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 don’t have an issue with kids and families in pubs etc when eating out (I have kids myself and we take them
out). The issue is with badly behaved kids and parents who do nothing about it. It’s not acceptable to be running around and making noise that impacts others in your vicinity. That’s not a pub issue, it’s a “being generally shitty, selfish and entitled in public” issue.

If you’re taking your young kids out you should make sure they have something to entertain themselves. Colouring, a book, games, little toys. It’s not difficult! And if you are letting your kid have screen time, then turn the sound down. It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense for going anywhere with young kids where they might get bored 🤷🏻‍♀️

You need to go to pubs with better parents on them.

This.

Our local pubs wouldn't survive if they didn't let families in.

The problem is not children being allowed in pubs, it's poor parenting. Well behaved children sitting at the table chatting quietly with their parents or siblings wouldn't be an problem, surely?

🤔 I'm actually baffled by this. Where I live there's loads of pubs to go to if you don't want children Jusf because it's not that type of place even during the day. Not because they ban children, you just wouldn't take kids in there, it's more of a bar vibe than a restaurant. I was in turtle Bay just yesterday, they don't serve child friendly food really. I wouldn't take my kids turtle bay for food anyway. We had bottomless brunch there & we was a howling group of mums drinking during the day 🤣 I wouldn't want my kids around that to take them there lol.

I don't mind kids being there for Sunday lunch.

But I'd happily ban children from pubs Monday-Saturday.

This is true, nobody drinks at lunchtime any more except in the soaps!

Being 'family' or 'child' friendly does not mean anything goes. I'm not sure why this point gets lost. There is a world.of difference between loudish chatty excited kids at the table and out of control kids running around being a nuisance to staff and other patrons.

@ItsCalledAConversation I agree with you completely on all of this. Mine are 6,8 and 10

its important! And yes to screen time other times we aren’t Amish!! ;)

We've got a pub/restaurant near us that only allow over 12's generally, but no kids, of any age, allowed after 6pm.

It's always busy, so I guess a lot around her prefer "child free". It's also "dog free" other than assistance dogs.👍

Our kids have literally never watched screens at the table. It’s the one single sloppy parenting thing I fully judge people for.

Just the one? I somehow imagine there are plenty more @ItsCalledAConversation.

We resorted to gadgets occasionally when out and about when the DC were small. DS1 is now 14 and, despite my 'sloppy parenting', he loves being in company, is well mannered and contributes very thoughtfully to conversations. He doesn't whip out an iPad just because we resorted to it a few times when he was little.

So there was "a noisy family" and now suddenly all kids shouldn't be allowed in pubs? If an adult between 40 and 50 years old pissed you off at your local would you want to ban everyone in that age range?

"Unacceptable behaviour" is subjective anyway. I have a high tolerance of others and don't believe people should pander to me so I don't really care if there is noise when going out. Others are different. Pubs shouldn't change their rules and lose custom for the few

Our local pub doesn't allow children under the age of 14, even then they have to sit down one end of the pub and have to be out by 8.00.
I have grown children, but they never made a racket in pubs. They sat and ate. Yes, sometimes they had screens but we didn't go out to eat often so they made the most of it and kept themselves amused while we ate.And sometimes parents just want to eat a meal in peace without their kids telling them they're bored every 3 minutes!
I've had 2 kids of my own
I work with children. I don't want to go out for a long awaited meal only to have a pub full of kids being left to their own devices because the parents want to get pissed. And finding a kid free pub is almost impossible!

I would say 90% of people would be fairly aligned as to what '"Unacceptable behaviour" is with regards to children's conduct in pubs. It is the entitled 10% who think a child friendly venue should have to put up with any old shit.

Horses! Why not horses in pubs?

If a pub serves food of course it's going to attract families. I don't have an issue with this at all. Plenty of pubs that don't serve food.

If they were in there late that's a different story but you can't really complain if it was midday tbh.

I don't agree with people bringing their dogs in though especially when you're there to eat and their is a dog at the next table. Makes me want to vomit.

*ItscalledAConversation
*
Absolutely spot on.

Very unpopular view on here because people don't like to think of themselves as lazy. When they are.

Then you will get the whiney 'don't judge' comments from the intellectually challenged who have yet to work out that an entire platform made up of opinions is literally inviting judgement. Besides - like 'mind your own business' , 'don't judge' is a stupefyingly idiotic comment on an anonymous forum, from people with no ability to express their own opinion.

I take it you never go into Wetherspoons

I laughed at this post about no one drinks during the day 🤣 I love an afternoon pub lunch in the summer with a glass of wine lol

Fair enough, I agree with you

I'm guessing you don't drink every lunchtime or do this in the winter months?

Very few pubs are busy at lunchtime during the week with people just drinking. It's not sustainable for pubs to rely on this type of customer anymore.

Whatever they’re doing (and yes could be TTRS), they’re not interacting nicely with other humans, and that’s what being in the pub/ at a restaurant is all about. It’s not the quality of what they’re doing on a screen that I’m talking about, you’ve missed the point entirely. “Colouring” or “doing a jigsaw” on a screen is a totally different experience for a child, than doing this IRL alongside another human.

Speak for yourself 😁 You've not met my friends 🤣

Not since the Brexit referendum! What I meant was working people don’t go to the pub at lunchtime any more, retired folk not that often, my local is always pretty quiet at lunchtime. Not empty but quiet.

I’m 50/50 on it tbh. If they’re not bothering me then I’m ok with it, let’s face it a party of 10
adults at a birthday dinner can be pretty loud! However, when you get a kid running up to your knee every 30 seconds trying to show you their fire engine with no parent in sight, that’s annoying. And yes, that happened to me once 😆

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

sadly, the answer is about 20 years ago! Totally spoiled my good pub years!