to be annoyed for being refused a alcoholic drink because i had my children with me.....

[mum2samandalex]

and by alcoholic i mean a fricking half pint shandy.I was meeting some of my distant family in town who had come down to visit and they had been drinking in wetherspoons.

We had arranged to meet them there fro a quick hello and dh went to order us some drinks. I fancied a nice cold shandy and was gobbsmacked when they refused to serve dh and i alcohol neither of us are big drinkers. We were only planning to have the one.They then refused to serve any of my other family members although they had been there for an hour or so before us drinking quietly.

Ds then started kicking off that he was hungry so i thought id buy the kids something to eat dh and i werent really hungry and they refused to serve us a kids meal because none of the adults were eating fgs. Needless to say we didnt stay for very long....

Wow - I have had many glasses of wine (not all at once you understand) with dd in tow - never met this reaction - yet.

Why is it not OK to drink in front of a child? If you are drinking a reasonable not enormous amount - then that is your lifestyle choice - and I don't see why we should hide it. If I need to hide it - then I wouldn't be doing it. I expect dd will have a glass or two when she's of age.

It's a nice occaisional treat for us to go to our village pub and have a glass of wine while dd has milk. I actually think it's OK for dd to think of pubs as a normal place to sometimes go and not some exotic grown-up drinking den.

This seems to be getting a bit out of hand. It's like now publicans can't disapprove of parents smoking near their children, they have to find something else to have a go at...

There was a ridiculous woman on the Daily Wail website commenting on the pregnant-pint story, saying that she herself drank the odd glass during her pregnancy, but refused as a publican to serve pregnant women even one glass of wine herself because she couldn't be sure it was their first - and she was applauded for this! The world's gone mad.

Weatherspoon is PANTS. I was once (many many moons ago, certainly pre-children) refused a drink there for no reason - barman just said no and turned to serve my friend! It was astonishing. I wrote to them asking them wether they were racist, sexist, rude, or had a brain-bypass, but they didn't reply satisfactorily. They are the worst pubs ever and their food is rubbish. I hate them. (Never let it be said that I don't hold a grudge! I have a memory as long, if not longer, than the proverbial elephant.)

I don't think Weatherspoons's are going to get many customers from this base (not that I think we are their target audience anyway!! )

Acinonyx (trying very hard to pronounce that...), I think you're right about getting kids to think of pubs as normal from an early age. I'm of the generation that had a panda pop and a bag of crisps in the back of the car in the car-park, but even that was only once or twice a year when we visited relatives, as my mother hardly ever drunk (still doesn't, but now she blames the pills she's on) and alcohol was exotic in our house. First time I had the chance to drink (at a party, I remember it well, although I didn't at the time...), I got ratarsed. And that set the tone for my teenage years.

Weatherspoons are skanky pubs anyway.

We go to a weatherspoons near my dad's quite alot and usually have the kids with us. We usually go as an extended family group for
lunch including drinks and have never had a problem being served.
It must depend on the particular pub, parents who sit around drinking and chatting and letting bored preschool kids roam about can be a pain.
Refusing to serve either of you any alcohol does sound odd. Are you sure your family had been sitting quietly, you wonder if they'd been starting to become raucous and the barmen thought "oh no, not more of them" when you arrived. If they had been quiet then it all sounds OTT.

The idea of a MN family becoming raucous... the very idea...

I'd be highly pissed off, although my friend and I take our girls (aged 7 and 4) to our local Wetherspoons quite regularly for lunch and we'll usually have a beer or wine with our meals and no one bats an eyelid.

I used to work in our local pub and served loads of people with kids/babies with them. It never crossed my mind to refuse. . .and we served kids meals regardless of whether the adults were eating. I guess Wetherspoons doesn't need your money, but local pubs do!

our local ws isnt like this - thank god ours has a section where you can have children, but think not after 6pm

we have gone for meals there, and had a drink

i would def complain to head office