Jan 20 2009
Children In Bars
Children in bars – discuss…
It bothers me greatly. Okay, I’ll concede that on a Sunday afternoon, when a pub is transformed into a family friendly retaurant, then yes, children are acceptable. It’s worth pointing out that I do not go to these bars at these times.
But in the evenings, from 5 or 6 onwards, children in bars surrounded by people in varying degrees of insobriety (their parents included) is a shocking and unacceptable practice.
I’m sure I’m going to hear arguments that parents of young children are entitled to go out and enjoy a drink too and that babysitters are too expensive, but I would argue that when you have children there are rights that you must surrender. Your child’s welfare must come before your own wants and I don’t think there is a solitary instance when a child’s welfare benefits from being surrounded by beers swillers and cigarette smokers hanging around the front entrance.
Am I wrong?
How dare you!
How dare you, Mr Byrne, try to stop children from enjoying a pint like everyone else!
yeah though, you’re right it’s despicable in my opinion
@B’dum Are you legally allowed drink yet? 😉
I flucking am! I drink like a… an umm… a drinker!
actually would taking intermediate sips of whiskey cure pneumonia?
@B’dum Can’t hurt to try.
it’d hurt my wallet
An awkward one…
I certainly remember spending long Sunday afternoons into evenings eating Tayto and drinking Fanta while the parents were out but that was a lng time ago in another culture…
Most pubs don’t allow kids after a certain time, I have to admit I’d never bring mine in aside for food at weekend lunchtimes and then only rarely.
Kids in the evenings while their parents get hammered?
Eh, no.
I almost never drink at all when I’m around my kids, but I am a bit of a freak like that.
Talk to my husband about this. He works in an offlicence attached to a pub. The weekends are mental. Last week he had a kid coming in and zooming round, out the door, straight across the car park road into the bookies and back, in front of all the cars. He eventually had to take him in and bollock the parents.
The pub used to have a creche (which is scary in itself) but they had to stop because so many people were going home without their kids.
Once they called the guards on a family who’d been there all day, ignoring their kids, but the guards just sent them all home together – in the car.
@Rick You make it sound nice – going to the pub and drinking your Fanta. I remember the same thing – I also remember not being able to breath, feeling very uncomfortable when drunk men started talking at me, being told to sit down and shut up while everyone around me was drinking and laughing at things I didn’t understand.
But those were different times. Surely parents are more responsible now? Not all of them, sadly.
@Jo I know I shouldn’t laugh but “they had to stop because so many people were going home without their kids” – no feckin’ way.
Jo: “The pub used to have a creche (which is scary in itself) but they had to stop because so many people were going home without their kids.”
what. the. funk.
Yeah I completely agree Darren.
I was at a wedding recently and the kids were still running around at 1am, they kept trying to take sips of our drinks and pulling up our skirts and then the screaming baby was brought down at hourly intervals if he woke up and the babysitter upstairs couldn’t handle it.
In pubs, I think it is fine to bring kids to family orientated places in the afternoon but once it comes to 6 or 7 they need to go.
I too have great memories of taytos and a coke with my brother while my parents chatted with their friends but this was always in a hotel, on a sunday afternoon never in the local and never in the evening.
Now, don’t even start me on the ‘other’ children in bars, 16-18 year olds, most annoying people EVER. I swear I wasn’t that bad, was I?
I’m with Jo on this.
I have seen how some parents behave when they bring their kids to the pub and in my opinion, the HSE should have a social worker in each pub ready to take kids off of irresponsible drunk parents.
I once got into a screaming match with one set of parents who actually argued using the words “It’s our right to get pissed in here whether we have our kids with us or not”.
Staggering.
It’s because you’re getting married soon, these are things you’ve got to think of.
I hate it! It’s not right at all, children do NOT belong in this environment!
As soon as I was old enough to be listened to (about 5 or so..) I refused point blank to take one step into a pub. I hated the smoke, and the drunk people shouting and roaring…ugh…
And now that I’m old enough to go to these places of my own accord, no offence to kids or those with kids, but the last thing I want is some screaming little monster running around disturbing me.
(Just as an aside here…when I was typing my name…I forgot the first letter…I blame all the smoke inhalation…)
With the price of minerals in pubs these days?
No, no way.
Pubs are not the ideal placed on kids unless, as you said, it is Sunday and the carvery is open.
I generally find kids too hyper and energetic to appreciate the laid-back and slightly “lazy” atmosphere of a pub, whether you’re there for a small bit of tipple, or to watch whatever sporting event is taking place at the time.
Besides, they’d cost a fortune in soft drinks and crisps…
children are allowed in bars over there???? weird.
Let them get their own pubs.
they could always set-up a little nursery-zone in pubs for kids….with little toy bars complete with little alcohol-free pints….and they could play drunken-daddy comes home to piss off family!!
@B’Dum So very fucked up.
@Voodoo I don’t think kids should be allowed at wedding, but I understand that it’s an acceptable practice. But 1am? Ridiculous. As for 16 years onwards – yep, we were all that bad. 🙂
@Maxi Seriously? Come on – that’s disgraceful.
@RP No, no, no, no and…um…no!
@Caire I have left bars because there’s been kids in them. The little feckers drive me mad.
@Xbox @Chris So expensive – we may as well just buy pints for the little blighters – it might calm them a bit.
@Donna Absolutely. According to law they must be out by 9pm (which is too late, I think), but it’s not enforced as far as I have seen.
@Anto 😆
@Sean Speaking from experience there? Ahem! 😉
What about banning the little buggers from the Supermarkets as well??
Banning them from supermarkets??? TOTALLY agree with that one!!!
As much as I have fond memories of colouring books and Cidona while my parents got more cheerful by the minute in the local at weekends, that all changed when I met a lady in a pub (friend of a friend of a friend) who told me her kids were in the car park while we were supping away.
Sure enough I checked. They were. A five year old and a three year old locked into a car in the carpark belonging to my slapper drinking buddy.
She didn’t see it from my point of view so I broke into her car and brought her kids in to her (coathanger style), then went home in a funk. She flamed me for weeks after that.
Some people should have licenses before they reproduce.
Seriously though… do people still go to pubs these days?
Suckers.
@King’sBard No – I’ve seen too many kids thwacking themselves by walking into trolleys to ban them in supermarkets. It’s particularly enjoyable to watch kids who’ve just learned to walk try to run towards mommy at the other end of the aisle. They laugh and giggle and then go splat…
(Thank you for the comment, by the way)
@K8 Some people shouldn’t be allowed have kids. You did the right thing – I don’t think I’d have the courage to do the same thing. Well done!