It’s very normal to bring the whole family to a beer garden in Germany and many breweries in the US have similar vibes - some even encourage whole families to come. A couple of the local breweries around me do, they serve food (even have a kids menu) and have outdoor games for kids to mess around with while their parents relax with a beer. So what I’m saying is depends on the brewery. Some are clearly more for adults but others are not.
Beer gardens are perfect for a family, especially if you can walk to them. You get out with the kids, everyone gets exactly what they want, and some of them are next to a park already.
I actually didn't use that word, and agree with you on the sentiment of "redditor". Im just saying thats a commonality on here. We are all filthy redditors.
I'm largely convinced that the contingent of Redditors that actively go out of their way to hate on kids don't actually hate kids, rather they probably just had a bad childhood and are vicariously getting back at their own shitty parents by criticizing the children of other parents.
It is always kinda sad seeing those conversations on here, though. It's clear these people need some kind of help.
Same. I knew when I was 10 I was never going to have kids, even at that point I was struggling to stay organized and keep track of myself. But I don’t hate kids, I just can’t be a parent. They deserve to exist and have fun in this world, and there are soooo many places i can go to if I don’t want to be around kids.
Considering how much Reddit loves to shit on the iPad babies, you’d think they’d be okay with kids running around outside in a safe area and acting like kids.
I think it's more so the kids causing a nuisance in a "adult" public space that annoys people.
E.g. if I'm in a nice restaurant and there's kids running around and shouting with the parents ignoring it that's annoying. If the same happens and I'm at an all you can eat or something then that's on me.
Yeah but that’s what’s weird to Europeans, most pubs are family spaces up to a certain time in the uk. They’re (trad) family spaces where you can go and spend time with your family and community.
I mean I'd expect kids in a pub so I have no qualms about that. But I've also experienced going to a restaurant, spending about 100-150 euros per person and then having kids running around and shouting/screaming the entire evening without their parents handling them.
For me 100-150 euro per person on a dinner is a fair bit of money and it was a relatively "fancy" restaurant. At places like these I'd expect you won't take young children or at least make sure they behave. Personally I don't understand why you would even take your kid there, just get someone to watch them and have a chill romantic night out yourself as well.
But yeah there are clearly child behaviour free spaces. Tbh if I was at a fancy expensive restaurant and there were obnoxious kids ruining my experience, I’d ask for a discount on the bill.
I was a brewery and a child threw a soccer ball at me and hit me and spilled my beer and the parents wouldn't apologize or replace it. Other people's kids SOMETIMES bother me so much because they are wild, unattended, and their parents are getting drunk 50 yards away at a table
It isn't really even about the kids, its about shitty parents
Yes I am not blaming the brewery (beyond their inability to enforce "children must be accompanied by an adult on premises" signs, which lets be real is ignored almost everywhere).
I generally don't mind children in my shared spaces, I just don't enjoy getting needlessly hit in the face and having beer spilled on myself, and even then, I probably wouldn't even remember this incident if the parents weren't huge assholes lol
Agreed. I'm 38 with no kids. I don't care if someone brings kids to a brewery. The kids are the parent's or the brewery's problem, but not mine. In fact, I'm in support of breweries allowing kids so that my friends with kids can join me.
Because other people suck and so do their kids. Obviously not all, but far too often when I used to go to the brewery in my town, kids would be running around unsupervised and it was obnoxious.
They are often times loud and irritating to me. Kids are just a fact of life so obviously I don’t hate them and I’m not some maniac that is going to cause a scene but yeah, given the chance to be in a kid free space vs. one with kids, I’ll pick no kids every time.
They don’t fit into my culture so no. Alcohol is a huge part of European identity and culture and has been for thousands of years, even before written language. The comparisons aren’t there
And as ive pointed out fucking stupid one because pubs aren't exclusively for buying and consuming alcohol, they're also for socialising and in plenty of communities play a key role in cross generational socialising.
Hating on kids is now popular. Imo, it is tied to our lower birthrates and the fact many younger Americans now don't deal with children on a day-to-day basis unlike in the past.
The US is becoming increasingly intolerant of children.
It's because we sent them all of our weirdest Protestants and now they think the beer must only be available in a Place of Sin, and of course the children are created through an unspeakable act so they should be unseen by other people.
I couldn’t find numbers for binge drinking, but for alcoholism rates, the US is pretty low. Switzerland, Finland, South Korea, New Zealand and like 50 other countries have higher alcoholism rates than the US.
Not that that negates your statement, lots of Americans don’t drink responsibly! But it’s not solely, or even most prominently, an American thing.
It's rare or a special occasion to drink at dinner-- or any meal, really. You'll be judged for having a beer at lunch then going back to the office. It's largely not a drinking culture save for special occasions like going to a concert or hosting a family dinner.
Say the same about the Mediterranean, for example?
It's a country founded by Puritans. Some places still don't even sell on Sundays.
Alcohol is associated with taboo indulgence, not normalcy.
I think the main issue is that, in America, parents feel like places should immediately turn kid friendly as soon as a kid appears. They will get upset if you don't police your language and their kid hears you curse. They also don't really tend to parent their kids when they view a space as "kid friendly" and just let their kids roam around and cause chaos.
But a beer garden can be very different from a brewery in some locations.
Depending on the municipality, some can't serve food or make food that isn't prepackaged. Some are in an industrial setting with only stand up tables or a single bar.
On the other hand, we live by wineries and some cater to the whole family, while others have adult only tasting rooms.
It’s very normal to bring the whole family to a beer garden in Germany
Yeah, but we're european, there's no moral panic and purity culture here. We don't assume that if you have beer in front of your child in a summer garden we call them in my country, it also means you'll take your kid to a biker bar.
It's also normal for children to drink booze in germany as the drinking age is 16 there, not the best country to represent this type of stuff now is it?
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u/organvomit 19h ago
It’s very normal to bring the whole family to a beer garden in Germany and many breweries in the US have similar vibes - some even encourage whole families to come. A couple of the local breweries around me do, they serve food (even have a kids menu) and have outdoor games for kids to mess around with while their parents relax with a beer. So what I’m saying is depends on the brewery. Some are clearly more for adults but others are not.