children are not allowed in pubs ever

? Is that a new thing? I've been into plenty of pubs with ds when he was small.

If someone wants three glasses of wine they can have it at home! Not in a restaurant with children

I'd hesitate to call Wetherspoons a restaurant...

I disagree with the pp who thinks it's a good thing that pubs in Scotland don't allow children. I grew up in Scotland and have raised my family in England. Good family friendly pubs have much more relaxed atmosphere than pubs full of adults. We have quite a few nice family friendly pubs in our area and it's nice to be able to sit in a pub garden in good weather while the children run around and we relax. We're often not even both drinking as we don't like drinking during the day.

Thank goodness in Scotland children are not allowed in pubs ever

Well that's plainly a load of shit. Pubs in Scotland can apply for a children's license so that under 14s are allowed in between 11am-8pm when accompanied by an adult.

@superfandango true but there's not too many. I can't think of any around my parents' home town which are family friendly. There's definitely a different pub culture in Scotland.

I worked for them way back, we enforced this rule in the early 2000s. It had become a habit for some parents to come in all afternoon and drink whilst kids ran about the place. Not fair on staff or other clientele. We also used to insist on them sitting in the family areas, because parents used to complain about smokers (allowed then) and bad language when sitting in the middle of the pun floor away from the family areas.

Wetherspoons is a pub, not a restaurant, it isn't a soft play either.

We also implemented a policy of advising men who were buying their ladies large glasses of wine to every pint they drank that a standard would be better as there was significantly more alcohol than a pint. Lots of reactions were " is that why she is always so pissed when we leave ". Neither gender seemed to have grasped that

@MissEliza admittedly we don’t take the DC out to eat in pubs very often but we’ve never tried to go to one where we’ve found they’re not allowed in - this in the Fife/Edinburgh region. Although maybe it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy type thing because we wouldn’t try somewhere that looked like an old man pub/didn’t look inviting 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think the pub culture up here is very different now because of the virtually zero drink drive limit. It’s not unusual for someone to only have one drink, or no drinks at all, in a pub now because they’ve got the car.

@karencantobe I think it is slightly classist as I used to work in a pub in affluent Clifton, Bristol. Anyone who is thinks middle class mums are any more refined when it comes to drinking around young children would do well to go there on a weekend afternoon. We used to host children's birthday party's, in what is essentially a local boozer. Yes they did food but must people went just for drinks. Did the mums hosting young Tobias or Jago's second birthday stop at two glasses of Malbec? Did they 'eck!
Banning children isn't the answer in my opinion. I'm half Spanish and there's kids in restaurants and bars everywhere till gone midnight sometimes. Very little antisocial behaviour from parents. It's the UK's messed up relationship with alcohol, lots of people drink to get hammered. I blame the weather and lack of openness myself.

After having to look after a baby and toddler brought in by police because the mother was in an drunken stupor. I would say thos policy is reasonable and has clearly been brought in for a reason. I.e many incidents before this was brought up to manage the risk

There's a Weatherspoons near me that has done this for the last year or so. They implemented it after a 'mother's got so bolloxed with her DC she puked on her plate at the table whilst eating with them.

I go to my local pub with my DC fairly frequently over summer. I'm not adverse to having a pint while they play in the outdoor play area. I've also got tipsy when out for meals. I don't however get absolutely steaming when I'm out with them, if another spoons has had to implement this they've done it for a reason.

I worked at Spoons ten years ago and this has always been their policy.

Once a woman came up to the bar I sold her a bottle of wine not knowing she had a baby with her. She ended up wrecked, changed the babies shitty nappy on the table and just left it there when she walked out - angry because my manager refused to sell her any more booze.

Not sure why anyone wants to get pissed with their kids in spoons anyway.

I think it is more about making sure the DCs are under control and safe, If I go into any pub , not just a WS and there are kids charging around I will walk out straight away , but if they are been well behaved I am fine , regardless as to how much the parents have drank .
There is no saying that just because they have not had a alcoholic drink that they will keep their kids under control .

The idea of parents taking children into pubs is definitely a modern thing. My parents weren't pub goers (except for a bona fide three course meal) but DH remembers sitting outside pubs regularly in the 1970s with a packet of crisps and The Dandy while his parents were inside.

It was the families with children that kept our pub going tbh. However the kids were always warned that they could play but to be mindful of others and the parents were told to keep an eye on their own children.

Middle class mums are just as capable of getting drunk and unable to look after their dcs. I've seen it.
The pub culture in Scotland has always been less family friendly. The new drink drive laws have only been in place a few years. Hardly enough to explain the difference.

I definitely think that two alcoholic drinks whilst the kiddies smear baked beans and icecream over the table is plenty.

But then, again, my opinion is probably clouded by the way that a friend was verbally abused by a completely pissed up bloke at 12.30pm because he hear her swear when speaking to me at our table as he stumbled past to get to the bar. According to him, because there were children with him - about halfway across the pub again where he'd left them unattended to buy more beer - she should 'show some fucking respect when there's fucking children present'.

It's not a class thing. It's a don't get trollied and be a dick to other people when you're supposed to be looking after your children thing.

@Genvonklinkerhoffen do not give out grammar advice when you don't have a clue. Apostrophes are NEVER used for pluralisation!!

I don't see the point of the rule. If parents want to drink they'll just go to the next pub with their children. Weatherspoons haven't done anything special or helped the children with parents who drink a lot.
So why is it such a great rule?
Years ago we went to Weatherspoons for Sunday lunch and were told when we entered that all the adults could only have 2 drinks, even though some of the people in the party weren't parents. I thought that was a bit weird.
Not sure about the rules in our local Weatherspoons now as I think the choice of food is rubbish now so don't go there.

If parents want to drink they'll just go to the next pub with their children.

Wetherspoons, though, is particularly cheap, so attracts a certain market - i.e. people drinking to get drunk - in addition to diners, people just having the one drink and so on.

Parents kicked out of Wetherspoons who want to get drunk are more likely to go home to carry on drinking, but their children are probably safer in their own house than inadequately supervised in a pub, and will at least have their usual toys, books etc. to keep them occupied.

If parents who aren't drinking to get drunk have to go to another pub to have that last drink, then no great harm has been done.

I'm half Spanish and there's kids in restaurants and bars everywhere till gone midnight sometimes

But that's because people don't go out for dinner until 10pm so it's probably equivalent to 8pm in the UK.

Also not sure about Spain but in France the children don't seem to run about screaming when out for a neal. Think don't know many French but the ones I do know go for a meal with their children and tend to only have one drink anyway. I don't know if that's typical though

If there’s two things you absolutely cannot do properly when drunk, it’s drive and take care of children. I’d happily ban alcohol completely though

@Rosebel Wetherspoons aren't doing it because they care if they parents go out and get pissed, they just don't want to deal with the consequences on their premises. And why should they, they're running a business.