To tell off kids in the pub

[ReallyFkReally]

Out for drinks in our local, lots of kids around due to fireworks which didn’t make it especially chilled but one particular group sitting there playing on iPads which was quite annoying so I asked them to turn it down/use headphones. Cue massive over reaction from parents saying they’re quite within their rights, we upset the kids etc etc.

AIBU to think that after 8pm on a Friday night in a pub is adult time and if you’ve got kids there you look out for them not leave an iPad as a babysitter

It’s not a pub that serves food so no ‘family dining’ being ruined.

Either you’ve got utterly woeful comprehension or you’ve quoted the wrong person. I’ve never said or implied that.

Pick the parent who can't be arsed and whose little darlings "don't like headphones".

Anyone playing sounds from an electronic device in public without headphones is an antisocial twat. Kids have an excuse for antisocial twattery as it's on their parents to try to teach them what's socially acceptable and what's not - and what's socially acceptable is largely based on impacts on other people and the idea that society only works with a degree of reciprocal respect.

We were sat in a pub last night and there was a group of boys on the next table. They were being very loud, swearing, shouting, using derogatory language. I didn’t go over and ask them to be quiet and use their indoor voices, or stop swearing, because it’s a pub and they were enjoying themselves. What I did do is move tables. The boys were all adult.
If the pub allows children in, then it’s hard luck. It’s certainly not your place to police their volume.

obviously watching an iPad without headphones in public ought to be illegal, but well behaved, quite under 18s ought to be allowed in a pub whenever. There are many reason why people aren’t having kids, and one of them is attitudes like this.

Ynbu

i hate this at anytime ! The amount of times I’m on a lane or train or in a cafe and parents give their kids phones or iPads to either play games on or watch programmes and they don’t use headphones. So bloody annoying

lazy Crap parenting and selfish ones too

The children are not at fault here. The blame lies with the parents who have probably just 'dumped' their children in a corner of the pub somewhere whilst they have a drinking session.

The children have to amuse themselves somehow and they have been given ipads so they are using them.

Thinking back to the days when I was one of those children in the 70s and 80s who was just forgotten about whilst my parents drank heavily - the time in the pub sometimes really dragged. Some pubs used to have games rooms or had child-friendly pub gardens but other pubs just provided nothing.

Anyway, it is not a library, it's a pub so it is usually lively with music/chat so I don't agree with you telling off the children for wanting to keep themselves occupied with ipads.

But they weren’t well behaved and quiet! The parents were rude and entitled though so no wonder the kids had no manners.

I expect noise in a pub - music, swearing, whatever. But I don’t want to listen to a kid’s iPad game in what is essentially an adult environment.

We love to spell too

YANBU
Wtf are some parents so against headphones? I know some people say 'my kids won't wear them' - that's fine, in which case they need to play with sound off (and iPad is so addictive they will do this)

Our pub has a rule which states that no children are allowed in the pub after 7.30, which i think is very fair!

How loud were the ipads that they weren’t drowned out by the pub noise?

I don’t really care if kids are on ipads, they aren’t my kids, least they were sitting down not running around screaming or climbing on tables.

Issue is with the parents they should have turned the ipads down and you should have asked them not the kids. Poor kids were probably knackered and just wanted to go home.

We had a lunch out lad Saturday there were 3 children under 5 running around screaming, the little two year old who was sweet kept coming up to our dog, however there was no parent to supervise or ask is she was okay to pat. It was a big pub with lots of rooms and the parents had no visibility. It had a big car park on to a duel carriageway. I’m sure they were fine but always kept out little DcS with us and we always explained expectations if we went anywhere.

YANBU, we’ve been taking our kids out to the pub since they were born - either for a family meal or stopping for a glass of wine (us) or a juice (them) on the way back from a family day out. They’re now 5 and 3 and their behaviour when we’re in a pub/restaurant is excellent, partly I think because they’ve had it drummed into them how they behave when we’re out. And they’re fairly rowdy kids when we’re outside/at home so I’m under no illusions 😉So I have no problem seeing kids in the pub, I actually think it’s good training for going to more formal places when they’re older IF the parents are prepared to actually parent them (ours would never be in a pub later than 7pm given their ages but I’m sure when they’re older I wouldn’t rule it out, depending on the pub. There are plenty of places I don’t want to be after 7pm!)

However, any use of a tablet or phone without headphones - by a child or adult, in any public place - should be punishable by hanging IMO. It’s so incredibly and horribly antisocial.

Both my kids have Amazon Fire tablets that are used in very limited circumstances - long distance travel and, for my youngest, at his sisters swimming lesson as it’s not an environment you can colour or do jigsaws in. But if we forget the headphones, the sound is off, and if that’s a problem, the device is off.

Well obviously loud enough that we could hear them and be disturbed by them. I probably should have asked the parents but they were getting pissed enjoying themselves in a different room so there was no way of telling who the kids were with.

I work in a pub and I think you should have spoken to the staff about it. It would have saved you getting into conflict with the parents.
We have a policy that any tech needs to have the volume down or wear headphones to be respectful to other customers. That includes adults as well as children!

I would have told the parents that they need to be sat with their kids supervising them and that the ipads needed to be turned down or headphones used.
If they gave me any trouble i could radio a manager.

Anyone who thinks that is unreasonable or you should have minded your own business probably let their feral kids annoy the general public.

YANBU with bells on.

If parents have to use this technique for entertainement anywhere including planes, pubs ie anywhere public they should have headphones or not use them.

went out for a nice meal with family on Christmas Day and was ruined by the din of Conputer games kids were playing at the (more than one) table. I mean what level of cf is this. Never eaten out again. Happy with chatter and laughter but not an orchestra of electronic dings, bells, wizzes and whoops. If you must use headphones!

I would find another pub, and let the management of the one you are leaving know why they won’t be getting your custom any more. If they lose paying customers in significant numbers they might rethink their policies about when to allow children in during “adult” hours.

YANBU- we only generally go to a pub for food, but when we do we do bring iPads for my children to play games on I however bring their headphones, I wouldn’t allow them to have it loud enough to annoy other customers and their parents shouldn’t of neither it’s common courtesy and manners!

I don’t like your comment on ‘iPads babysitting’ as you don’t know their circumstances.

YANBU this is so annoying. I would feel the 6as you.

Parents were twats so not that surprising the kids were too. Twats because they weren’t with their kids keeping an eye on them, twats to think that volume with no headphones is every acceptable in a public place. No matter how noisy a place is, that tinny pitch of electronic sounds always cuts through.

So - a group of men, then. So completely nothing to do with the OP’s situation.

But the parents weren’t looking after them! I’m assuming you mean maybe they had additional needs or something in which case surely all the more reason to be keeping an eye on them not leaving them unsupervised.

Hard agree. Adults deserve somewhere they can congregate without kids.

Agreed. Some parents are so entitled and think their kids have a right to destroy the experience of everyone around them. It they need to bring them to the pub then bring headphones. So many people seem to have zero consideration.