[WTGirl]

For parents that hang out at UnionHall.--Strollers and children who are ablet o walk are no longer allowed in. This is causing a little bit of a tizzy among some parents in the slope who are invoking some kind of . Personally, why in god's name do you want to take your kid to a bar? Please, I love to take a break from mine.

So now can someone please suggest a good place for color output in the slope?

[Innocent X]

RU DRUNK?

[steve]

can't tell if this is serious, but if so.awesome, babies and bars are a bad combination.
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For The Love Of Paris, Don't Go To The Lounge!

[daniel]

I don't see any problem with parents bringing their kids and strollers there during the day. It seemed like a good compromise to boot them out after dark, once it starts getting crowded. No idea what the liability issues are, though, considering that there are the bocce ball courts where kids can easily wander into.

[Innocent X]

Oh please dear god not this conversation. It's the Park Slope version of Mugging.

[pitu]

[sprite]

I think babies should be allowed in bars. And if their teenage babysitters order a drink, well, minding kids is thirsty work.
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What is essential is invisible to the eye. —Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[Hamilton]

[Evilbert]

[caseopele]

[Hamilton]

in the old days people stayed home and got drunk
[ they were the ones that liked each other]

[caseopele]

Well, as someone who hates bars and clubs, and doesn't drink, I don't get it. When I lived on 5th Ave, I'd walk my dogs past the bars. Sometimes I felt like an anthropologist observing a foreign tribe. "Look at them, they seem to enjoy being packed in there with drunken strangers! Fascinating..."
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A man needs a little madness, or else he never dares cut the rope and be free. -Nikos Kazantzakis

[veets]

Afew weeks ago I suggested that we check out the Dram Shop on 9th Street on a Thursday early evening. We had our 2 year old grandson with us that night and afew friends sans kids.. My idea was not to get drunk but simply to try their burgers and have a beer.

My husband was truly aghast.... No way were we gonna take a toddler (even a well behaved one, who would have sat in his stroller and munched on a burger) to a bar. Hey.. I thought about it and realized this was not something I was gonna do.... but...questioning myself as to why I kind of "lost my mind" on this one long enough to even suggest the idea. I have the answer... been living in Park Slope too long and observing so many parents who have no issues at all about kids in bars.

Bring back the old days where everyone got drunk at home!!

[Innocent X]

[caseopele]

[veets]

[littlegal]

Only logical connection I can make is that neither of the above makes any legitimate sense. Children do not belong in bars, nor do dogs belong locked up on sidewalks outside of stores. Period, end of story.

[Santa]

if we could smoke in bars this would not even be an issue.

[sprite]

[daver]

I think that it is immaterial what one's personal beliefs are as to the place of children in bars. Ditto for the UK's stance. As if there was an official one. I would argue that the owner of the bar has EVERY right to impose whatever restrictions he sees fit on the presence of children and strollers in his bar. The customers can vote with their wallets, no one is forcing them to patronize his childless bar. They can move on to a child friendly bar elsewhere.
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"It's only as boring as you make it."

You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.

Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level!

[Kikintina]

I think one of the main concerns for UH is the stroller parking and liability. My understanding is that non-walking children are allowed. I know from places like Tea Lounge it can become more annoying than dangerous to walk around/over strollers - but that's for people who have their balance in check. And if it's keeping their clientele from coming in, aren't they allowed to change that policy? Also, UH has those stairs and I don't think they should HAVE to get a gate just to accommodate children running around. If they don't have one, however, they are playing with a potential lawsuit. Then again, there are places that have made the business decision to be accommodating to children, and I'd think it's usually based on whom they want to attract.

On the other hand, I've been to a few happy hours geared towards parents with their kids, and it's nice to be able to hang out and have a beer (or a seltzer and cranberry) while visiting with other people who aren't annoyed with your kids. Most parents (believe it or not) avoid places in which their kids will be a nuisance. For example, choosing Aunt Suzie's over Al Di La. Or going to dinner at 5:30 instead of 7:30.

Union Hall has every right (my non-legally-trained mind believes) to say NO to strollers or children. Don't they?
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Give a person a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a person to use the Internet and he won't bother you for weeks.

[jeffrey]

Louise Crawford (OTBKB / Smartmom) actually sums this one up pretty well for me:

http://onlytheblogknowsbrooklyn.typepad.com/o.....8/01/do-kids-need-to.html

And I am a parent.

[Carnivore]

[jeffrey]

[Drano]

Good. I didn't do it when my kid was in a stroller and I don't like when other people do it. If I'm out for a few pops it's a break from kids, I don't need that ruined by somebody else's squawking meatbags. There are places that encourage this scene - and fair enough, I avoid them; what I don't like to see is a clearly adult establishment with a bunch of strollers. That's automatic walkout for me. I didn't like it when I lived in Ireland either, it's just where I draw the line I guess.

Good point about the smoking, too.

[lanciano]

When I'm in a good mood, I don't mind kids in bars in the daytime as long as they are behaving themselves and not climbing the walls. But this is the same way I feel about kids in the Tea Lounge, the B75, and Neergaards. Calm those kids down, parents!

However, I would sincerely like to see more kids of walking age actually WALKING. Why must they get pushed around until junior high in these tractor-like strollers. I see plenty of rather tall, ambulatory looking children being chauffered around which then creating parking problems in restaurants, shops, and bars, which is probably what Union Hall is objecting to.

Leave the stroller at home and get your kid some exercise.

[scarlett]

Ha! I know - kids who can walk should. I'm not advocating for one year olds to clog up the streets walking three feet an hour, but on New Years Day I saw the funniest/saddest thing-- a kid who had to be five years old was crammed into a stroller. His feet hung over the edge though and he kept pulling this trick of putting his foot on the ground so the stroller jerked to a stop and mom tripped over it. I saw him do it three times and each time both the kid and I laughed.

[LongTimeSloper]

Call me old fashioned, but, I see no reason to bring your child to a bar. I have 2 children and have never found the need to bring either of them to a bar with me.

oh, and the stroller thing is one of my major pet peeves! it drives me crazy when I see 3 and 4 and 5 year olds being pushed one block in a stroller-give me a break!

[Innocent X]

Well, with the amount of morons who ride their bikes on sidewalks, putting even a 5 year old in a stroller to protect them from getting hit does make some sense.

[Drano]

[caseopele]

[WTGirl]

I was just talking to a gym teacher at a private school the other day who told me maybe another reason obesity is epidemic is kids are in strollers forever. They aren't building up any early muscle mass. They get STROLLED to a tumbling class in order to get exercise. How f'd up is that?

I personally don't bring my kids to bars. I am around kids a lot--it is nice to have a break and not worry about uttering an expletive.

[belzjm]

i agree with someone else...

we should pass a special law in park slope that again allows smoking in bars.

i'd go more often, that's for sure.

although i have to say...i do like union hall...they have a lovely outdoor smoking area.

[daver]

http://curbed.com/archives/2008/01/24/hip_boo....._leave_progeny_behind.php
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"It's only as boring as you make it."

You're making me want to poke my eyes out with a spoon. Stop that.

Bringing the term thin-skinned to a whole new level!

[Will's HouseBoy]

Smoke in bars, good. Kids in bars, bad. I guess it's all in what annoys you. Me, I'd rather deal with a kid than cancer.

[The Chipster]

[quote="Drano"]Good. I didn't do it when my kid was in a stroller and I don't like when other people do it. If I'm out for a few pops it's a break from kids, I don't need that ruined by somebody else's squawking meatbags. There are places that encourage this scene - and fair enough, I avoid them; what I don't like to see is a clearly adult establishment with a bunch of strollers. That's automatic walkout for me. I didn't like it when I lived in Ireland either, it's just where I draw the line I guess.

Well put! When you have kids, guess what; you don't come first anymore. We all deserve a break; even us parents. But I hate to keep that phony smile posted on my face just because there's a mommy balancing a toddler on the bar! Am I supposed to find that cute?! I love em on my time, naturally. Don't force the issue by forcing me to monitor my behavior!
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Ask a burning question, get a burning answer.

[raw]

[veets]

Boy.... I have read heated discussion threads on this forum and trust me.... this is not one of those "heated" ones.

Bottom line... There are enough bars in the Slope where there are no strollers and if you want to avoid drinking with REAL minors you just know not to frequent those places.

So given there are options.. this discussion will not get heated in the way other topics can get.

[kosherdave]

I guess I'm a bit torn and maybe it depends on my mood.
On one hand, I don't like the silly law that requires you to be 21 to drink, then again, I also don't want to be at a bar with drunk little kids either, now that I'm way way past 21.

Now as far as little-little kids are concerned (who presumably are not drunk but are with their family who, for whatever reason, chose not to hire a sitter), I don't really wanna see them, but I don't really care too much either.

I guess I just don't like the fact that the bar should be chastised if they make a decision to NOT allow kids. If they don't wanna have kids in Union Hall, then F*CK everyone, it's their choice.... plenty of other bars to go to if you must bring kids. Just because we live in a nabe' with a lot of kids shouldn't mean that they have a free pass to do whatever they want.

And I think a place like Union Hall (or most NYC establishments with limited space) strollers should be banned/parked out front/somewhere out of the way. I can't tell you how many times I've tripped over them and they certainly could be a BIG fire hazard if people needed to rush out.

[Evilbert]

[iluvbrooklyn]

my two cents, for what its worth, is that I only went to Union Hall twice and both times was appalled to be sitting next to toddlers while trying talk to my girlfriends (sometimes graphically) about life. So I've not been back. I'll give it another try if its not going to feel like a preschool.

[charlesbklyn]

New Jersey and you, perfect together.
Babies and bars, not so perfect together. Maybe during the daytime, maybe. Anytime else, I suppose, is inappropriate and dangerous, especially in the city. I could see taking a baby to a bar/restrurant situtation, but on the resturant side. I guess also if you know the bar owner, and you are stolling past his/her bar on a saturday afternoon, you could stop in for a chat.

Furthermore, and more importantly, however, people should take their bar drinking more seriously. We've really lost our step. Be professional people, and leave the kids at home. You know the deal, or should have known when you decided to "make babies": when you have kids, you can't be the guy/girl at the bar. It's not that your not cool, you just can't be the guy/girl at the bar.

Charlesbklyn

[raw]

I am so confused. Since when can anyone under the age of 21 enter a bar???

I recently tried slipping my 13-year-old cousin into a bar around 7 PM -- I just saw someone I knew that I wanted to say "hi" to real quick. The bouncer stopped us from entering and shook his head, "no way!"
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I blame such comments on beer.
© karlthedruid 2007

[meganlibrarian]

[arock75]

This whole thing is absurd. I walked past Union Hall yesterday around 1pm and saw several strollers and babies/toddlers inside. I am pretty sure I saw some moron holding a glass of beer in one hand and an infant in the other. My wife an I do not have any children, we do hope to have a baby in the near future but there is not one scenario I can come up with where we would take our child to a bar. From my point of view it seems selfish and irresponsible. If you want go to a bar find someone to watch your kid(s). It is stuff like this that gets Park Slope the reputation for the insane parents. This is very much like the people who bring babies to sporting events and movei theaters and other situations like that. If you can't find someone to watch your child then don't go. I'm sure there are plenty of parents out there that feel that they shouldn't have to change their lifestyle 100% and should be able to do many things they did before they had a child. Yes that is all true, but get a damned babysitter otherwise you are just being a selfish prick.