Babies in bars, yay or nay?

[Bella_mezzo]

nay

 

[vespergirl]

We have brought our son to bars when we go on vacation. We initially meant to leave him with a sitter at the resort, but after that little Scottish girl went missing in Portugal, we decided that we think he''s safer keeping him with us.

Granted, we have not brought him to "coyote ugly" type bars with people doing body shots and blaring music.

Usually it will be a low-key, open air tropical bar with calypso or reggae music. Someplace to get a couple of drinks after dinner. Luckily, DS gets so worn out playing on the beach all day during vacation, that he usually falls asleep immediately after dinner, so we stick him in his stroller, and he sleeps in it while we get some drinks after dinner. Since he''s unconscious, we figure that the experience isn''t hurting him any

 

[Puppmom]

Vesper, very jealous of what sounds like a lovely vacation!

I''m not the "bar" type - especially because I can''t stand cigarette smoke. DH and I generally tend to go to places that serve food and alcohol and I have no problem bringing a child to those types of places. However, I wouldn''t bring them to the Friday night, cover band, drunk girls in mini-skirts, men with breath that smells like alcohol type place.

For what''s it worth, as a kid, my dad bartended on the weekends and we spent A LOT of time at the bar. We would play shuffle board and old men would give us loads of quarters for the pin ball machines. We also got to eat burgers and drink birch beer. We even brought our dog! Needless to say, we had a blast. Was it *good* for us? I don''t know but it sure was fun!

 

[vespergirl]

Date: 3/3/2010 9:32:07 AM
Author: puppmom
Vesper, very jealous of what sounds like a lovely vacation!

I''m not the ''bar'' type - especially because I can''t stand cigarette smoke. DH and I generally tend to go to places that serve food and alcohol and I have no problem bringing a child to those types of places. However, I wouldn''t bring them to the Friday night, cover band, drunk girls in mini-skirts, men with breath that smells like alcohol type place.

For what''s it worth, as a kid, my dad bartended on the weekends and we spent A LOT of time at the bar. We would play shuffle board and old men would give us loads of quarters for the pin ball machines. We also got to eat burgers and drink birch beer. We even brought our dog! Needless to say, we had a blast. Was it *good* for us? I don''t know but it sure was fun!

That sounds like a really fun childhood!

 

[curlygirl]

I agree that it''s ok in pub type places that serve food but only in the afternoon/early evening. We''ve done that with the girls many times. But a traditional bar? NO WAY. We don''t have smoking in NYC restaurants and bars so that''s not the issue. It''s just that if I''m at a bar (which never happens anymore because I have kids but that''s a moot point), I want to have fun and get my drink on rather than chase after my kids and make sure they''re not bothering anyone else. It defeats the purpose of going out for drinks in my opinion.

FWIW, I have quite a few friends who live in Brooklyn and none of them take their kids to bars. I do have one friend who is in a moms group and they do a "beers and babies" thing once a week in a bar in the afternoon (in Park Slope of course) and I think that''s weird but to each his own.

 

[somethingshiny]

As a kid, I was in the bars a LOT! It was fun at the time. We played a lot of games, got quarters from everyone, and rode on the trolleys they used for moving kegs and boxes. But, we were never loud or obnoxious and we always sat at the tables, never at the bar.

As I got older, the bar stops got a bit scary. I had men hitting on me from the age of 12. At 13, a hooker came up to me and asked my bra size (and tried to get me to rip out my bra tag for her!) Drinks were bought for me at 14. (at that time, an underage person could drink with parental permission) I look back in horror at these events.

JT has only been in a bar twice I think. Both times were with his grandpa to pick up candy (in a small town, the bar is the candy shop). I was uncomfortable with JT being in the bar for even 10 minutes though. I know what goes on in bars and no child needs to see those things.

 

[ChargerGrrl]

nay- once the "carding" begins, then NO ONE under the age of 21 should be in the room

DH and I like to hit the beach during the summer. It usually involves popping into our favorite beach bar to cool down with a frosty one. I would think we''d bring bebe along, but again, that would only be during the day.

 

[snlee]

I say nay.

 

[Rachel9]

Hmmm no, sorry.

 

[ladypirate]

In a pub or brewery that serves food, sure. In a cocktail bar, no way no how. Not appropriate.

 

[MustangGal]

I took Kyle to happy hour at a bar when he was 10 months old. Not really my idea, I was meeting former co-workers, told them to choose a place where a child would be OK, and they picked a bar

. I did call ahead and asked their policy about children in the bar area, and they said the only restriction was that he couldn''t sit at the actual bar, one of the coctail tables was fine. So we drug a highchair into the bar and had our happy hour! I didn''t drink, and it was a Monday at 5pm, so not prime bar time either. I don''t think I''d do it again unless it was similar circumstances. There''s also no smoking in public buildings in AZ, I don''t think I would even go in bars that allowed smoking, gives me a headach.