To wish for an adults only pub?

[Floofydawg]

I mean, when did it become acceptable Saturday afternoon entertainment for small children to take them to the pub?

Walked into our local yesterday to what appeared to be a badly run nursery. One small child with iPad on, sound up. Large group of adults ignoring child, who is clearly bored. Starts crying loudly and mother/auntie decides to imitate child and pretend cry, very loudly.

Another group with four small children making a ridiculous amount of noise, so much so that the bar staff had to have a word with them as she couldn't hear to answer the phone. We were struggling to have a conversation.

Is it too much to ask for a quiet pint in a pub without having to listen to screeching kids?

I get finding loud children and kids running around annoying, but adults can be loud and annoying in pubs too

I don't get judging kids who are quiet on their ipads?

Children should not be running around it is not safe for the staff as well as being annoying

Staff should not have to do this but I have no issue if staff parents to control their children

Pubs are for everybody.

Yanbu. Pubs aren't for children.

They've got parks, soft play, each others houses, their own houses, cheap restaurants like harvester, plenty if other places to take them imo.

Kids in pubs = fine.
Kids in pubs with noisy screens / crappy parents who don't entertain them / keep them quiet = not fine.

Generally standards of public behaviour have gone down (cf. people talking and looking at phones in cinemas).

I don't get judging kids who are quiet on their ipads?

Well this kid wasn't quiet on their iPad - sound up loud, and kid screaming.

I think the difference is, kids were better behaved back then.

Yanbu so long as you're happy to cover the costs of all the business they lose. You say it's a nice pub in a quiet area, do you think they can afford to lose not just the business of those two families on the day you care to go, but every family with a child under 18 every day?

Our local pub has TV screens in the booths and a play area. Xmas it ran 4 meet Santa breakfasts and it also does lots of family activities over the school holidays. It's currently opening two hours later weekday mornings because it's struggling.
What use is it to you closed down?

I think what you describe sounds more like poor parenting. And pubs are noisy places anyway, why would you want to go into a quiet pub?

How is it that those better behaved children didn’t manage to bring up well behaved children themselves?

I was speaking generally

I’d pay extra for there to be no children or dogs at a pub. 😃

What's the difference between a Harvester and any chain pub like Hungry Horse? Genuine question. I wouldn't have considered Harvester a "restaurant" altho it self identifies as one.

Parks, great in decent weather for a picnic. Not so great in cold, wet weather for a picnic. No thanks.
Soft play is frigging expensive. £7 a head, 3 kids, special socks if you can't find yours and that's before you buy a tiny coffee or an overpriced slushie!

OP people like you need to get spending more money. At the moment people with children in tow are spending more money than you, so they aren’t going to be excluded from the pub. You need to be spending spending spending and encourage others like you to do so, to make it viable and attractive to pub owners where you are

I was at a work function at the Grand in Brighton, it was half-term, but, so many kids in the bar area on tablets, no headphones the pianist couldn't be heard above their racket.

Our local used to have a separate lounge area for families with food which worked well however the huge company that own is (Greene King) want all their pubs selling food more than drink and have opened the full bar up.

Tbh they have spoiled it and it's keeping people away who would normally pop in for a few drinks here and there as there are families sitting in the bar and kids running about.

It's not the relaxing place it once used to be.

What's wrong with a quiet pub?? Igo to the pub to study over breakfast because it's a nice quiet, ambient noise. Child free I love sitting in a pub and having a drink and a chat which requires a level of quietness so your not screaming at each other. Nothing against kids in pubs, just confused why you're aghast at liking a quiet pub

This.

Well behaved kids are fine. I have noticed a trend recently even in restaurants for kids at a table to be allowed to play on an ipad with the volume full up. Absolutely no consideration for other diners at all.

🙄 intolerant and just as entitled as the parents you complain about. If you want peace and quiet have a mean in

Except some pubs clearly aren't, they are geared towards being adult only areas and state as much on the door. Other pubs make a big effort to be family friendly, children's menus, play areas, crayons and paper etc. It does not take a lot of effort to find out what venue is more suited to a child. One of my pet hates is when the 'we have just as much right to be here' crowd barrel into some quiet atmospheric boozer and make it sound like a soft play centre. Equally, I would be a bit of a moron if went to the child friendly pub and start complaining about the noisy kids on the climbing frame in the garden. Pick your boozer according to your needs, don't impose your values on the pub.

How is it being entitled to expect others to behave reasonably around you? How is it acceptable to make so much noise that pub staff can't even hear to answer the phone to a customer and have to ask the family to keep the noise down?

Clearly people should be allowed to act like arseholes in public according to you.

I love a quiet pub, and no I don't mean absolute silence, I mean just low key, no music, no football on the TV, no fruit machines, just a nice ambient environment where you can have relaxed conversation with friends without having to raise your voice. Thankfully my local is exactly like this, the landlord wants it like that and will ask noisy punters to keep the noise down. If I want noisy I go to the music pub nearby!

I don't mind kids in the pub and would expect a certain amount of noise. But I do mind when parents are too busy yammering to be aware of how their children may be impacting other customers. That goes for any setting that is not traditionally set up for children. Obviously I expect a LOT of noise at soft play! I think giving them a iPad is fine as long as the sound isn't turned up loud.

I do understand that parents get carried away chatting, especially at the end of a child focused day and they're glad to have a grown up conversation, but then they shouldn't get shirty when someone points out that little Nigel is crawling under people's feet or little Vera is squawking loudly beside some lucky group's table. (Old fashioned names chosen so as to minimise chances of causing offence 🤣) I must admit, I used to find when I was out with my friend, when our kids got a bit older (7 or 8) plonking them at their own table (if it wasn't busy of course) kept them quiet as they seemed to have plenty to whisper about out of our earshot and they liked the feeling of being grown up and tended to behave surprisingly well!

Why did they wait to tell you till after they had served you drinks, thsts out of order, unless Dd wasn’t there initially

We take our DC to the pub quite a bit just for a drink. We take board games, children have a hot chocolate and they love it. They ask to go. We often see lots of kids however sitting with parents who ignore them and kids then run riot. Not their fault! It’s the parents fault in that case.
Our kids enjoy going with us. In the summer this changes to outside pub gardens with a playground. We don’t go in the evening as I think that’s adult time x