what does "child-friendly" mean to you?

[thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat]

"Children under five eat in the Children's Dining Room (CDR)....There is supervision in the Playroom between 1.00 and 2.00, in order that parents may have lunch in the Main Dining Room (MDR), after the children have been given theirs between 12.30 and 1.15." (Knoll House, Studland Bay) Child-friendly, child-unfriendly or just down-right strange?

just down-right strange I'd say.

Lunchtime without ds - sounds fantastic to me

SOunds 'child segregated' to me !

Child friendly would mean to me the option of eating with or without the children

Child freindly to me means that there are facilities which make it easy to incorporate children into what you are doing. baby changing faclilities, high chairs, small portions of good food, etc etc.

This sounds a bit different!

I think some people interpret child-friendly to mean that people will be friendly however badly their children maraud around...hence some places resorting to separatist tactics.

We cannot find a hotel in the place where my Mum and Dad want their golden wedding that will allow children in the dining room after 6pm.

After all these years of marauding (so us staying at home!) DS will finally sit down and eat and talk - and has been banished!!

I think that's great! I wouldn't take it to mean that you CAN'T have lunch together... just that there are facilities in place so that you can have kids entertained while you eat...

That is the very posh place with the pirate ship to climb on, isn't it? We were stayed in a big house in Ireland a few years ago, which was self catering but could provide as much 'help' as you wanted - catering, maid, babysitting etc. Would that be any use? Local tourist board could advise you on what is around.

I don;t think so starlover - it says children under five eat in the "CDR" - to me that means they don;t eat in the "MDR" (love these acronyms). I can live without kids in the dining room after say 8 or 9pm ie when they're in bed anyway) but LUNCH? That is truly stange imo. for me child-friendly means that children are welcome and providing facilities (from high chairs to baby-listening to creche) that give parents choice. bunging them in a seperate dining room is not making them welcome. It smacks of Victorian children should be seen and not heard to me.

Doesn't say child friendly to me. A child friendly place should mean that children are welcome, not segrgated. A child cannot learn how to behave/act in "grown up" situations if they are not able to join in with htem and see them in action.

So you have to sit and supervise your children while they eat during a 45 min slot and then after that (bearing in mind lots of these will be under-5s so this would be prime nap time) you can go into a different dining room and eat yourself.

Not what I would want on a holiday. If I didn't want the children with me I would send them to their grandparents. Otherwise I would be looking on it as family time. We are thinking about going to Edinburgh for a few days with the kids and will be eating in restaurants together. I have a service award from work entitling me to dinner and one night's accommodation. We are thinking of leaving the kids with my Mum and Dad and going to Durham for a night in June.