Downtown where no kids go

Have been spending lots of time downtown at my SO's place. It has a front row view of the street below in a busy part of downtown.
So I decided to people watch when I've had a few minutes here and there for the last month.

1. I've seen exactly 3 kids with parents. That is it. The kids were older and seemed well behaved. But the parents seemed distracted as usual. It is downtown in a decent sized city and most people with kids stay away.
2. Almost everyone is happy and upbeat. Most people are relaxed and smiling and enjoying the weekend.
3. Very few people seem to be in a hurry and it is usually right in front of the light rail station.
4. Many of the people are either in a couple or with friends.
5. There are the typical glued to the nearest wall and absorbed in their phone people who I omitted from people watching. Did note they don't have kids in tow.
6. Ages of people are 20-55 mostly.
7. If you don't lightrail or bus in then you'd have to Uber, walk or drive. It is difficult to find parking unless you're willing to pay a premium.

I've determined that downtown is the Disney for adults. There are more smiles and happy faces here than at Disney and less than 1% of the people are kids. Think there may be a correlation between the two. I don't know if all of these people would call themselves childfree but from what my SO says, most of them are.

The global population of children is down. There are more small families than large, hence families like the Duggars stand out like a sore thumb. In the past the Duggars would be the norm.

The child population is still very noisy and thus very noticeable, but there are fewer of them. Note some countries are screaming "We lack a proper birth rate!" This is especially noticeable in Europe and in Japan. Childfree is now a thing. Parents are popping out brats later. Child raising is expensive, so that is influencing the PNB to trim the size of their families. It's so bad that China raised its child limit from one to two.

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Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

With more and more Lion King type plays, my downtown is actually packed w/ suburban moos and their spoiled offspring trying to get what passes off as 'culture' today. They get in the way of everyone actually working and having places to go.

freya, I noticed a similar thing a couple years back when out to dinner with my husband. We took light rail, and because there were only two of us we were seated right away. It was a weeknight (school night for parents), so it was a pretty adult-only crowd. No one was in a huge hurry. There was a family with a couple of teenage girls eating dinner across the room. Those were the only minors in the restaurant.

My theory:
1. parking in that area is metered and not terribly plentiful, so parents would have to walk a ways from the SUV with their kids to get places
2. kids were still at daycare, sports, activities, etc, as we went during an semi-early dinner time.
3. like you, I saw adults that were in good spirits. Some were chatty, some were quietly taking in the sights.

We were also at a place that's known for fiery, spicy food...you can order less or no spice if you want, but there's no kid menu and their spicy food is their point of pride. That could also account for the lack of small kids.

I wish downtown were like that, instead of clogged with stroller sidewalk assault vehicles.

When I was younger, I used to love going downtown. I still enjoyed it as an adult, but I noticed that things were changing. More loaves, people just wandering around staring into their phones, rudeness, etc. It's also very overcrowded now.

I've always lived in a very citified area until we moved out here. Now it's very quiet, restful and good for the stress levels.

I still enjoy going downtown for window shopping and dinner, but I'm always looking forward to coming home, too.

yurble- I've noticed that it depends on what parts of downtown in my area. There are districts that are for sure trying to lure in the famblee crowd. They can't do much about the parking or old, narrower sidewalks, but in those areas you'll see more kid menus, kid activities, etc. The area we were in had older buildings with less square footage...I'd imagine that restaurants and stores there don't want to waste the expensive space on kiddy play areas, etc. I'm hoping the "hip urban family" areas don't spread any farther.

Where I live it is NOTHING but useless Moos, Duhs, and their maggots. I don't go anywhere I do not absolutely have to.

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Passive Aggressive
Master Of Anti-brat
Excuses!

trying to lure famblees. is this some sort of sophisticated bingoing?

two cents ¢¢

CERTIFIED HOSEHEAD!!!

people (especially women) do not give ONE DAMN about what they inflict on children and I defy anyone to prove me wrong

Dysfunctional relationships almost always have a child. The more dysfunctional, the more children.

The selfish wants of adults outweigh the needs of the child.

Some mistakes cannot be fixed, but some mistakes can be 'fixed'.

People who say they sleep like a baby usually don't have one. Leo J. Burke

Adoption agencies have strict criteria (usually). Breeders, whose combined IQ's would barely hit triple digits, have none.