# Crazy Woman accosts my son and me in a bar **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 13, 2014, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648 "2014-01-13T10:45:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/41 "2014-01-13T17:02:19Z")
> [@Inna\_Minnit](#): > > Girl was a loon. Obviously y’all do things differently than we do. I admit my eyebrows raised at the idea of taking a four year old out for a beer. But that’s just because it’s not done here. Minors are not allowed AFAIK into bars. And yes, I realize a pub is a different animal.\*\* I don’t think we have anything similar.\*\* If you and the kiddo’s mama are happy with the arrangement, then it’s not crazy lady’s concern. What about places like Logans or Applebees? Or local sports bars. Sit down, have a burger and a drink and watch the game. StG ---
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/42 "2014-01-13T17:05:39Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > Please accept our apologies. What boggles the mind is that she felt that she could project her values and skewed world view upon another culture that she does not really understand. Are you sure it wasn’t George W. Bush in drag? Was that necessary? For all you know, she was an Obama voting social worker who justifies every ounce of her stupidity as being “for the children”. ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/43 "2014-01-13T17:07:28Z")
There’s a local chain of ‘Gastropubs’ here in Bristol which are quite intolerable due to being packed with ‘Yummy Mummies’ drinking wine while their brats play together - this became the case when the smoking ban came into force. The OP sounds fine, but these days you have to choose wisely if looking for an adult drinking environment, as you may end up wandering into a creche. ---
**Author:** ![Novelty\_Bobble](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Novelty\_Bobble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Novelty_Bobble)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/44 "2014-01-13T17:19:22Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > I’ve heard of kids bringing wine as gifts and getting in trouble. Most schools have a “zero tolerance” policy in regards to alcohol and bringing it to campus is typically a cause for suspension. We sent our 8 year-old to school with two bottles of wine for her teacher and teaching assistant. No-one bats an eyelid. Also, as my wife is a primary school teacher and also receives gifts from the children I can confirm that the practice is common in at least two schools. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/45 "2014-01-13T17:22:32Z")
> [@Novelty\_Bobble](#): > > We sent our 8 year-old to school with two bottles of wine for her teacher and teaching assistant. No-one bats an eyelid. > > Also, as my wife is a primary school teacher and also receives gifts from the children I can confirm that the practice is common in at least two schools. You’d probably have some explaining to do to child services here in North America. Seriously. This would probably make headline news. “8 year old brings alcohol to school!” ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/46 "2014-01-13T17:29:00Z")
Yeah. Schools are drug/alcohol-free zones. You can’t light up a cigarette. You can’t even take pills. All medication has to be administered under nurse supervision. Not exactly new either. This is how it was for me in the mid-90’s-early 2000’s. I imagine it’s much more strict nowadays with entire DISTRICTS debating on whether or not to ban NUTS. ---
**Author:** ![Blackberry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecd19e/32.png) [@Blackberry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackberry)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/47 "2014-01-13T17:40:17Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Yeah. Schools are drug/alcohol-free zones. You can’t light up a cigarette. You can’t even take pills. All medication has to be administered under nurse supervision. Not exactly new either. This is how it was for me in the mid-90’s-early 2000’s. I imagine it’s much more strict nowadays with entire DISTRICTS debating on whether or not to ban NUTS. At my daughter’s school they can’t even bring Tylenol for the school nurse to hold onto and administer to them as needed, without bringing in a form filled out by a doctor. It’s ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Wayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4bbf92/32.png) [@Charlie\_Wayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Wayne)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/48 "2014-01-13T18:02:04Z")
There is something I’ve always wanted to ask someone from England about pubs. I’ve heard that English pubs almost always serves beer at room temperature and if you ask for a cold one, they either look at you as if you are crazy or they just tell you they can’t do it. What is an English pub like for someone who likes to drink their beer very cold? ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/49 "2014-01-13T18:03:06Z")
If by “pub” you mean what we’d call a “bar & grill” or a restaurant bar, which is a restaurant and tavern combined, then she was just being goofy and ignorant of local ways. > [@SeaDragonTattoo](#): > > She may have been conflating British pubs with “bars” in the States, where children aren’t allowed and they don’t serve food. Not true. Several states allow kids in bars with their parents. Here in Wisconsin a child can even consume alcohol when they’re with their parents. That doesn’t mean it’s a good idea. When I’m in a bar (a tavern, not a bar & grill or a restaurant bar) I don’t want any kids in there. Hell, I don’t want anyone under 30 there to tell you the truth. I hate when parents take their kids to adult places just because they can. Places of gambling, bars, R-rated movies, etc… It’s not appropriate! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/50 "2014-01-13T18:12:32Z")
> [@Xema](#): > > “Thank you, madam, for your expression of concern - which will receive, I assure you, all the attention it deserves.” Not bad, but I’ve got one that’s only two words long. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/51 "2014-01-13T18:14:58Z")
Forget the silly woman. I want to hear the fascinating story “about the snail he found in the back yard.” ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/52 "2014-01-13T18:40:27Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > Are small children taken to football/soccer games? Yes, I know people who have been taking the baby since it was in a huggy carrier. Previously it went inside Mom. Mind you, they don’t sit in the Idiot Zone. Story told before, the one time I went to a pro game we sat in the local team’s area (Español); the visiting team was my local one (Osasuna). There was a man there with a passel of kids and the youngest one, who was 3, had refused to get an Español scarf in favor of an Osasuna one saying he liked the colors better (red and blue vs. white and blue). People kidded the adult about the “alien” in his herd, but agreed that red and blue was prettier. The only person who behaved rudely at all, and not at the kid, was my grandfather :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![adhemar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@adhemar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adhemar)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/53 "2014-01-13T18:46:47Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Independent of American/European world views, she’s still pretty cunty. I’m an American and I wouldn’t have paid it any mind. In fact, I would have reacted completely opposite of her and been a bit self conscious getting toasty with my friends at a place where people bring their kids. Maybe she thought the apple juice was beer? maybe she was drunk? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/54 "2014-01-13T18:50:33Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > People are really uptight about alcohol here and the Women’s Christian Temperance Union had a lot to do with shaping our current culture surrounding alcohol. Don’t undersell it - America is a country that BANNED ALL ALCOHOL less than 100 years ago. We’re still recovering. > [@](#): > > A year or two ago, someone in my company’s London office needed a British-to-American English translator. I volunteered, so they sent me a brochure to read and change any Britishisms to Americanisms. It was a piece targeted toward middle schoolers about how to best prepare for high school/secondary school that the London office wanted to market in the US. One panel suggested getting a nice gift for your homeroom/main teacher at the end of the school year. There was a list of suggested gifts, which included a bottle of wine. While I’m quite sure that most middle school teachers would\* greatly\* appreciate a bottle of wine, I had to nix that list, explaining that parents would lose their minds at the thought of sending a 13-year-old to school with a corked, sealed bottle of wine to give their teacher. And probably, they’d lose their minds if the teacher had a corked, sealed bottle of wine sitting in a drawer in her desk, out of sight of the students. The London office had a nice chuckle over that and made the changes I suggested. (And I got paid with a bottle of wine!) But that one little brochure showed me the huge divide between how Europeans view alcohol (with moderation and some damn common sense) vs. how Americans view alcohol (with hypocrisy and excess). It’s more about the child part, and the idea of children with alcohol. And with regulations regarding that - in many schools, that kid could have been put in SERIOUS trouble for bringing wine to school. And our schools are so nuts that some don’t care about the intent either. > [@](#): > > Speaking for all the rest of the Americans over here, I am so sorry for that woman’s behavior. She makes the rest of us look like assholes. That’s why the rest of us need to go to other countries and drink alot. As ambassadors. ---
**Author:** ![PunditLisa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/4af34b/32.png) [@PunditLisa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PunditLisa)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/55 "2014-01-13T19:28:31Z")
There are some really rough/seedy bars that I’ve been in where I’d raise an eyebrow if someone brought a young kid in. That doesn’t mean I’d confront them, because it’s truly NOMB. On the other hand, there are “family bars” (BW3s, etc) that are quite popular with families and I see no reason why anyone would have an objection to a child being there. ---
**Author:** ![DragonAsh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/db5fbb/32.png) [@DragonAsh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DragonAsh)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/56 "2014-01-13T19:28:45Z")
'Course, the hilarious part of all this is that I’m also American. My Brit friends definitely drink more than my American friends, although even my British friends can’t hold a candle to my \*Japanese \*friends. The most epic booze-ups I’ve ever seen were all in Japan with Japanese co-workers. They make American businessmen look like a bunch of wimps. The bar in question wasn’t like an Applebee’s or a TGIF’s - those are ‘restaurant with a bar area’. This was a regular pub; just also happens to serve food. Apparently the Sunday roast is decent; my son and I don’t usually get there until 2-3pm so we’ve never actually tried it. And I wouldn’t really even think to bring my kid to a pub in the evening - just a different crowd, different atmosphere. But 2-3pm on a nice Sunday afternoon? Like I said, it’s one of my favorite hours of the week. My kid is a typical 4yr old boy - by which I mean he is a force of nature unto himself - but I’ll be damned if he isn’t the most happy, well-behaved kid in the world when we’re out just the two of us. As to the question of beer temperature - lagers will be served at a proper chilled temperature. Stouts (think Guinness) and bitters (pale ales - think IPAs/EPAs) will normally be served at below room temperature, but definitely not chilled, mainly because most ales are essentially tasteless if chilled. As to the story of the snail - well, I still haven’t quite pieced everything together. It was either a snail, or possibly a fire-breathing dragon. Tough to say; according to my son we have a dragon living in our house that looks an awful lot like our golden retriever. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/57 "2014-01-13T20:56:18Z")
> [@pancakes3](#): > > Yeah. Schools are drug/alcohol-free zones. You can’t light up a cigarette. You can’t even take pills. All medication has to be administered under nurse supervision. Not exactly new either. This is how it was for me in the mid-90’s-early 2000’s. **I imagine it’s much more strict nowadays with entire DISTRICTS debating on whether or not to ban NUTS.** If we could just ban most NUTS from most places, at least public places, the world might be a much nicer place. (For certain types of NUTS, that is, like the OP describes.) ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/58 "2014-01-13T21:45:02Z")
> [@PunditLisa](#): > > There are some really rough/seedy bars that I’ve been in where I’d raise an eyebrow if someone brought a young kid in. “Sir, as a frequent patron of this rough, seedy bar and various other sleazy beer-soaked shitholes, I must question your judgement!” ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/59 "2014-01-13T22:41:41Z")
> [@Lazlo Hapsburg](#): > > I’ve heard that English pubs almost always serves beer at room temperature and if you ask for a cold one, they either look at you as if you are crazy or they just tell you they can’t do it. Lager-style beers, which are actually more popular, are served cold, i.e. refrigerator temperature. More traditional bitters and ales are served at cellar temperature, which is cool rather than cold, about 10 C or 50 F. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2014, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648/60 "2014-01-13T23:08:48Z")
> [@DragonAsh](#): > > according to my son we have a dragon living in our house that looks an awful lot like our golden retriever. I’ve heard good things about chlorophyl for this. (Caution: chlorophyl , not chloroform) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/crazy-woman-accosts-my-son-and-me-in-a-bar/678648.md?page=4)