Home
>
The Living Room
>
Topic
No more child's play: the Good Pub Guide tells it like it is!
Posted by Amethyst
|
No more child's play: the Good Pub Guide tells it like it is! October 14, 2008 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 1,431 |
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/oct/14/drugsandalcohol-children
Children taken to pubs by parents are running riot like "baby lager louts", ruining the enjoyment of other customers, it is claimed today. Editors of the Good Pub Guide have received dozens of complaints from readers about children's behaviour as pubs try to make themselves more family-friendly.
One complained: "I am sick of going into a pub and feeling I am at playschool." Another said: "No longer can one enjoy an adult evening out without feeling that one is dining in a creche."
Any problem was "entirely the fault of ill-disciplined parents", said another reader, while the edition's introduction reports how a 60-year-old solicitor who asked a doting father to keep his obviously sick baby quiet was challenged by the parent to resolve the matter outside.
The introduction to the guide's 27th edition says it is hard to see a solution to "this particularly British problem", although plenty of pubgoing families caused no trouble. "In continental restaurants and cafes, it's normal to see families with children, not normal to see kids spoil things for grown-ups.
"It's easy to say we could start treating parents who let their children run riot with the disdain normally reserved for lager louts. But would that have any impact on people who think they are entitled to a thoroughly relaxed family day out? And you can imagine the retort when a publican asks a badly-behaved family to quieten their children. 'We have just spent over 50 quid here, do you want us to leave without paying?' "
Nine in 10 of the 5,000 pubs listed in the guide allowed children. But some readers wanted a "no children" logo to help them choose those that did not, according to Fiona Stapley, a co-editor. "It might be something we would think about. We are split. We understand those people going to a pub for a quiet time but we also have a lot of readers who have young children and we want to support them as well."
Early this year, it emerged that some pub managers in the JD Wetherspoon chain limit adults with children to two alcoholic drinks as part of a policy that expects families to leave within a "reasonable time" of children finishing their meal. Many pubs offer cut-price smaller food helpings for children, but the guide strongly criticises those charging about £2 for soft drinks that cost 40p in shops.
The guide's pub of the year is the Golden Heart, Brimpsfield, Gloucestershire, with its beer pub of the year the Tom Cobley, Spreyton, Devon, and the national dining pub of the year the Lord Poulett Arms, Hinton St George, Somerset. Town pub of the year was the Jerusalem Tavern, in Clerkenwell, central London.
----
I say WELL DONE to adults (mostly non-parents but parents too) for standing up for chyld-free pubs!!!
- - - - - - - -
"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly
Children taken to pubs by parents are running riot like "baby lager louts", ruining the enjoyment of other customers, it is claimed today. Editors of the Good Pub Guide have received dozens of complaints from readers about children's behaviour as pubs try to make themselves more family-friendly.
One complained: "I am sick of going into a pub and feeling I am at playschool." Another said: "No longer can one enjoy an adult evening out without feeling that one is dining in a creche."
Any problem was "entirely the fault of ill-disciplined parents", said another reader, while the edition's introduction reports how a 60-year-old solicitor who asked a doting father to keep his obviously sick baby quiet was challenged by the parent to resolve the matter outside.
The introduction to the guide's 27th edition says it is hard to see a solution to "this particularly British problem", although plenty of pubgoing families caused no trouble. "In continental restaurants and cafes, it's normal to see families with children, not normal to see kids spoil things for grown-ups.
"It's easy to say we could start treating parents who let their children run riot with the disdain normally reserved for lager louts. But would that have any impact on people who think they are entitled to a thoroughly relaxed family day out? And you can imagine the retort when a publican asks a badly-behaved family to quieten their children. 'We have just spent over 50 quid here, do you want us to leave without paying?' "
Nine in 10 of the 5,000 pubs listed in the guide allowed children. But some readers wanted a "no children" logo to help them choose those that did not, according to Fiona Stapley, a co-editor. "It might be something we would think about. We are split. We understand those people going to a pub for a quiet time but we also have a lot of readers who have young children and we want to support them as well."
Early this year, it emerged that some pub managers in the JD Wetherspoon chain limit adults with children to two alcoholic drinks as part of a policy that expects families to leave within a "reasonable time" of children finishing their meal. Many pubs offer cut-price smaller food helpings for children, but the guide strongly criticises those charging about £2 for soft drinks that cost 40p in shops.
The guide's pub of the year is the Golden Heart, Brimpsfield, Gloucestershire, with its beer pub of the year the Tom Cobley, Spreyton, Devon, and the national dining pub of the year the Lord Poulett Arms, Hinton St George, Somerset. Town pub of the year was the Jerusalem Tavern, in Clerkenwell, central London.
----
I say WELL DONE to adults (mostly non-parents but parents too) for standing up for chyld-free pubs!!!
- - - - - - - -
"The death of creativity is a pram in the hallway"
- Cyril Connolly
|
Re: No more child's play: the Good Pub Guide tells it like it is! October 14, 2008 | Registered: 17 years ago Posts: 3,897 |
What the fuck is wrong with the breeders of this world? Ya know, I doubt very much they really WANT to take sproggy in a pub, they just do it to piss everyone off and make their pointless little points.
They need lives and hobbies because doing TMIJITW obviously isn't time-consuming enough.
They need lives and hobbies because doing TMIJITW obviously isn't time-consuming enough.
|
Re: No more child's play: the Good Pub Guide tells it like it is! October 14, 2008 | Registered: 15 years ago Posts: 4,532 |
Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.