to think that pubs are no place for kids

[swanandduck]

Dropped into a pub at about 3am last Sat for a late lunch on way home from funeral. The place was full of children whose parents were drinking and watching telly while the kids ran around. Surely there are better things to do with children at the weekend than plonking them in a corner with a bottle of pop and a packet of crisps while you watch the sports on a big screen.

hmmmm its very judgy in here isn't it?

I don't think it matters what sort of pub it is whether its a "drinkers pub" or a "family pub" or a wetherspoons.What's important is that it's a pub. On the face of it we might all be ready to judge those parents who go to these places regularly but a closer look at them reveals them to be very forward thinking, caring and responsible parents.

If you're going to get blotto on babycham and "strong lager" where better to be than a pub? You're choosing to be in a place where there are other irresponsibly alcohol ridden parents so its a shared experience. The kids are obviously going to be amongst equals and if the parents are too out of it to feed them there are fizzy drinks, crisps and in my local they even have chilled cartons of Um Bongo to serve to the dry throated little ones.

Whilst mum and dad are discussing various topics of interest amongst their peer group such as how to bypass the electric meter, how to cheat the fifty pee box on the back of the telly and what boxes to tick on the DLA form, little ones can watch and learn how to fence, roll spliffs and when to place your ten pee on the side of the pool table to announce that you're next.

Other lessons usually being run in pubs include how to spot an undercover police officer/benefit fraud squad officer/customs and excise officer, when to nudge/hold/collect the jackpot and (an important one for the lads) who's easy/cheap/diseased.

You can usually find (although they take place closer to the end of the evening) lessons in staccato bar fighting that would stand the young ones in good stead should they choose to box at oxford/cambridge/the olympics

As a family social and learning experience it's pretty hard to beat the local pub and in fact if you venture off the beaten track and look past the beaten tramps on the pavements you can often find a cosy little place where children are more than welcome even if they have no parents with them which makes them 100% family friendly in my opinion

well on sunday i shall be taking my son in the pub for sunday roast and soft drink he is at school all week and has sat visiting family and birthday party, sunday we will relax and go and have lunch he is 5 and will really enjoy this

Ten pee for the pool table? That's cheap!

i must also add serious drinking pubs round my way dont allow children only family pubs that do food allow children

Oh dear. I think my post has been misunderstood. I did not mean that kids should never be taken to a pub (I sometimes take mine for lunch or if I'm meeting a friend there for a coffee in the afternoon or if we've been invited to a christening with a party afterwards in a pub). I meant that, going on what my friend said, there are families who sit around the pub, drinking heavily, with small children in tow, every Saturday afternoon for the entire afternoon.

most of the serious pubs have a limit of no one under age of 21 in at all

It's a pound for the pool tables round here.

This is a misleading thread title I think. It's all about judging those parents who we see as being worse than us or irresponsible. It seems like middle class parents out for lunch at a gastropub with the kids is ok, but working class parents watching the footie while he kids eat crisps in the corner is not ok

We should not judge others just because they do things differently.

Nothin wrong with kids in a pub at 3pm. Even if their parents are watching the big screen telly.

"If the kids are running around shouting, then they should be taken out (I mean, taken home by their parents, not assassinated) "

LOol at Brahms.

Sorry, overmydeadbody, where did I say these parents are working class? You seem to be making assumptions, based on my saying they sit around the pub every Sat afternoon getting drunk. Do only working class parents do this?

working class parents are the only ones who do it whilst dressed in a tracksuit

True Iliveonbenefits. I also noticed all the children were called Darren and Chardonnay and Brittany. I suppose that's a big giveaway.

OP.. I'm Irish too and I never would've said that "the pub scene is less family/ socially orientated and more centred on drinking"..
Maybe things have changed a lot since the smoking ban but I'm very comfortable with taking my kids to the pub when we're home..

Course tehre are better things to do at the weekend

Sometimes they are wellfollowed by a nicce late lunch at whereveer suits yoiu best

The answer to the OP depends entirely on the nature of the pub in question: if you eman sawdust lined cider house then werm no, and not for most adults either! But a nice family run child friendly policy place... why on earth not?

I used to go to pubs a lot at ds1's age with my family, Dad would usually sneak in a babycham for me (, not something i'd ever replciate myself) and rarely go to them now, but we might do on holiday or on a day out if the pub says children welcome.

nyway, obviously in the minority here. Feel well and truly flamed.

' I meant that, going on what my friend said, there are families who sit around the pub, drinking heavily, with small children in tow, every Saturday afternoon for the entire afternoon.

Is that really news though?

Assuming the worst case scenario is right here, they always existed. Actually thoughb the worst one sleave their kids in the car outside, or on a table in a corner whilst they nip off and down as many as possible. Or indeed leaving them at home unattended.

The ones sat togerther or where the parents are just ther for sports etc aren't normally too bad.

Don't know why people are snobbish about wetherspoons
they do a kids menu have crayons etc and do a nice brekkie

Not snobbish about weatherspoons, i used to work there. The problem is that if people are going to spend the day drinking, they will go there because it is cheap.

I'm always in the pub with my little one. Wouldn't have a social life otherwise. YABU.

I find pubs much more child friendly than cafes round where I live. There's so much more space. There are loads of families round here and the pubs are full of them having lunch or meeting for a chat. It isn't as though the adults are getting bladdered and it is the daytime.

You loon

I go to pubs all the time with my DC. Why not?

Well I live in Ireland and there are loads of kids in pubs (including mine).

I am in the pub most weekends with my dd. We go walking and always call in for a pint and a game of dominos somewhere on the way home. It is a rather comforting ritual.

I agree with OMDB that it is OK for a certain sort of parent to knock back huge glasses of wine whie their kids have to sit and wait. But you must not do it if you are having a pint and watching the footie.

Swanandduck am going to stick my head up and say I agree with you. And, contrary to Glastocat and Mamsnet, I'm also Irish and my experience is that drinking pubs are not for children.

It seems like quite an english thing to me to have big family friendly chain type pubs with play areas and kids menus and the like so kids can run around while parents have drinks. It seems to work, but I think I'd have found it quite boring as a kid (but then, I can count the number of times I was actually in a pub as a kid, and it nearly always involved red lemonade and/or a need to use the bathroom).

But you can't compare those pubs with today's!

ah, the memories.....

sitting in the pub garden on a nice day with a bottle of fat coke and salt 'n' vinegar crisps .

benign neglect at it's finest.

(p.s my parents never got bladdered as we were home by tea-time).

True but even when we go back to Ireland we're still more likely to go to a restaurant like Milano's than a pub. There are exceptions (eg seaside towns) but generally the adults socialise in pubs, at night, without the kids, but we keep day time lunches/meet ups in restaurants. Except for after funerals...