Drinking in Pubs with Children

Davidth88

I had a thread before where I stated my shock seeing some parents obviously ' bladdered ' and a small ( 18month/2 yr ) toddler falling down some stairs in a pub and they carried on drinking.

Anyway , this is really interesting , basically a large chain of pubs in England has said if you have kids you can only stay for 2 drinks

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7170939.stm

Makes sense to me !

What do other people think ?

aidan_walsh

Introduce pub crawls at an earlier age. Nice.

Mongo

Pub's are only suitable for children if there is food being served during the day.It is not a place for kids in the evening.Adult's like to go and relax after work and don't want lil Timmy running around wrecking his head.And as a barman I have noticed the parents who bring the kids don't care in the slightest.They let them do what they want leaving the staff to keep them quiet make sure they don't get hurt and clean up their mess.Simply not fair.

RIRI

I think it's really unfortunate that the pub in question needs to do this tbh.

Obviously pubs are adult places and parents should have enough sense not to bring the kids to the pub for the day while they (the parents:D) get locked. I have no objection to children being in pubs for short periods especially now that most pubs do food, but this craic of going to the boozer all day with the nippers in tow is pretty disgraceful in my opinion.

That's my two cents

Davidth88

I don't know if any of you know the pubs in question JD Witherspoons ( Moon pubs ) are one of the largest chains in England. The pioneered the ' non-smoking ' idea before it was law, and are also very much places people would go and have a meal and a pint. They are also real ' drinking ' places after 9pm , they don't have any music just cheap beer.

Fair play to them , the tone of this article is strange , I thought it would be saying this is a great thing but as you read it the BBC is sort of saying that how dare the pubs do this.

I too have seen many people who feel the pub is a local kindergarden, I am very careful which pubs I go to on a Sunday to watch the footie now , some are terrible with kids running around , why should I have to watch out for my drink/table being knocked over .... also it makes my blood boil to see kids in the pub for hours on end and this spoils my enjoyment .

Nevyn

I think it is a good thing I think it is horrible to see children spending the afternoon in a pub when they should be out in a park or playground tbh.

Cabaal

Pubs are only suitable for children when there is food and no heavy drinking going on, pubs are not the places for kids otherwise and certainly not when it gets late into the night.

My family used to own a pub and shop and when there were any events on and the parents when to our pub they'sd basically think it was ok to throw money at there kids to buy sweets and allow them to run up and down outside on the busy street.

They'd also make a bloody mess of the place, I'm actually amazed a truck never got one of the kids as the street outside our pub was mental and trucks used to mount the footpath alot and the footpath was only 3-4 feet wide in most of the street.

I'd have to agree with a min drink when there are kids involved, its not suitable for a parent to be getting drunk with there kid beside them in a pub.

Crea

An Irish friend of mine based in England was recently praising to high heaven how child friendly most English pubs were and how great it was to go there for food. She said that many of them had beer gardens with play areas for kids. She said that in her experience most parents just went for a family meal and there isn't a culture of getting pissed while the kids run around. Maybe this is why the BBC had such a negative tone since there is a culture of being child friendly.
I'm all for bringing in restrictions here as some parents just don't know how to behave. If you can afford to drink all day then you can afford a babysitter. There is nothing child friendly about the pubs here. Most that serve food don't even have high chairs which signals to me that they don't want families.

Shirty

I personally think it's a great idea. If you are going just for a meal why would people with children feel the need to have more than one or two drinks?

I never drink in front of my daughter. She knows I do drink and go to the pub with friends but when I'm with her I would never consider drinking, and it would be utterly unfair on her to do so. She goes to be at 8.30, and it's no sacrifice to wait untill then to have a pint.

I remember my local supermarket had a child drop off place, and I was told by a friend who worked there thay had to close it last year as parents were dropping kids after school, going to a pub over the road and picking them up at closing time hammered. Disgusting behaviour in my, and any one else I knows, opinion....But since then you see the little kids running around outside the pub in the afternoon....

Quality

Ok being hammered drunk with young children is completely irresponsible I agree with that.

But a two drink minimum is a bit of a joke.

Sure hasnt it caused up roar for tourism in Ireland the fact families cant have their children in a hotel bar after 9?

I have always brought my children to the pub with me, the same as I was always brought to the pub as a child. It is a social part of my life.

I make sure my kids are well amused and I know when it is time to leave. It is not a daily or even weekly occurence, My kids seem to enjoy it. It is social for them too.

AckwelFoley

It depends really on the type of pub and the time of the evening.

I think most of the replies so far are pretty spot on

luckat

I like kids in pubs (especially now there's no smoking), but not with people getting drunk around them.

Probably kids are fine during the day and early evening - and for limited amounts of time; it's not fair to keep a kid in a pub for over an hour - but not at night, and not with drunk people.

embee

I don't think I've brought my daughter to a pub since she was born. Not because I'm necessarily against kids being in pubs, but I don't go to them much myself anyway and I drink perhaps twice a year. I would welcome a policy where pubs can refuse to serve people drink after drink after drink when they are supposed to be looking after small children. Pubs are grand to bring kids to during the day if you are having food, but I object to kids running around pubs after 6pm or so.