Babies in Bars: The debate roars on
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Matt Gross, and his daughter Sasha, like a good bar -- and not just in Brooklyn. Here they visit one in San Francisco, California.
This debate comes up every month or so- whether it is on a blog, parenting forum like Brooklynian or a parenting list serve. Read all of the 1127 comments (as of 10:21 pm tonight) from the CNN article about Brooklyn bars and babies and you will find a lot of mean-spirited and vitriolic comments. Sigh…so sad. So….wasteful. So….just plain mean. And, really so….unnecessary. I can’t even muster up the energy to respond to such angry comments. It’s just not worth it, but you might find the article of interest.
This sounds ideal!
For what it’s worth, we bring our toddler to our favorite local bar. We’ve been regular patrons for years, and after our kid was born, we’ve continued to patronize it. We’re welcome there and so is our kid. We don’t let him loose, and in fact the people who work there go out of their way to make fun for him (carrying him around, playing peek-a-boo, whatever)–because they know him and like him and know us and like us.
I’d like to think it’s our attitude. We don’t feel entitled to take our child into any adult environment just because we can. We ask the bartender if s/he minds that he’s with us. It’s a small, intimate place, and we wouldn’t bother taking our kid if it was crowded. We go early–his bedtime is early. We’re not hitting the hip crowd, we’re hitting the neighborhood friends (which includes us) of the staff and owner.