"Adult Only" things you'd pay a premium for. ** CHILDFREE SECTION**

[SoRainbowRhythms]

* If in active, please note this is posted in the childfree section. *

Whether it exists or not, what do you / would you pay more for?

DH and I always pay through the nose to stay in a nice adults only resort when we go away. We won't even entertain staying somewhere with just an adults only section no matter how nice.

I went to London Zoo for Zoo Lates this year and it was adults only with drinks and nice food - worth every penny.

Wishful thinking - I would give my right arm for childfree flights or a truly adults only restaurant.

thread title amended by MNHQ at the OP's request

@UsingChangeofName same here! We go to restaurants that don't take kids when we go for date night!

Please go away. This board is not for you. I don’t know who has pissed on your chips today, but there’s no need to take out your unhappiness on other people.

I hope you don’t do the same in the Black Mumsnetters section, or any of the others set up to provide support and interest to particular groups.

Not everything is about you.

Seems to be common generally, my ex boss went up to Liverpool for work and on the return train joirney to London complained about seat locking, screeching etc. He’s got 2 DC of his own so it’s not like he’s not used to them.

I am still thinking about the softplay for adults😂
Would it have old style design maccies?

Well, we did quite well, fellow CFers. We got to page 3 before a parent plopped on to tell us how sad we are and how we're doing it all wrong. As per fucking usual. Shame, because it was going so well.

I have a mate who is a guide in the royal residences. She's lost count of the times she's had to tell parents to stop their children running around and trying to touch stuff and no, she can't look after their buggy for them.

While loving the idea of an adult soft play (a local gym does something like this) I think some of these responses are rather mean spirited. Children are part of life and should be allowed in public spaces like restaurants, supermarkets and public transport. Some are well behaved and some are not, just like adults. I'd rather share a train coach or a plane with an upset toddler than a drunk aggressive man.

But I'd say some of the issues here are about timing. The kind of parent who would take their small child to a 12 rated film late at night is different to the kind of parent who would let their 12yo go to a morning or afternoon showing of a 12 rated film, you might find a matinee counter intuitively more acceptable because the children will be better behaved. FWIW my local cinema doesn't let small children in to 12 rated showings in the evening so it might just be a cinema issue. Same with NT or EH sites, get there first thing or late afternoon in term time and you'll avoid most families. Flights will be cheaper and have fewer children on them if you fly in June and September rather than July and August. Supermarkets just have organised adults there at 8am, by later in the day you're more likely to get the chaotic families.

Children shouldn't be banned from places but there can be options like the EH members only events which are less likely to appeal to kids. Or films that kids aren't interested in seeing. Or restaurants where the food is too challenging for children. Or even something as simple as 6.30am lane swimming at the pool.

Janina, no one is saying they should never be anywhere, but mainly it would be nice to have some times/places childfree

I’d complain. Loudly.

Definitely train carriages, especially the Quiet Coach - why on earth do people book it when they have children with them?!
That might not be an active choice though. I've ended up in the quiet coach inadvertently before now. I'd always thought that if you didn't tick the box requesting the quiet coach you would automatically be allocated a "normal" seat, but that's not always been my experience. I would imagine that the majority of people with children in the quiet coach are there by accident or because they're the only seats left.
The fault in those cases may well lie with the online booking systems rather than the passengers. You would think it would be fairly simple to write the algorithms in such a way that anyone booking a child's ticket can't reserve a seat in the quiet coach but they don't seem to. Things may have improved now (I've retired so not travelling by train these days) but I never understood why on The Trainline you couldn't just click on the seats that you actually want like you can when booking a plane or theatre seat online.

I would but unfortunately I'm in the minority...3 out of the 5 clients have kids with them. 😡

Marvel movies (and other 12A rated action movies).

I'm still bitter about watching the opening scenes of Avengers:Endgame which are pretty dark and involve some fairly complicated backstory sketched in very lightly while the six year old behind me continually asked "Daddy who's that man, what's he doing, why's he running, who's the lady? why is the lady sad?" Obviously bad parenting, but "keep quiet, I don't care whether you haven't a scooby what's going on" would not have been great parenting either.

I would love a return to the old days of rail travel, where you booked in the family coach if you had children, because the assumption was everyone else was either going to work or working on the journey, and then you knew which coach to avoid booking. Now we all have to try to jam into the quiet coach, which in my experience still is no guarantee of being child free.

I would also love pubs to be for adults only. There are lots of family friendly cafes and restaurants, and pubs are just different. It’s hard to relax and unwind with a drink in the pub if children are playing hide and seek, making lots of noise and trying to get under your table. Especially in my favourite country pubs in old buildings with cramped corners and odd layouts.

Museum lates are a joy for me.

God, you're tedious.

The problem is that it wouldn't be reasonable to say "all the seats are reserved/full apart from the ones in the quiet carriage so your four year old just has to stand all the way to Aberdeen"

Any tips on how to tell in advance what sort of place it is and how people and children are going to behave so it's the right place to go?

1. Spend more money, there's not many kids at Michelin starred restaurants.
2. Have interests that don't coincide with children's interests. You'll see more annoying children at a cinema showing of a Marvel film than at an Opera house showing the Ring Cycle.

Not much good if you're not rich and like popular culture of course!

@mincepieandcustard but when I was 14/15 I loved going to gigs at London Astoria, Brixton academy I would get the train after school wearing baggy jeans and band hoodie 🥰…I would like childfree gigs but feel mean depriving them of what I had. I didn’t take my parents with me mind you!

Or maybe just children with parents who've taught children how to behave in public, and don't take them to inappropriate films/places, and require behaviour which doesn't impinge on others?

Parents who, you know, parent.

I never thought I'd regret asking people without children opinions on places without children. MN users have outdone themselves yet again

Not much good if you're not rich and like popular culture of course!

No, not much use at all, in fact.🙄

I go the whole hog and ban dogs and children !

@Normalsizedsalad a soft play near me does adults only sessions in the evening, it’s bring your own wine as well! Definitely a thing! I imagine it will be more chaotic than the kids sessions though 😳

You can't filter that out before entry sadly so no kids is safest.

I can imagine 😂😂

I have been added to your exclusion list!😂