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?

I'm shocked by the number of posters who's fathers left them alone in cars whilst they proceeded to get drunk. Disgusting behaviour.

I've never witnessed children running around unsupervised in spoons, though I'm not a regular.
I always thought spoons attracted drunks as it's cheap and doesn't appear to stop serving drink people.

I think 'disgusting' is a little harsh when you're speaking about an era 40 - 50 years ago, emily. It would be different if you were talking about the present era. The 1970s/80s were a completely different world. Lots of things went on that would be completely unacceptable now, but because lots of people did them, they were seen as normal. I imagine a person from 2060 would look back at some things we take for granted now and think they were disgusting or strange.

In the mid 70s-early 80s I was one of the those kids spending all weekend in the pub car park.They would make a bed up in the boot and we would sleep in there so all day and night.We were the only kids doing that.Sooo boring.Neglect now.Plus the drink driving home.It was both my parents.Anyway-Wetherspoons:I think this is a really good idea.

Bloody hell. I was a child in the 70s and I've never known anybody whos parents did that.
I would have been out of my mind being left alone all that time, shut in a car just so my parents could get pissed.
Wow, it makes the parents in Wetherspoons look like model citizens.
I really don't get it. Then again I put my children first and am a firm believer in if you can't do that then for the love of God stay child free!!!!

Thinking about it when my dc were very young, I used to meet with friends and Westlake them to Wackey Warehouse type places. They didn't even serve alcohol in the same room as we sat in, just soft drinks- both hot and cold.

It was neglect in the 70s and 80s. The equivalent are parents in Weatherspoons or other pubs or wine bars, drinking while their kids are left to get on with it. It happens a fair bit, but others still see it for the neglect it is.

Wetherspoons can fuck off.

I think it’s a good idea. The amount of times I’ve been in a pub and seen parents getting wasted while their DC run riot with no supervision is staggering. Who needs more than two drinks while out with the DC anyway?

I’m not sure however that they do always enforce this. I never have more than two drinks when I’ve been with DS, I rarely have a second, but DS said when he used to go in their with his father his dad would have several pints without question.

While I don’t agree having lots to drink with DC in tow is acceptable and I wouldn’t do it personally, I expect if they have no reason to notice you they won’t enforce the rule, because what member of bar staff can keep track of the consumption of individual customers in a busy pub unless they happen to notice them acting inappropriately.

I work in a Wetherspoon and this has always been a policy but it is up to the individual manager as to whether it is inforced.
I think that the manager at this particular pub has obviously had a problem with this and so put the sign up and for some reason it's ended up all over the news.
My pub doesn't have this rule, I don't know why I think it's a good one. I think we've just never felt the need for it. We are allowed to refuse to serve anyone who we feel has had enough anyway and a fierce staff member who has, no problem with telling kids to sit down and stop running about whatever their parents think about that!

There are over 900 Wetherspoons in Britain and I can imagine some of them are total dives. However not all are.
Mine is in a small market town in a lovely old building and its full of all kinds of different people.
Families with children, lots of retired people who like to come in for the free refill coffee or fish and chips, business people who use the free WiFi on their laptops, tourists.
We have people who come on on their own and sit with a book and a fair few older regulars who come in on their own and like to chat to the staff,im glad they find it a friendly, nice place to do that maybe they would be lonely if not.

There is a lot of snobbery about Wetherspoon pubs. I've seen some awful things said on here about them and some pretty offensive things including comments like Wetherspoon staff are not known for their intelligence and the kitchen staff are too stupid to be trusted with knives.

I do respect and understand people's views on Tim Martin though and their right to boycott if it's important to them.

I have sometimes thought about starting an ask me anything about Spoons because of some of the bizarre things I've seen written on here.
NO the food and drink is not cheap because its out of date

There’s nowt wrong with a Spoons, it’s certainly not out of date. Mostly their beer is good too, apart from one of the Spoons in the centre of the town where I live, where it’s not the best. Never had a truly awful pint at anyone of them though.

milybrontescorsett Sun 26-Jan-20 10:32:48
Bloody hell. I was a child in the 70s and I've never known anybody whos parents did that.
I would have been out of my mind being left alone all that time, shut in a car just so my parents could get pissed.
......
I can't imagine it either, emily and I'm a lot older than you but didn't know of any parents who did that. Mine certainly wouldn't have thought of it. However one of my mother's older brothers and his wife were apparently so inclined and my gran (mum's mum), took their youngest child to live with her because she disapproved of him being taken to the pub every day. He did live with her until he was grown up, he was like a little brother to my mother. He had two older siblings but gran wasn't able to take them when they were small because she had more children herself at home at that time (she had ten, my mum was youngest).

It was very irresponsible and showed lack of self control. It's beyond me, we surely have to set a good example to our children - not strait laced but fairly decent.

Who cares? If you're so desperate to get drunk whilst your children run around unsupervised then just go somewhere else. No one is forcing you to go to WS.

I'm trying to think of a situation where I would sit and have more than two drinks while I was out with my young kids. I really can't think of one. If I get pissed I do it when my kids aren't with me.

Wetherspoons can fuck off.

Interesting reaponse, I think it must come from someone who gets pissed whilst letting kids run riot.

It was neglect in the 70s and 80s. The equivalent are parents in Weatherspoons or other pubs or wine bars, drinking while their kids are left to get on with it. It happens a fair bit, but others still see it for the neglect it is.

I completely agree. It was wrong to take your kids to the pub and leave them in the car or on a bench outside when you had several drinks in 1973.

It's still wrong now that you can take your children into family areas of pubs and have several drinks with them sitting in front of you. Having a drink or two with a family meal is one thing, but taking your children with you when you go out drinking is just wrong. If you want to get pissed get a baby sitter.

I wonder how many of the people commenting about 2 drinks being right would feel the same way if a restaurant refused to serve them a bottle of wine to share with their DH as part of their meal if they had children with them.

I think the day I realised that fatherhood had changed everything for me was when I took the little monkey (aged about 18 months) through to Newcastle. Just the two of us - a ride on a train, a look at a kiddie-friendly exhibition and soft play at the Baltic.

Gets to lunchtime, and I'm thinking 'no bother, I know loads of places for food in Newcastle'. Then I remember they are all pubs and - for various reasons - I wouldn't take a toddler into any of them. No beer for me, and off to the café at the museum for sausage and chips. Admittedly, I did stop in the excellent bottle shop at Newcastle station to pick up a couple of treats for when we got home.

Children shouldn’t be in pubs never took mine in one. Alcohol and kids don’t mix. Sorry I agree with it

Gastro pubs are OK surely? The restaurant part is separate from the bar. Carveries are lovely for a Sunday lunch treat, we often went and didn't see families boozing at the table with their kids present.

Broken a bottle of wine pretty much is two drinks, plus one to share. The point is that a couple ordering a bottle of wine over lunch or dinner with their kids are not getting drunk and are unlikely to be trying to order a second one.

I think it's an excellent rule and should be commonplace over all establishments. There's never any need to booze it up when the kids are around, and if it results in fewer children running riot disturbing everyone else while their parents get bladdered in a corner then it's a plus for both kids and other punters.

And for the record I'd be absolutely fine with not having a bottle of wine to share with my husband over dinner if our kids were with us. I don't tend to drink at all when the kids are around anyway so it's no bother at all. If I want wine then we go out without the kids.

I wonder how many of the people commenting about 2 drinks being right would feel the same way if a restaurant refused to serve them a bottle of wine to share with their DH as part of their meal if they had children with them.

If the parents share a bottle of wine, who is driving?

If the parents share a bottle of wine, who is driving?

Why would anyone need to be driving?
Lots of people go out within walking distance?

Broken a bottle of wine pretty much is two drinks, plus one to share. The point is that a couple ordering a bottle of wine over lunch or dinner with their kids are not getting drunk and are unlikely to be trying to order a second one.

It is 6 drinks- so 3 each and so above the Wetherspoons limit. There are 6 glasses of wine in a bottle.

Perhaps one has more wine than the other? DH and I share a bottle of wine all the time with a meal. If he decides he wants more than he can drive on we get a taxi and go back for the car in the morning.

We didn’t do that when we had kids with us though, but when they were small we never got drunk in a pub or restaurant with them with us anyway. Wouldn’t have dreamt of it. Even now we only get drunk if it’s a party of some sort, or a big night out that isn’t a dinner for two.

Broken it depends on the glass sizes and measures.