To wonder what people do on holiday with a baby?

[NewHere83]

Husband and I are first time parents in our late 30s to a gorgeous 4 month old. We're currently on holiday in Scotland with the baby and our dog. Obviously she's too little for activities centered around her - like soft play etc, and probably couldn't bring the dog to those either - so we're mostly doing what we would have done before she arrived - sight-seeing, cafes, brewery tours etc, all a bit more slowly to account for feeds, changes and sleeps!

However, we were denied entry to a dog-friendly bar/brasserie at about 3.30 this afternoon on the grounds of the baby! When we asked for a table, the barmaid said "everyone has to be over 18", which really threw me at first as husband and I are very obviously over 18, until I realised she was talking about the sleeping 4 month old strapped to my chest.

This got me wondering whether we're doing this wrong..... Instead of just doing what we usually do, is there a different way we should be approaching a holiday with a baby? What do other people do?

This is the time to enjoy as close to a pre baby holiday post baby! You can get away with galleries, architecture, lunches etc. Toddler stage you need to factor in their needs.

I wouldn’t say you are doing it wrong, maybe a different restaurant next time.

Hah, enjoy it while you can! You wont have an easily portable sleepy non- mobile bundle for much longer

I think you're overthinking a single misjudged lunch location.

That’s exactly what you do! Ignore the one bar, and it sounds like you’ve had a great hol.

Make the next one

Exactly what you’re doing; enjoy it would be my advice.

You enjoy the holidays as you did pre children before you can’t do that anymore.

I will say that Scotland is weird with its rules in bars and restaurants. We took then 5 month old DD to Edinburgh and couldn’t get in anywhere. Never been anywhere like it before or since. Loved Scotland. Not a place for children though. Next holiday I’d recommend going somewhere else. You won’t encounter that issue in any other bars etc anywhere else

We did what you did! Think you just got unlucky with the bar.

Scotland's not a place for children. I live in Edinburgh and WTAF?

Ah OP, give it a few years and one of your holiday dealbreakers will be a heated pool with a sodding splash park. Like everyone else has said, enjoy being able to mooch around, before the soft plays start coming for ya!

I've been to Edinburgh, Glasgow too. Didn't see a single child the whole time. It's not a place for them. Surprised you haven't noticed it.

Just my experience. We literally couldn’t eat anywhere aside from Pizza Hut after 5pm. It was beyond annoying and left us with the impression Scotland isn’t child friendly. We actually ended up eating at Pizza Hut twice in a 3 day trip due to this and I don’t even like the place

Not being allowed into one pub would hardly change the rest, surely? Just carry on. When baby is mobile and needs entertainment- then your holidays will be very different!

Not sure where you were trying to go, but the vast majority of restaurants and pubs in the West of Scotland (where I live) most definitely allow children.

I think you are overthinking this. This encounter could have just as easily happened in your local as a bar on your holiday. I think most people with only one 4 month old would holiday like this.

@Gymmum82 🤣 when was this?! Where else did you try to get into?! I can honestly say we’ve never been turned away from a single place with DS and he’s now almost 3. We live in Scotland and travel around it fairly frequently! Edinburgh & Glasgow are so child child friendly!

We tried countless places in Edinburgh and were denied entry in to all of them because of the baby.

Other than nightclubs bars that don't accept any children are quite rare now to be honest
But yes until they can walk you pretty much do as you are, maybe with a few more zoos than breweries. But the dog can't go in the zoo.
It can be tricky with a dog and a toddler....you may have to do more outside activities.

We left our older 2 at home and took our 4mo away on a romantic break in cornwall as he didn't really count then - no opinions, couldn't move around independently. Was great! Haven't holidayed since as he's now absolutely wild. We are going to center parks at Xmas, and although I'm very excited, it's going to be so difficult.

Enjoy your time, and make the most of it whilst baby is a baby. As like others have said, a holiday isn't a holiday once little one gets older, as they need constant entertainment and stimulation. If anything holidays are harder as you don't have your home comforts!

A quick google suggests that bars and restaurants need a children’s licence and not many have them. Seemingly particularly in Edinburgh. Maybe it’s improved in recent years. It was difficult when we visited

Our son is 2.5 and only now have we started factoring in some things that he might enjoy on our holidays (a beach day, a place with a big garden and playground, an aquarium etc), before that he was a bit of a passenger really with no opinion on what we did.

Next year's holiday is to Vienna when we'll hopefully have a three month old in tow as well and I've already started to look for some child friendly (but also interesting and cultural for us!) places to go.

I've got a 20 month old and we still do mostly what we would have done pre-child - this summer holiday we did castles, beaches, walks, museums, gardens, boat trip, meals out. Carry on as you are doing!

We've been on holidays with dcs from the age of 3 months. We've often just done self-catering as the timing is easier, or takeaway in an apartment, but never had an issue with the restaurants we go to. We've done sightseeing like castles and museums, sometimes finding lovely baby/child-friendly play areas, we look up local soft play and play cafes, go to parks and beaches and playgrounds and splash areas. We started doing more baby-friendly things once they were crawling. These days our holidays are centred around the dc, but we like to do a bit of sightseeing that's easy for them (e.g. boat tour or trip up a tall landmark, not too much walking and preferably with a kids audio guide).

We've done a few Butlins trips which were brilliant for toddlers upwards, some seaside holidays, city breaks and theme parks.

We’ve got a 9 month old and we’ve never been denied entry anywhere - so I think you’ve just been really unlucky. I wouldn’t over think it based on that one place.

We take him out for a meal with us most weekends. Over the summer he’s been in cafes, beer gardens, garden centres etc and he loved it. Been the beach, the farm and the zoo as well.

IIRC when DD was under about 18 months, I basically died of boredom on holiday 😂