Kids should not be in pubs after 6pm?

[ChamonixMountainBum]

Just that really. Evening time in the pub is for adult relaxation and socialising, not somewhere for meeting the needs of young children. I just want to chill out and enjoy a glass of wine without an infant screaming from a buggy, kids on screens or toddlers running about. Yes, I am having a bit of a moan but the last few times I have been in pubs in my area there have been kids still knocking about well past 8pm with parents barely keeping them in check. Can we have pubs in the evening as adult only spaces please.

I wish they would have a law where children aren't allowed in pubs after X time as its such a grey area.
I have children and take them to our local with us but only when its beer garden weather and always during the day as I'm conscious of people there who use the pub to relax 🤣

Err 7/8pm

sometimes parents want to chill out and have a night off cooking

At all? They’d lose a lot of custom if so.

A lovely, dog friendly gastro pub with a fire, children’s menu and play area outside are fantastic for a Sunday lunch after a dog walk and much cosier and child friendly than most restaurants.

My wonderful local doesn’t allow kids at all, except in the beer garden. That’s as it should be I think.

Depends on the type of pub, a family style pub with kids menu serving food is very different to what I call an old man’s pub that doesn’t serve food.

For the family style pub with food upto 8pm is ok in my book if they have sat for a meal at 6ish. I wouldn’t expect many kids to still be up past 8ish.

For old man pub with no or little food I don’t think it’s appropriate to ever take a child.

Our Valentine’s Day was ruined by screaming babies in the restaurant between 6-8pm. Two seperate families two screaming babies. Everyone in the restaurant was long at each other & wincing with the sound. Taking kids to Family pubs is one thing, a fancy Italian restaurant on valentines is another.

In Ireland it is illegal for anyone U18 to be in a pub after 9pm whether they serve food or not. I know it can catch a lot of tourists out particularly in the summer when it is nearly 10pm before the sun sets.

I think private functions are exempt

Bar areas sure, but not restaurant sections if having a meal. I travel solo with my grandson a lot. If we are away on holiday and been climbing mountains all day or doing long distance hikes, why shouldn't we be allowed to go to the pub for dinner afterwards?

But I also have rules about no running around and no devices at tables (unless looking at the days photos or planning hiking routes/next day activities while waiting for the food). Meal times are times to sit and talk for families. I don't see how us sitting having a meal together would bother anyone around us.

It’s used to be about 6ish around here. I just googled our local to have a look at says 9:30 weekdays and Friday -Sunday 9pm. I’m actually shocked. Fair enough I suppose if having a meal and behaving but able to be in a pub while parents drink and they just entertain themselves until that time has shocked me. Saying that at a 90s baby

So what do you do if you are in the middle of nowhere, doing a long hike with a child and a dog, and the only place to grab a meal is a country pub? Some really remote places the pub is all there is

A local Wetherspoons had several buggies and infants inside the pub at 11 pm last time I was in town. Poor little things. The parents didn't seem in a fit state to get themselves home safely, let alone look after small children.

Then the pubs collapse? They need the custom.

No kids who are crying, being generally loud or disruptive or need loud screens to entertain them should be in pubs. Well behaved kids who are enjoying themselves are welcome in most pubs around here until 9pm. There’s two pubs they’re not allowed in, but both don’t open many nights now, because they don’t get the footfall.

We tend to go on the way back from the park, if we go, and both of mine enjoy a people watch. Thankfully they are quite welcome, but if they weren’t, we wouldn’t go.

I don't think pubs have much choice these days. Gone are the days when most pubs could survive on just serving drinks. A lot of them are relying on people coming in for a meal and that usually includes families.
I also think part of being in society is accepting that shared spaces like these aren't going to cater for you as an individual. I don't particularly like dogs in pubs but others do. I don't like football but accept it's often on in a pub. If you want to control your environment and only see and hear the things that appeal to you then you have to stay home!

I don’t think we should be discriminating against kids no, just because you’d rather not listen to them.
They are humans in a stage of life that you were once in.
There’s lots of people I find annoying or I’m inconvenienced by but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be there.
You sound very entitled and I’d personally rather listen to the sound of children playing than someone like you moaning that you’re not the only person on the planet and are inconvenienced by the existence of others that don’t meet your preferences.

I have a number of pubs near me, some have beer gardens with dedicated childrens play areas and clearly make an effort to cater to children/families. Others are more of the wonky yea oldie type of pub with open fires, stone floors, lots of history, no fruit machines or football on TV, just very nice relaxing places. I tended to avoid the former as the atmosphere and vibe was simply too noisy and chaotic and went to the latter. But I have noticed a trend in recent years where quite a few parents seem to think all pubs are fair game. While there might not be anything saying they cant visit they often dont bother to think maybe if they should? My OP was prompted by a visit to my nice local last week where two parents brought their two kids plus toys to the venue. Two toddlers then proceeded to play with their building blocks on the floor in the main thoroughfare between the bar and the toilet. The parents just looked on nonchalantly as other patrons walked around or in some cases stepped over the kids. As they became bored they started to act up a bit, making noise and to put it bluntly, become iirritating. The week before that there was an infant in a buggy clearly very unsettled and crying constantly, again the parents did not bother to think that maybe a pub in the evening with other people trying to relax is perhaps not the best place to be in. Not sure why wanting to retain some adult only pubs is seen as controversial view.

My favourite pub closed down. Which is a shame.

It was huge, when you went in the door to the left was adults only, to the right was adults only eating area.

Behind the adults eating was open eating area, to the side of that was a children's play area and then out side there was an adult area and a children's playground.

More pubs should be like that.

This is a different beast though, isnt it.

I think most people advocating why not let children in pubs, would not agree having babies in prams at 11pm in Wetherspoons while the parents were hammered was good. Although, I’m not sure I believe you as I would assume the staff wouldn’t want to be involved in that either and chucked them out.

I’d rather my child was at a pub having a family meal and chatting at 6-7pm then watching a film before bed.

Most pubs these days are equally restaurants and I think YABU to expect no family meals can take place at 6pm. But it would be reasonable to say under 12s to not be allowed after 9. We didn't take our small children anywhere in the evening generally as they would be tired and needing their sleep in bed.

Evening time in the pub is for whatever the owners decide it's for, as long as it's legal. Anyone with expectations otherwise is BU.

Vanishingly few restaurants of any variety don’t provide some sort of kids menu nowadays.

They are businesses and want customers - and some of those customers are children and their parents!

If it’s a pub with no restaurant I don’t think kids should be there at all (and I’m a mum). If it has a restaurant kids should be in the restaurant area only

So it's fine to have small, potentially a bit noisy children in a restaurant where adults are eating and drinking, but not in a pub where adults are eating and drinking? Tbh there is very little difference between many pubs and restaurants these days.

That up to the pub though isn’t it. They obviously don’t mind families in otherwise they’d specify no kids. It’s often families keeping the pubs running in quieter times, I went for a weekday lunchtime meal with my toddler and a few friends with toddlers too. There was one other family with children and no one else in there, we all bought meals and kids meals plus some drinks. Pubs don’t make much money on drinks, they make more on the food.

6 is too early, I would say 8pm. Young children should be in bed by then anyway