Bars: kid friendly or adults only?

No kids. Most people go to bars so they don't have to deal with them. I don't want a ton of kids running around causing trouble while I'm trying to enjoy myself. Shit, I sound like a grumpy old dude.

 

Right on. Stole the words out of my mouth. But I would go with 6-7pm rather than 8

 

Was thinking this same thing, but kept misidentifying it as Scalia in my head; I knew it wasn't him, but was too lazy to look it up.

 

Nothing worse when you go to your local brewery for a tasting and growler fill and some guy shows up with him wife and 9 kids that are running around yelling and crying Leave the family at home, this is MAN TIME!

 

Anyone on this thread ever read The Tender Bar? Realize it's not totally applicable, given it took place in yesteryear, but I couldn't help but think about it when I first read this thread.

 

As long as they share their cigarettes and front me money for the MMA bets, I'm cool with it.

 

Years ago my state chased the smokers outside onto the patios, which after a very short time I came to appreciate how much better the bars were without all that nasty smell floating around (Ha! only my own brand of cigarette smells ok!). But having been driven to the smokers porch I do not want helicopter parents barging their kids into my last sanctuary and demand I stop smoking! Not all places have to be "kid-friendly"!

 

Get a babysitter, or use birth control.

 

More and more Im seeing blurred lines between the two. I appreciate the fact adults want to go out, maybe have a mid-day drink. Now that I am a father I want to do that. I think that as long as the location makes it kid friendly it works. In SD places like Station put up a little fenced in play area, BLAH has board games and crayons. It doesnt take much to entertain them and the vibe is typically not crying baby but more family. I dont mind.

Keep in mind these places are bright and open. Places like Hamilton's are dark and make you feel like you should have a pint. I wouldnt bring a kid there.

 

When I'm not in the home town, but have wife and daughter in tow, then we won't go into a pub unless we know it's kid friendly. Most kid friendly places know to keep the family crowd separated from the adult crowd and those are your truly customer service oriented type places. I usually have a plan in mind and do some research before taking my daughter into a pub I'm not familiar with. My daughter has always been very well behaved and quiet as she is years ahead in maturity for her age. If we're in a place where someone has no control over their wildass little turd kids, then even my daughter won't want to be there. Some people...well, they just need to keep the kids at home, and that goes for any type of public establishment.

 

Crying babies and/ or adventurous toddlers are the worst. But a well-mannered child who can mind his or her own business quietly is fine.

 

If the bar is not somehow physically separated from the restaurant/ food consuming area, kids should be prohibited. Adults should have a sanctuary from other people's children.

 

As long as there is a separated seated area I don't have a problem with it. Never at the actual bar.

And to those who said they are offended by people who want to drop an f bomb at a bar. I would hope that most people on here don't regularly go out to the bar get drunk and act like assholes cussing up a storm. If I go to a bar to get a drink with friends for happy hour my language will be different from when I am at work. You probably won't hear what I say unless you are trying to listen to my conversation. Which is something bored kids will do.

 

This.

Look, if you want to do what you want, good for you. But I do not owe you a child free zone any more than you owe me as imbecile free zone. If you are acting stupid, or swearing, though, you are not just doing something that bothers me if I have my kid. You are doing something that can bother just about everyone around you. And that means you are being rude, which is why you should probably dial it back a bit.

 

I definitely don't want kids sitting at the bar counter itself with their parents. For example, I've seen very young children sitting on bar stools while their parents stand behind them. Sorry, no way.

 

OK, here we have the OP making it clear that he is asking for opinions about a pub (not bar) he and some others are opening. - It sounds to me like they're looking for a mellow, friendly atmosphere, where your dogs (health codes permitting) and kids (so long as they don't swear too much) can hang out and feel cool for getting to go to a grown-up sort of place. So here's my opinion: A neighborhood pub, in this idealized conception, should welcome the neighborhood. It shouldn't aspire to be a place where depressed and disappointed people sit in hostile silence as they rapidly age, or mutually curse those they blame for their disappointments, with the love they share being little more than the ugly sentimentality of drunks.* If there are kids in the neighborhood, and their parents think it's an acceptable and friendly enough place, why not. The proprietors can choose their policy and work to make it whatever sort of place they like; and if they like this sort of place, well, if you don't like it, by all means go elsewhere.

(*None of this is, really, to say that a bar that doesn't admit kids is a nasty place only drunks go; I am just trying to make a hyperbolic comparison to the idyllic, almost mythical Pub.)

 

Me neither. What I wrote might have been confusing. I meant that to be kid-friendly, it helps if that is part of the plan when you are designing and planning the bar.

 

It is amazing how in the examples everyone's child is perfect when they go out. I don't take my 3 year old to any table service establishments any more. Her attention span is too limit to sit still and quiet for an hour to an hour and a half. And it annoys me to have to constantly say "no, sit down, be quiet, etc." It doesn't make for an enjoyable night for me, much less any one else. I'm definitely jealous of those whose kids sit there with perfect manners not bothering anyone else.

 

I take my kids to bars all the time, but only to eat. We don't go "out for drinks" with the kids. They are 11 and 13 by the way, but we've been taking them out with us since the smoking ban went into effect here in WI.

 

I'm for no kids.
I've been to places that have family areas separate from the bar, and I'm fine with that. I wouldn't take young kids to a bar, and I'm sure the adults would be happy with that choice. I've always thought, though, it's good to take kids out so they can learn how to act in public. So, I'm all for separate areas.