Children in pubs

In Bilbao earlier this year the square was full, every evening, of a mix of families , work groups all enjoying the evening.
Perhaps the "problem" is not the children but the behaviour and attitude of some adults who drink too much?

The pub close to where I live does a good (reasonably priced) children’s menu. Why shouldn’t a group of young parents and their children meet up in a Friday or Saturday after a hard week at work ? This pub also attracts the Friday night boozing crowd but no one seems to be bothered. Happy days

There’s “pubs” and “pubs” though wilygran iyswim

PECs I've lived in the Med with children (& dogs) a fixture in cafes,bars & restaurants but they sat with their parents (or owners) as part of a family group. Nobody inflicted their bored children on other people.
My gripe is a pub in a busy night is not a place for young children, for all sorts of reasons. It's an adult environment. On a Friday evening when groups of colleagues have been drinking since they left work? Is that a good environment for children? Of course it's nice for families to enjoy things together, but some places aren't suitable or a good example for 8 year olds.

DH and I went for a pub lunch yesterday..the most disruptive element in the place was a yappy dog! It was very pretty and sat under a chair but anytime a person walked by it yapped! I still enjoyed my meal.

Adults should be able to enjoy some relaxing time away from the responsibilities of children

And what about those adults (like it was for me as a young parent) who do not have the luxury of a babysitter sodapop ?

I am always more in favour of the Mediterranean European approach to family life myself.

Me too PECS some people find dogs in pubs/restaurants more acceptable than children.

Gosh a lot of emotive words being used here! Why would anyone think it was politically correct not to have a family room?
Then " middle class hipster types" what does that mean?
I get you were pissed off that kids were in a pub when you wanted an adults only environment. I even understand that you might want that.
I am always more in favour of the Mediterranean European approach to family life myself.

I don't think we are being grumpy at all wilygran I think after 8pm pubs, restaurants etc should be free of all but well behaved older children. Babies and young children should be in bed or heading that way by that time. Adults should be able to enjoy some relaxing time away from the responsibilities of children.
As for leaving your children in a different part of the room and ignoring their behaviour, words fail me.

I dont mind children being in the pub/restaurant but not when they are running about, throwing food around and generally making a nuisance of themselves- best to avoid Wetherspoons on Saturdays.

I agree with you, wilygran, when mine were small we couldn’t often afford to go the pub but when we did we were always gone well before then. We liked a pub that had a family room best It gave the best of both worlds.

We also felt that when we could afford a sitter, we didn’t want other people’s children running about, I still don’t. We went for Sunday lunch a while ago at a well known family eating place, so expected children there, but everyone wanted the roast selection so went. A couple came in and sat at the table to the side of us, they sat their 4 children across the room from them and left them to it. They of course ran riot, though judging by the parents table manners .... need I say more !.

I do think these places should bring back the family room, or as that’s not now politically correct, a quiet room ?

I rarely go out to a pub but I think it’s great that young families can get together for a drink and a bite to eat on a Friday night . Speaking as someone who never had babysitters when my children were young I hardly ever got out at all as there were no family friendly pubs back then. Sorry to disagree wilygran

Yes, I was that grumpy old person yesterday evening. We walked to our local for a drink and I was pleased to see that our usual table was free and put our coats on the back of the seats while my husband went to the bar. I realised that a child on the next table had a very noisy game on his tablet and so moved to another table and we could still hear it. Very irritating.