New Forest pub bans under 12 year olds...

[Dresssos]

m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10159581700162769&id=185263007768

It's all kicking off in the comments.

Do you agree with the pub's decision?

YABU No
YANBU Yes

This got me laughing out loud 😆

Fair enough, seen some truly awful kid behaviour, or rather negligent parenting, over the years. There's pubs aimed at families and others that allow them but the children need to be seated

@NannyAndJohn

God I wish all pubs would do this.

Especially in a Covid world.

Pubs going adult only isn't a big deal, there's plenty of choice and there's times where I go out with my husband I'd rather an adult only place myself but I don't agree that during covid all pubs shouldn't allow children in with their families.

We were out yesterday for a meal and if under 12s weren't allowed, the place would have been empty as it was mostly families celebrating Father's Day. We used to eat out once a week pre covid and we're now about once a fortnight, and yeah there's misbehaved kids sometimes but I do think it's the minority, I've seen way more meals out ruined by shitty behaviour of adults who know better, to be honest.

Absolutely more than fair enough. But I disagree with those saying 'all pubs should do this' - it's best if there are a variety of pubs, ones with tvs for football and ones without, ones with music and ones without, ones for standing at the bar (before/after covid) and ones all seated, ones for bringing children and ones for adults only... but just because a pub allows children does not mean they can run riot!!! we have an only child which is obviously easier, and he's now 7, but he sits at the table and chats to us and I always bring puzzle books or similar for him when he gets bored of our chat.

The comment about the child identifying as a 50 year old.

@3Britnee

Good. Children shouldn't be in pubs anyway. We need one last bastion of peace, at least.

I completely agree. I don't want kids in pubs at all.

Shame it isn't under 18s banned but better than nothing.

I think it’s absolutely fine in theory BUT what’s different about this pub and why people are a bit more miffed I think is it a 100% gluten free pub which is very rare!

Being gluten free myself, I know how exciting it is to find these places-especially for parents who have children with coeliac disease and worry so much about eating out. Apparently this place is quite near Peppa Pig world so I was really looking forward to going if I took my son there-not the end of the world but there’s so few places that cater to allergies (especially with kids) that I guess that’s why people are gutted.

And yes it used to be children only allowed on Sundays so this move makes it 100% child free.

Their pub, their choice.

It must have been pretty disruptive for a pub to turn away business.

The age limit seems weirdly high for the sort of behaviour they want to exclude. It sounds like the families they don't like had young kids. I can't imagine 10 -11 year olds still being problematic when out with families, even 8 or 9 is pushing it. I'm not saying 10 year olds all behave like angels, but running around creating loads of noise isn't generally an issue when with the family, even if the parenting is bad (different when they're with all their friends of the same age, but that's not the problem here).

The pub is entitled to do whatever they wish. However, the landlords post was unprofessional and ranty. I’m not sure I want to go to a pub with a landlord that talks like that to his customers.

Thankfully we have 3 local pubs and Wetherspoons takes the family crowd mostly, we stick to the other two, that said there were rowdy adults last week vocally complaining about the beer price, in the end another customer told them to go to Wetherspoons where they belong!

In general, I hate how un-child friendly this country is, and there's definitely a tendency for the child-haters to stick the boot in

I am putting my hard hat on.
It became un-child friendly simply because parents are getting worse in controlling the behaviour. Over 10 years in hospitality I can categorically say that it got worse. You know British families are famous abroad for these things too (sadly)? It's not just young kids in restaurants btw.

@Mumofsend

I have feral children. Wouldn't take them somewhere obviously adult orientated. There are plenty of places my children can be feral and not ruin everyone else's visit. Good for the pub.

What do your children do that leads you to describe them as feral?

I think the pub owner probably knows better than you how much of its revenue is generated by this group of customers.

Well given that they're incapable of dealing with one unruly family, to the point that the entire pub had their meals ruined, I would not assume they know what they're doing tbh!

(long-time waitress here)

We had this with a local restaurant

They banned all under 16s. Unfortunately it went from a restaurant where you queued to get in to empty apart from a few local pensioners. They sold the business and the new owners got rid of the ban and it went back to a thriving restaurant.
We used to use the restaurant a lot but then found we couldn’t go because of the child ban.

We always took our 2 out for dinner and lunch. They have grown up going out to eat. Both dc and I are being tested for ADHD and whilst it was a challenge keeping them seated we would take them out for walks around the garden or to look in shop windows between courses or bring colouring books etc and gradually things got better.
Unfortunately some parents don’t want to put themselves out.

We had a holiday in Portugal and Spain not long before lockdown last year and one of the things that amazed us then, amazes us on practically every trip to Europe, was how well-behaved continental children are in restaurants.

We sat next door to a delightful Belgian family with four children under 10 one evening and watched them all eating and talking without any of the shenanigans we'd have anticipated in a UK venue. Same in Spain: 10.30pm on a Friday night and families with young teens dining out together, talking to each other, no one having a strop or refusing to eat.

I think it’s pretty mean given it’s a gluten free pub and there aren’t many around.

I'd prefer it if they asked badly behaved customers (of any age) to leave, I thought that was part of a landlord's role, but equally don't object to some places being adults only.

I think there are far more badly behaved adults in pubs than there are badly behaved children.

Pubs are for adults though. That complaint would be valid at soft-play

I'm happy for business owners to run their business their way but it seems a shame that the families causing the problem couldn't be told to leave so that families with well behaved children can use the pub if they want to.

To be fair, there are plenty of nightmare children on the continent as well, but (in my experience) the difference is that then their parents don't take them out to eat, until they are older and can behave better.

we have a few pubs around here that don't allow under 21'/18's/16's/12's.

We have used them a lot including the ones that are a free for all until 9pm. Having age restrictions hasn't impacted their sales otherwise they'd have closed a long time ago.

There are lots of places that aren't suitable for children for whatever reason. Doesn't mean that those establishments are unfriendly or stuck up.

Having had several meals ruined by unruly, noisy children, it's a yes from me! Three weeks ago we went for dinner somewhere you'd have to drive to, and the couple on the next table had a young child in a high chair who screamed throughout the meal, it wasn't in any way distressed, in fact was quite happy but had obviously just learned how to scream in the most high pitched way imaginable; it was horrible! Staff were apologetic but unfortunately there were no other tables available being Saturday night!