Beer & Kids: Where's Your Line?

I have no kids and don't want any. So here are my lines (and they are only my lines) when it comes to beer and kids:

Bottle shop? Bring the kids. Make sure they behave in public, or take 'em outside. (This is your job, parents.)
Brewpub that's a restaurant? Bring the kids. Make sure they behave in public, or take 'em outside. Drink responsibly. (All these are your job, parents.)
Brewery with a tasting room? Bring the kids. Make sure they behave in public, or take 'em outside. Drink responsibly. (All these are your job, parents.) I'd prefer some kind of curfew, like "Kids are welcome until 8:00 pm."
Bar? Leave the kids at home. Bars are for adults. Getting into a bar is a privilege that should be afforded only to those who are of an appropriate age. Bars are not day care. Bars should have no particular obligation to be kid-friendly, given the wealth of other places which are.
Beer festival? Leave the kids at home. Beer festivals are for adults. (I don't imagine I'll get a lot of people agreeing with this one. Ah well.)

 

I agree with all of your guidelines & especially this one. I actually referenced the beer festival earlier in the thread. I just don't see how anyone could disagree with this stance. Babies and kids should absolutely not be allowed at a beer festival.

 

too many beers = kids

 

And too many kids=beers...and the cycle continues, where does it end?!?!?!?!

 

Agree on this. As much as my toddler likes to ride his bike to the imaginary beer festival (yeah i really do need to cut down talking about beer...) i don't see why parents would take kids. Honestly, I don't know if I have been to one that even allowed it. Everything I see says 21+ ONLY.

If you can afford to go to a beer festival (they are a LUXURY), time to be able to afford a babysitter to go with it. I luck out (although mostly this makes me lose out...) that my wife doesn't drink beer. So she stays home.

 

In wisconsin(at least Madison), beer is at kids birthday parties, and kids are in every bar/pub.

 

Depends on the fest. Indoor fests, especially the ones featuring stronger beers (WA Brewers Cask Fest and Belgian Fest, for example), are definitely no place for kids. OTOH, the WA Brewers Fathers Day fest takes place at a huge park, has a bouncy house and other kids activities, a root beer tent, and there are acres of land for them to run around on, and I think this is fine.

 

I see nothing wrong with it, heck my eldest daughter (11) will always tell me "dad, you're not getting any beer"? Always have to thank her for reminding me that yes I do need beer.... Proud father

 

There are actually plenty of them depending on that state you're in. In CA, many (possibly all) places that serve alcohol but no food (Toronado, Cellarmaker, City Beer...) require you to be 21 to get in. Some places like Zeitgeist have food but still do not allow children and they are all definitely not places where kids should be allowed to be. It was the same in OH, but not PA because you're not allowed to serve alcohol without serving food there, so there's no true bar (a place that servers alcohol only) in the whole state. Kids should not be allowed in a true bar since there's nothing for them there.

As far as "not standing" kids, it's just a stalemate. Parents will always be on one side and non parents will always be on another. Neither are wrong, but both are welcome to their preferences. I do not have kids, but do love my niece and nephew dearly and really do like most of my friends' kids. Some people do like to go to a drinking establishment and not have to watch their language or things like that because kids are there. Or maybe they don't want to have to dodge kids who are running around when just trying to walk to the bathroom. Yes, being out drinking doesn't give you carte blanche to be a loud jackass, but there are levels of what's acceptable that are very different when kids are around. Surely, you can understand that, right?

 

I have only taken my older son (12) in my local brewery once. The family was heading to a party and I stopped in for a growler. He got a kick out of seeing the place that "mom and dad talked about all the time".
I personally am not a fan when kids are sitting around tables at breweries for a few reasons.
First off, I'm there having conversations that may not be appropriate for kids. Nothing too over the top, but life matters. It's nice to not hear about Minecraft or COD for a few hours. And on another level, people around us may be having conversations that aren't appropriate for my kids.
Secondly, I'm not a big fan of drinking around kids.
I don't fault other people for doing it, but I wont' be taking my kids to my local.

 

Certainly your perspective is reasonable and I mostly agree. But the blanket statement ,"I can't stand Kids", is at least odd. Maybe people don't like kids, or people in general for that matter. I have been somewhat misanthropic at times, but I am forgiving. I am drawn to children largely because I have refused to completely grow up. Cheers!

 

For YOU. And obviously for many others. But not everybody needs to have children around everywhere they go.

As for me, I find that a great many things make life worthwhile: Friends. Music. Beer. Art. Books. Good food. Pets. Children. Useful work. Rain. Bikes. Portland Timbers matches. Everything has its time and place, and even the best behaved kids aren't welcome in every situation, IMO.

 

I like the same things that you like and children do not exclusively make life worthwhile. I've had a very interesting life, traveled extensively, had a fine education, didn't get married until I was 30 (having way too much fun)....but when I did meet my future wife, I was smitten! My children are now 33 and 30 and are very cool people that I am deeply proud of. Surely each to his own, and I have zero enmity about any of this, but raising good kids is critical. And I am a Grandfather!

 

I don't mind kids around when I am buying beer. I don't want to see one when I am drinking beer.

 

my opinion if the brewery has a bouncy castle and pony rides bring the kids if their nothing for kids to do but run around and scream leave them at home.

 

There is absolutely nothing wrong with exposing your kids to beer, and perusing the aisles to buy beer. I do it almost every day with my kids. To me it's just part of our culture now, just as wine has been incorporated into the French and Italian cultures. I don't serve beer to my kids, but they know all about it, and there is no harm done. My daughter even made me a "Dad" plaque in ceramics, that had "Stone, Bear Republic, Russian River, Lagunitas" carved into the sign, so I could hang it on my wall. One of the best damn presents I ever received. You take your kids to buy beer, and just ignore those other uptight people. They suck, you rule!

 

Since the smoking ban we are seeing more families in pubs.Very rarely do the kids cause much annoyance but it does happen.
Back in the 70s we took our boys when we visited pubs.But the ones we went to were suitable for this. At our favourite pub the landlord sat the boys in his kitchen and gave them nibbles and orange juice , taking no payment . Happy days.

 

Around town, she is not permitted in the breweries and bottle shops, so I have to plan around it. I am not going to hide that I drink - if my daughter cannot see what I'm doing, I think that would be a sign of a problem, honestly. I like a couple beers, but I try to avoid getting sloppy.

In the grocery store, I can and do shop the beer aisles with my daughter. Once, when my daughter was around 3, I was in the beer section of Jungle Jim's. It was a harried week, and I was a bit punchy from fatigue, and she was singing along to "If you're happy and you know it..." when I piped up with "if you're happy and you know it, drink your beer." It was swallowed and returned endlessly for a while, which is when I realized it was going to be a bit of a problem Well needless to say, my wife was amused but also mortified, and we had to have a hard conversation that this was one of those things you don't go singing at full volume at day care. We never did get a call, so I think she took the point, but it was a joke between her and I for years. She'd get an impish look in her eye, then start singing it when I poured one at home, or as we walked the grocery store aisles.

On vacation, brew pubs and other beer stops are often the point. When went to Vermont or Asheville, my daughter was on vacation with me, so yes, she came with my wife and me to go to Prohibition Pig, Wicked Weed, etc. Because of the burdens of the trip and the lack of food or other interest, I left her with her mother for Hill Farmstead, but that was out of consideration of their likely boredom, not fear that it crossed any line.

 

I'm the grocery shopper in my family and St. Louis grocery stores can sometimes be great for finding craft beer. When they are with me I do drag them down the beer aisle. It's not their favorite part of the trip, but they usually pick out fruit snacks or ice cream so everyone wins.

I don't take them to bottle shops. Too much glass. Nothing of interest for them. I want to focus on beer when I'm there, not on their boredom or them picking up bottles and glasses! They also have nut allergies and one of my haunts will roast nuts so I wouldn't chance it.

I think they have hit a brewery or two with my wife and I when they were younger to eat with us, but now that we are aware of their nut allergies we only dine out at certain places and breweries don 'to make the list.

 

I come to this with two different perspectives.

Firstly, having worked behind a bar and knowing the need for the bar to make money, there is value for having families having meals at your pub. That said, and I was guilty of this in inviting families into the pub later, that there should be an age limit to the children and really only children that are 12 years and older should be allowed into a pub or licensed premises. My mistake was to invite a family into the pub who had children under 5 that repeatedly cried and annoyed the other customers.

The other side is me as the brewery goer now who thinks the same that if you are going to bring children they need to be over 12 but now I see (and breweries and bars are letting them get away with it) but parents bringing crying babies and children under 12 running around everywhere which isn't a good thing.

 

Spent a long time in France as a kid. Kids get water and wine starting around 4 years old. The country thinks of USA as puritanical (eg Clinton impeached, Hollande giggled at).

 

This fairly accurately covers my sensibilities with the caveat that especially in places like restaurants I think the time limit for getting kids that are becoming restless or irritable to settle down is very finite. If you're struggling with an unruly kid for ten or twenty minutes without leaving you have waited way too long to take them out, other patrons are not paying to share in the experience of your obstreperous kid. On the other hand, I've been in bars and restaurants where I wished the people at an adjoining table had a responsible twelve-year-old with them to get the adults out of there before they became loud and obnoxious.

 

I remember being young, and dragging our kids EVERYWHERE with us. Thank god those days are over.

 

I draw my line with whales...kids should not be drinking whales, unless they are using their money to buy them

 

I have a 2 year old son and my only qualm about bringing him to a bottle shop is the fact that he would probably pick up and smash ever beer within his grasp. Other than that, I don't think it is a big deal. Its not like your plan is to buy a 30-pack of Natty Light and play beer pong with your kids.

 

I'm fine with it. My daughter, as you can see in another thread, often picks the beers. Neither of the two excellent shops I use (in PA mot distribution ones, but "take out") have any issue and one, and one like another poster mentioned, have lollipops for the kids.