>I read a featured blog titled “Babies in Bars” on Work It Mom. The blogger talked about bringing her baby to bars to hear her husband’s country band perform. She talked about putting ear protection on the baby to muffle the din, nursing a young baby in a discreet corner, bringing an older baby’s own tippy cup for juice or other beverages, and in general, taking care to make the trip safe and appropriate for baby and for other customers.
It’s Lent, season of the Wisconsin Friday Night Fish Fry. Fish fry events can be in supper clubs, family restaurants, church halls, and yes, taverns or bars. I’m sure there are little ones following their parents into the pubs and the taverns or waiting in the bar areas for the fish fry to be ready.
Is there a deep meaning to all this babble? Maybe, maybe not. If I go to a downtown bar for lunch with Amigo (now age 18), we’re not drinking. He’s too young, and I’m probably driving, so alcohol with our fish fry or cheese curds doesn’t make sense. Would we mind seeing a baby at the table next to ours? Not a bit.
It’s all about responsibility, really. If the parent at the next table is exercising moderation and good judgement, is taking good care of the child, and both parent and child are behaving well, it’s not a problem – at least in my neighborhood.
And isn’t the main responsibility of anyone present in a drinking establishment just that: responsibility?
>Wow, I guess it's been a long time since I've been to a bar. There also is a very big difference between today's no smoking family type bars and yesterday's smoke filled biker bars! Ha!
>There are "family friendly" bars and there are not. I don't expect to see children a lot of places, and I don't expect people with kids in bars to hold me to any standard of behavior. I still recall the family who called out my husband for his language IN A BAR. Not a bar/restaurant. A bar. Yeah, take your kid for a soda somewhere else, buddy, but expect the language to be rated Adult in a bar.
And now I shall stop ranting.
>This is interesting! I used to work in a bar/restaurant at the time I was pregnant with Chipmunk. After he was born, I used to take him in there a lot – it was where my friends worked and socialised. And yes, we used to sit in the bar area, not the restaurant, if we weren't eating. However, I didn't (and still don't) drink on trips like that, because usually I'm driving and I don't like to even have just one.
Contrasted with that, though, is a family that sticks in my mind very clearly. They spent an entire Sunday afternoon/evening in the pub with their young daughter. They were drinking heavily and playing the slot machines. She was running around, looking after herself. They didn't change her nappy all afternoon and it was so heavy she almost couldn't walk with it.
I guess there will always be at least two kinds of people!