Restaurants should have a child free section

[Hdaniels11]

I keener old smoking/non smoking sections at restaurants. They should do the same thing with children/no children sections. I was at a testy with a few friends last night and the table next to mine had two screaming children. Another table had their 4 maybe 5 year old son stun up and down the aisle nearly knocking over the waitress with a tray full of drinks. We asked to move because it was just too noisy and disturbing, after that we had no more distractions and were actually able to converse with one another.

A lot of that reminds me of my sister, her husband believes in being the kids "friend" rather than the parent and says things like "boys will be boys" and "they are just getting their energy out" i just roll my eyes when he says that. NO it's a restaurant not a playground.

As a parent myself i actually think it's a good idea from the other side. It's embarrassing to have your child screaming and acting a fool in public, Around other parents you would at least get a little more empathy.

Just go somewhere higher end for an 8pm sitting. Much less likely to encounter our horrid brats.

We all have things we’d like to be away from such as noisy big groups of adults. Some people would like to be away from drunk people etc.

I think if you start with child free sections you’d end up with all kids off restrictions which would just cause confusion, and possibly end up with discrimination going on.

I've never had this problem tbh. Just go to more adult places at less child friendly times. You can't go to say pizza hut at 6pm and moan about kids being there.

Our local carvery pub type place has a child free area, it’s bliss.

From the moment my eldest son started speaking, I've responded to him shouting in supermarkets, cafes, etc, by asking if he can hear anybody else shouting. I've then explained that shouting isn't allowed and, if he doesn't stop, we'll be told to leave and not come back.

It really isn't hard to do.

Nobody expects young children to behave like adults, but they are expected to behave reasonably, for their age, or be removed by their parents.

Many places simply can't afford that. Same reason they tolerate drunk adults and annoying people. They can't afford to turn away the custom.

This happened when i was in a coffee shop last week

www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/4717284-did-i-deal-with-this-ok?reply=123136982

If anything this could be positive for the industry, they could change for access to the child free section, I’d pay up

I had very well behaved children, as all of my grandchildren are. We could take them anywhere. I think if adults want to eat in peace they should go somewhere parents would be discouraged from taking their child due to the cost of the meal/no child’s menu and pay the price for a meal in a child free zone. But even then there will be people who can take their children out for decent meal so you’d just have to suck it up they’re there.

Oh God this again. I have literally never been bothered by other people’s kids when I’ve eaten out. Where do you all live where all these inept parents and their feral kids inhabit?

That would be great. I don’t eat out often but when I do I get the screaming baby next to me…. Every time!! Their parents usually look very stressed, why do they put themselves through it? I could never be arsed to take mine at that age.

Definitely. Even if I'm having a pub lunch the child on the next table is either shrieking or playing their iPad at a deafening volume. Of course I've forgotten how obnoxious mine were, and just grumble about everyone else's these days 😁

I am still mortified about the one time we took DC1 to a very nice restaurant, thinking we could have a romantic lunch while she napped angelically in her pushchair. She woke up screaming and had a proper full on tantrum in the quietest smallest restaurant you can imagine. We stick to family friendly, busy restaurants after that and typically never had a repeat of the meltdown ever again.

@amylou8 no child should be allowed noisy devices in public. When I've had it and allow my toddler to watch something on my phone for ten minutes just for a moment's peace, it's only with the sound off.

YABU, also for comparing children to smokers. My last restaurant experience was spoilt by a group of 10+ noisy men who kept shouting and playing drinking games.

I don't see it very often in higher end restaurants but I have seen my fair share of some awfully bad behaviour in gastropubs where parents have basically dumped the kids on a seperate table and ignored them when they have started squabbling and shouting. Any polite requests from other diners or staff to calm them down is met with theatrical passive aggressive comments if not outright rudeness. Thankfully my local boozer has banned kids.

When we were without a kitchen, because we were having building worms at home, we ate out white a lot, albeit not in hugely expensive places.

One such place has a child's play area so I can't complain if there are kids in there. However, on each visit, I still asked if we could sit away from it.

It doesn't hurt to ask. They can only say no.

I agree. Once you are through that stage it’s just not pleasant being around it. Also when you are in the small children zone your tolerance for racket is high but that doesn’t go for everyone!

I suppose I get where you are coming from, but most places don't have separate rooms, it's usually all open in pub type restaurants. We don't eat at really fancy places, we go for pub restaurants when our children are with us as they aren't fancy (I'm not talking crappy brewers fayre or harvester type thing god no) so I don't feel terrible if they are a pain (happenened maybe once ever). I wouldn't object to sitting in a kids area, although I think having a designated kids area changes the face of the establishment, I doubt many nice pub restaurants would want to have such an area as it turns it into a brewers fayre type place and people are less likely to spend on alcohol in a family group, which is where all the profit is.

I had this chat with friends working in hospitality

they said they found it better to spread the kids around because

1. the waiters prefer it - imagine if your section was the child one

2. it should work better for customers because otherwise, if you're the seat nearest to the child packed section, you'll get worse noise

I used to eat out a lot but no longer. I would certainly have preferred childfree sections (and childfree restaurants). The most obvious time when division can be made is when the restaurant is on two floors or has, for example, a front room and a back room.

Wow! I would love a childfree pub!

This could be the downside. Mine was always well-behaved (easier to achieve with an only child, I think), but it would be much harder if surrounded by poorly behaved children. Someone else in the thread has mentioned needing a quieter area because their children are autistic, and that wouldn't work with child-free areas. Perhaps it works better when people just ask to be seated in a quieter area, although.

We always ate early when DD was small, not because of bedtime, but so that we were out before the main trade, and we certainly wouldn't have minded restrictions on times.

@TheFearIsNear

what’s wrong with Brewers Fayre or Harvester?

We tend to only take ours out for lunch and haven’t had a problem so far. We don’t do evening as ours are in bed by 19.30 and who wants the eat that early?! I haven’t encountered any screaming children at dinner, probably because we don’t go out until 21.00 and don’t tend to frequent places that have children there (they might, just never noticed any).

I would take sitting next to children over a stag/hen party any day though!!

At our local restaurant the staff always know to seat us away from any children, we have been going there for quite a few years so they know what I'm like!!