Family time is over, kids
Wetherspoons HQ have a new policy that's hardly family friendly. Parents accompanied by children in any of the chain's 680+ pubs can be restricted to just two alcoholic drinks per visit. BBC News Online has the story. What it doesn't address is how many double whiskies you can feed the kids while you sup your own meagre allocation.
Presumably this is aimed at reducing the number of ankle-biters in your local 'Spoons. Lots of people would prefer to ban children from pubs altogether, so perhaps the policy will have its supporters. However, there's something annoying and petty about it. Back in September, we had a discussion about daft rules in pubs. I'd like to add this one to them.
13 comments:
That final comment from the Wetherspoons spokesman is a bit harsh - in relation to the people that told the BBC of the new policy: "The only people they need to look at are themselves".
It's hardly child abuse to take your kid to the pub and have a meal (which is what the person in question wanted to do it seems). Even odder is that I've just looked at the Food section of Wetherspoons' website and it makes a point of highlighting its "award-winning children's menu"...
I usually buy myslef two alcoholic drinks per round when I take the kids to a Wetherspoons.
Wetherspoons are notoriously understaffed. Do they really expect the staff members covering a bar that's four deep in waiting patrons to remember how many drinks each customer has ordered, monitor who has children with them, and communicate between each other who's ordered what (to stop the customers going the 3 different members of staff to order drinks)? Next time I go to a Spoons (which isn't planned for anytime soon), I'll hopefully see the bar covered in abacuses with customer names and table numbers on them.
I think the underlying problem they're trying to address - i.e. irresponsible parents getting tanked up on cheap booze while their spawn roam the place making nuisances of themselves, their developmental prospects shrinking by the second - is fair enough. However, as other commenters have pointed out, trying to turn this into a strict rule which requires fairly stringent policing is a big mistake, and could result in a PR disaster.
What this issue needs is sensible and well-trained management using common sense, and doing what they're being paid to do - keeping an eye on what's going on in the pub, and intervening when and where necessary. If someone and / or their children is causing a problem, they're perfectly within their rights to eject them.
Am I right in thinking that Wetherspoon's pubs are child-free after 7pm?
Coach, no - either 8pm or 9pm.
And what people seem to have missed is that there is nothing new about this rule: Wetherspoons have had this policy since allowing children in 2002. I fail to see what is annoying or petty about it.
Martin L
Martin - yes, I heard a Wetherspoon's PR on the radio earlier saying that it was an old policy, just that someone decided to kick up a stink about it, hence the sudden media attention.
A pub is no place for a child, well done Weatherspoons!Lets hope the publicity encourages more to follow suit or go the whole hog and claim back the pub back for the adults.
Call me old fashioned but I do NOT want to see any kids in a pub in the UK. Pubs are for adults ONLY, kids can go everywhere else in the country so why should they go to a place where we need to escape from them! British kids are so poorly behaved when compared to other European kids. I wasn't allowed in pubs when I was a kid, my Dad used to bring me a half pint of shandy to drink in the car back in the early 70's.
Had I been in a Wetherspoons, I would have been in trouble after 12 minutes today. And in the second pub, too. I had more of a thirst on by then. So after just 8 minutes.
Yet my kids didn't run riot. They gave me useful advice like: "Dad, no more than three jenvers." "Drink Dubbel not Tripel."
Maybe having German passports makes my kids behave so responsibly. Being British myself, I behave like a mindless twat.
When the Islamofacists place all Englanders under Sharia law, Wetherspoons will be a non entity. England will be like trying to find a beer in Saudi Arabia. Pub will be replaced by mosque. Enjoy Wetherspoons Mosque.
My plan when I became Stalin was to introduce Mild rationing. Everyone over the age of 18 would have to drink a minimum number of pints of Mild each week. Those who failed to drink their quota would risk a fine or imprisonment.
Pete said "British kids are so poorly behaved when compared to other European kids." So what your really saying is you dont want kids misbehaving, well neither do i, and i dont let my kids misbehave in a pub. Why should i and they be punnished because of other peoples kids. Enforce behavior or throw them out, were customers as well our moneys just as good as yours. If we ban kids because some people dont want them, can we ban up to 25 as there too many loud drunks in that age group that i dont like, also id would be easier to get a seat. Oh but then if we stop one group going just because another doesnt like it. Will the BNP then get all non-Brittish Baned. Banning children just because you dont want them there is just a form of discrimination. Making the family leave who doesnt make them behave leads to a better environment for all. Craig
I just feel that pubs should be for adults only. It is not really a place for children to see adults getting drunk, having fights, using bad language etc...
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