It's a cafe, not a creche so leave your brats at home.

[MmeLindt]

I don't really read the DM of coursel

Lovely article.

Ok, I hate it when DC are allowed to rampage around a restaurant or cafe, but I do hope I never sound so smug and judgy as this journalist.

1.5k you say?

i agree they are too

i'm sure the mail will get right on it

to be serious, it's not unreasonable to want to be out and about where there are children who can be well behaved, and have parents who are thoughtful of other customers

it may stop them from growing up into the obnoxious adults we also have to put up with when out and about, you never know

Im sorry but surely this should be about misbehaving children not where they are. Im emtitled to enjoy a nice cup of tea no matter if I have children or not. No my kids arent allowed to run around, but honestly, what are we meant to do as mums?? lock ourselfs indoors all day!
News papers should go backt o reporting news, not doing sillynit picking articles about how we are terrible mothers for want a life and children!

I agree completely. The problem is, an article in the Mail is rather preaching to the converted, or at least people who like to think they don't let their kids run riot, so it won't do much other than generate comment on message boards

[strips off lab coat and changes career direction]

Just the idea that you should arrange a babysitter so you can go to Starbuck's.

Snort.

I certainly don't/wouldn't let my child run riot in there, but I really think it's overrreacting to suggest no children should be allowed to darken the hallowed doors of starbucks.

I think so something has been overlooked in this article. Yes, ideally when you see other friends with children you try to find a more child friendly place (I would add more for the child sake than yours) but...

... when you decide to go in a nice coffe shop with friends that do not have children so do not "fit"/do not want to go in a toddler group setting, what do you do?

Over the last couple of years, I have been twice with a couple of friends in a coffee shop for a very much needed break. If I could not take DD4 with me, I would have to:

• decline the invitation, hoever seldom the chance for a good chinwag is.

• pay for a babysitter which would make the coffe time so expensive I would have to decline too

• leave the 3 yo at home for a couple of hours hopping for the best? well not really an option so woud again have to decline.

I am fortunate enough to have children who do generally behave reasonably well, but an unexpected tantrum cannot always be avoided.
To me this article says : if you are unfortunate enough to have children that are not always behaving like angels, please stay at home you do not deserve a break, when actually. I think amongst the people who do most deserve a bit of a break are actually mothers with "unrully" children.

I like to think I'd come up with something slightly more inventive for more 1.5k mother-bashing article.

As everyone says, this one has been done to death.

She would NOT have been paid £1.5k for that. Those days are long gone...alas

Nancy, I've had a friend paid that for two articles in the last month

so not so far back

not bad for half an hour's work

I guess you have to know the right people

shame, I'd do it in a heartbeat

their rates are £700 for a page or £1000 for a spread - star writers like Liz jones get a bit more.

unattended children will be served as sausage

fishbourne roman palace near chichester has a sign up saying "unaccompanied children will be sold as slaves"

i was tempted to do a runner and see what happened

On the opposite side of the coin, the local pottery painting cafe has a sign up that says "interfering parents will be glazed and then fired"

Would it be possible to have businessmen with loud braying laughs banned from eateries above a certain standard? Some of us do actually like to be able to talk to our children.

Oh look a other mother bashing article. Mothers are the root of all evil, every mother is the same blah blah blah. Another fuckwit journalist too stupid to write anything original.

Maybe us mothers should take our offensive selves and our revolting offspring off to a desert island somewhere in case we actually make other people aware of our existence. How dare we live and breathe and spend money in the high street.

Did I read a different article? I thought she was complaining about spoilt little brats who are allowed to run riot and cause a nuisance and the self-centred mothers who are inconsiderate with how they block aisle with their prams. Personally, I agreed with pretty much all she said. If I take mine to a cafe I expect them to behave. It isn't a children's play area.

so, hang on, just read the first line of the article 'My heart filled with dread as I walked into a cafe with my six-year-old son recently" ?

So it's ok for her to take her kid but not other people?

Absolutely Soupy. But I would imagine the majority of 'mothers' would try their best to control their children because actually, having a child playing up isn't relaxing. Even if you appear to ignore them they are still getting on your last nerve.

I meet my brother and SIL on a Saturday morning in Neros. There are 4 children (7, 4, 22m and 15m) and 4 adults. We stay an hour, spend a fortune and keep the children under control but are people raising their eyebrows at us? We don't really want to go to McDonalds at all, never mind 10am. We want a coffee and a croissant. I hate the generalisation that all mothers are self centred and crap at looking after their children and that all children are anti social little buggers. DD happens to be but her cousins aren't.

do you know what, i bloomin well agree with her!

there is a cofee shop/tea house near me which is no kids under the age of 8. i was going to go when pregnant with dd4, but now i have to wait till dd4 is in nursery.

i take my kids to coffee shops. but they sit down, drink their drinks, eat their cookies or muffins. any misbehaving, then we leave. that includes being overly loud, jumping about or generally being a pain.

Riven no you're not allowed, I guess the wheelchair takes up even more space than a three-wheeler, so not allowed.

These sort of articles are poison. They add to to the myth that there is an army of 'yummy mummies' wearing ugg boots and skinny jeans,descending on our streets with tank like pushchairs, daring to shop in supermarkets, go to coffee shops and eat in restaurants. Life would be so much better if these 'mothers' would just stick to their own zones (toddler groups, swing parks and home), preferably wearing pinnies and housecoats and sensible shoes.

I live in a town with a lot of coffee shops and cafes and tons of parents (dads never seem to feature in these 'evil yummy mummy' articles). The cafes are full of parents and kids, and couples (don't the daily mail hate them as well - or is that just Liz Jones), and teenagers (usually in a group of 10 sharing a massive latte between them, and causing no offence to anyone whatsoever), and people on there own, and old people etc etc. Occassionally you see a toddler causing havoc, or someone being rude to a waitress or any number of things that might get on your nerves when you go out into a social environment, but it is hardly a new phenomenon, and not exactly something to bother writing an article about.

"When the sign went up that said Breastfeeding is now allowed I thought enough is enough".

Wtf?

Surely a baby being fed = being quiet can not be an annoyance to anyone.

I have always taken ds to cafes and he has always been well behaved when we are on our own. I despise using cafes as a meeting place for parents with children (unless they are all under 3) if ds meets up with his friends he wants to run about and be loud so I agree with the playground comment on that score.

i agree with soupy and misdee