Places actively discouraging children

[Allhallowseve]

Just wondering what other people opinions of this are?
I follow a few local garden centres as we visit quite regularly under normal circumstances. Since they have reopened they are advertising as being open but asking people not to bring children.
I am just finding the way children have been treated throughout this pandemic absolutely awful .... I don't know if it's just me?
Yes I know things could be far worse for them and people are shielding not able to really get out. But garden centres actively discouraging children from visiting?!
Adults are able to meet up in outdoor areas yet it's incredibly hard for children to do the same. Adults can pop out to shops now , grab a coffee maybe do a couple of things they enjoy . However the play parks are padlocked and taped up . Most school year groups are not going back until September , all playgroups , clubs and classes are cancelled. Yet they are the least vulnerable group in society and seem to have been forgotten.

My kids knew all the different fruit and vegetables as well as different food types because I took them to the supermarket, I took them because I was at home with them!

I understand that times are unusual but many people were out this morning looking around 'non-essential' shops. We need to be proportionate and stop banning certain groups!

I think they are right to discourage children in garden centres. But supermarkets are different because people need food and might not have anybody to leave their children eith.

Research I read is that children are not really getting it or passing it on so unnecessary anyway 🙄 I agree op

Garden centres tend to have a high proportion of older customers, who are presumably at higher risk. So having small kids running about the place is not a terribly good idea. I've worked in garden centres in the past and to be honest, children can be a pain in the bloody neck, they will not leave things alone, they touch everything, pick flowers, pull the leaves off plants, switch labels around, you name it.

The majority of parents I've seen with children, have them at their side, are making sure they sanitize their hands etc. It's the minority who let their children wander off and don't really care who they're coming into contact with that ruin it for the others, and this is the reason why some shops aren't allowing children.

I very much doubt they are talking of one baby in a sling .

Most of the annoying folk I have come across are not under the age of ten!!

The attitudes on here are incredible 'children touch everything' 😂 Don't generalise.

My two children have been raised to behave in public in part because they exist in a society where we treat people with respect regardless of their age.

Ageism extends to children too.

Some parents seem to think any shop, cafe, GC etc is a freerange playground for their kids.

Some parents think that the whole damn world should revolve around their children and get rather upset and angry when the world doesn't centre their children.

Need gardening supplies? Go to a garden centre, buy them and go home.
Have nobody to look after your child? Go later when you do, or take them with you because you need to do an errand.
Bored of entertaining DC and feel like perusing some plants? Don't take them to the garden centre.

I think it’s perfectly reasonable for shops to ask people to shop on their own and without children (where possible) at the moment. Social distancing within shops is hard enough without it becoming a group activity.

Yes the issue of children’s well-being has been under-addressed throughout this pandemic but I don’t think garden centres are a exactly a big part of the solution.

Same reason as supermarkets only allow one person per trolley. One person can shop by themselves. A second person/child doubles the number of people for the same spend. It’s about minimising the number of people. Plus DC are less reliable at social distancing and tend to touch things, they’re less likely to keep masks on, and under 3s can’t wear masks at all.

WhentheRabbitsWentWild
I know they won't have been talking about a baby in a sling.
That's the point I was making to a PP who seemed to think complaints of people making every trip a family outing equals hating on someone for having a toddler in the seat of the trolley.
Nobody seems to care about young children. I've not seen anyone having an issue with toddlers in prams, or babies in slings.

We all know the family outing approach to life and anyone with common sense can see why some businesses are asking customers not to cart their children everywhere for a change of scenery.

When I went to the garden centre, without my children, there was a queue a mile long!

My kids have helped in our garden planting fruit and veg, why should they not go to a garden centre should it be an adult only place?

This pandemic has really bought out a sense of community hasn't it? No actually just a sense of entitlement for some people.

I think there are a few things going on here and it’s helpful to separate them out.

Children have been shafted by this more than was necessary and playgrounds (as one example) should be reopened - yes.

Some children have unhelpful habits of veering into other shoppers, touching everything, and washing poorly/sticking their fingers up their noses - yes (so do a great many adults!).

Supermarkets etc being full of families meandering around is annoying at the best of times - yes. But again, couples without children are just as capable of getting in the way!

I am noting all the businesses locally which have made my life (as a lone parent) more difficult than it needed to be over the past few months. I won’t be giving them my money again. It has been really fucking odd feeling stigmatised as a single parent in London in 2020 - not something I have ever experienced before - and I will remember. Likewise, I’ll remember the shopkeepers who welcomed me and my careful children (one in my arms, the other holding my hand and keeping close as he does have a tendency to wander and touch if permitted) and I will prioritise them for my custom.

England is always pretty hostile to children though, so I guess it’s not surprising this has been the way things turned out.

I agree OP. Children have been thrown under the bus by the government.

‘Our children are bearing the brunt of this’ wise up, 43,000 dead would disagree with you, ffs. Sitting eating crayons and staring at an iPad for a few months at home is not a hardship.

@dingledongle

Sainsbury's banned children? When did that happen? The last time I was in one there were allowing kids in. (Also they weren't enforcing the one adult at a time policy, despite the big poster on the door. Oh well.)

Why would a child want to go to a garden centre anyway.

Because they have absolutely nothing to do? I took DD to our local one after she had only been on walks and bike rides for almost 3 months and she was really excited. Normally, however that wouldn't be the case

oh It pisses me off big time

Today DH dd(11) and I went to Sainsburys and pretended not to be together in the queue. Then just met up inside :D

Didnt realise they actually out right banned kids at one point that's awful :o

I also hate the dirty looks I get every time I am out with the kids, I am gonna end up punching some fucker I swear

My little boy used to enjoy looking around our local garden centre, it has a pet section and lots of fish to watch in their tanks.

Unfortunately it is not an either or is it? Everyone is saddened by the number of deaths and most people have followed the rules.

However we need to start moving forward now the numbers are lower and community transmission is less.

I have stood in queues in shops with people buying BBQ's and potted plants are these folk being disrespectful to those that have died? Or is that ok because they are adults?

All humans have rights regardless of age, everyone stayed in to protect the vulnerable but we cannot stay in forever.

I have seen young and old behaving badly- perhaps we should screen everyone before letting them in shops?

England is always pretty hostile to children though, so I guess it’s not surprising this has been the way things turned out

Absolutely this and cue the ' but English children are so badly behaved' whines. No they aren't. Yes some can be sometimes as can children from anywhere but I don't observe or believe that English children behave any worse on average than in any other country, just that we are far less tolerant of them.

The saying 'children should be seen and not heard' is a very very English saying

Compare it with proverbs from other countries about children (got from here: [https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9781137316547_10]

Some proverbs value children as a societal investment, such
as
‘Children are the wealth of the nation’ (Tanzania),
‘It is the youngtrees that make the forest thick’ (Uganda)
‘Educate the children soyou will not have to punish the men’ (Brazil).

Other proverbs take a
developmental, disciplinary approach like ‘A tree should be bent while
it is still young’ (South Africa)
‘When a child knows how to wash his hands he eats with his elders’ (Ghana).

The UK proverb does not even provide these levels of recognition.

And then we wonder why are children are amongst the unhappiest in the world. Duh!!

Look at it from the shop's piont of view: if they can only have X customers in at one time, and you and 2 children go in they can only have X-3. And out of those 2 aren't paying customers. So if everyone took at least one child they'd only have half the number of paying customers they might have. It doesn't make business sense to allow them in.

And it means the queues are bigger. It sucks if you can't leave your kids anywhere, but it sucks for businesses who have already nearly gone to the wall.

I would like the government to tell us what they are doing in preparing places like playgrounds/soft play centres to open up.

When I went to the garden centre, without my children, there was a queue a mile long!

And if everyone had brought their kids it’d have been even longer!

I doubt anyone's child or toddler has been adversely affected by not being able to have a mosey around asda or a trip to the local garden centre. If you want to take your kids out take them on a nature walk or a park.
Due to my ever expanding pregnant size I braved a trip to a supermarket last week so I could find a decent bra. The amount of children who were not being properly supervised was shocking. Kids were running up and down aisles, touching everything, getting really close to people and pushing past. I know it's not the majority of parents but it's enough.

I don't blame garden centres and other non essential shops for banning children for the time being, it just makes it safer for everyone.