Pardon the hijack, but is this a common thing over there? Do the large breweries run lots of pubs?
Sure, I meant in general.
Are small children taken to football/soccer games?
You couldn’t have know there were any alcoholics about until she showed up with her friends.
Really, if she thinks only alcoholics go to pubs, and she is in a pub…
I’m afraid there are conspicuous exceptions (not limited to to the aforesaid football fans). For an example, check out this:
While I don’t want to disagree with anything people have said or make any comment on what’s the correct amount to drink, let me say that Americans really do drink less than Brits. It appears that Brits drink about 50% more per capita. My experience (I lived in England for three years) is that this is about correct:
She obviously didn’t realized that British pubs are different than bars in the USA. I found pubs to me more of a place to interact socially and have a nice pint or three where in the USA bars are a place to drink and maybe interact with other people while watching sports on TV.
It wasn’t always that way in the USA. My grandmother owned a saloon back in the '60s. Entire families would meet there. It was much more like a pub.
As for the woman, she was a fool. When ever I visited another country or culture, I wouldn’t think of opening my mouth at something I think was ‘wrong’ unless there was some physical violence involved. I’d sit back and observe. Might even learn a thing or two.
I lived in England for 4.5 years and it was great. Sitting a a pub and enjoying a pint of CAMRA approved bitter was a great experience.
This. Think of Cheers, for example; I don’t ever remember seeing a child in the bar on any of the episodes of that show.
As an American, when I read your thread title, my first assumption was that you were talking about an adult son (over 21).
Oh, please. You are obviously teaching your son how to behave in public–sitting quietly abd not screaming or bothering other people. Too bad that idiot’s parents didn’t teach her the same thing.
The only time I criticize children or parents is when they are out of control and interferring with my pleasure. Then a simple “You do NOT act that way around other people” is usually sufficient.
The Puritans were quite fond of alcohol and drank plenty of beer.
People today tend to focus on the WCTU, and, in fact, a lot of people seem to be under the impression that prohibition was a man versus woman issue but it really wasn’t. There were specific reasons that women had for supporting prohibition but without the support of men it never would have been a political issue. We tend to look at prohibitionist as being a bunch of uptight prudes but the truth of the matter is that alcohol causes quite a few social problems.
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. And we are a bit weird about alcohol here in the United States. I wrote my thesis on prohibition in the south and for some reason a lot of people just assumed this meant I was a teetotaler.
Yes they do. That’s one of the reasons CAMRA got started.
Yes, absolutely. Alcohol is not served inside the stadium, though, which is not to say that many of the spectators aren’t drunk when they arrive.
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?
About half the pubs in my city are owned by the same brewer, Shepherd Neame. In Faversham, where SN is based, virtually all the pubs are SN. It’s the traditional model for regional brewers. Prefer a freehouse myself.
Dammit, I’m having a dry January and now all I can think about is sweet, sweet beer! :mad: I’d even drink a Bishop’s Finger!
In the USA kids in bars during the daytime isn’t so strange if the bar serves food. At night it would be a bit strange, especially at a drinks-only bar.
Regardless that gives her no right to come to your country and yell at you.
In fairness, the same view was held by quite a few English people a generation or so back; my Great Aunt, who used to live with us when I was little, definitely held the view that pubs were for alcoholics. I have a vivid memory of her telling me about The Time She Went Into A Pub. She was a child at the time, and was trying to enter an Easter Bonnet making competition, and the person was dealing with the entries was in the pub, so in a moment of madness, she’d gone in to try and find them. There was wimmin in there! At the bar! Drinking! She was in her 80s, and had clearly never got over the shock
There was a lovely pub in the local village, with a kids’ play area, swings, climbing frame… for years, until they finally admitted the terrible truth, my parents pretended they were taking the dog for a walk every time we went there, which was basically every saturday with nice weather.
Incidently, I’m currently working at a bar at in football ground- the bar may be inside the stadium, and alcohol may be sold before the match, during half time, and after the match. People are also allowed to stay and finish their drink after half time if they’re not in sight of the pitch, the FA rules just forbid people from drinking in view of a game in play- the rest if left up to the venue.
There are often plenty of little kids in the bar as well as on the terraces, and though there is a dedicated family area, lots of people with kids don’t bother using it.
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?
You charmer, you. 
Ironically, there’s a popular chain of restaurants here called The Pub and I’ve seen plenty of kids go in. I’ve never actually been there, though; they look (from the outside) like what someone who’s heard of England imagines English pubs might look like. Sort of like the American restaurant in the English ghetto in Arrested Development.
There’s a Reese Witherspoon movie called “Sweet Home Alabama.” I’ve never seen it but in the trailer (so this is supposed to be a hilarious moment hand-picked to make you want to see this amazing comedy), she’s in a bar with some friends who have brought their baby, and she says, “You brought your baby! …To a bar! :dubious:
:eek:”
The friends are clearly supposed to be ignorant hicks who don’t know any better, unlike Reese Witherspoon who got the hell out of that two-bit town and got herself some class and education but then was forced to return to Hicksville and now must cope with the shame. That is what we are to glean about the situation from a 5-second movie clip in a trailer.
So, you know. That’s probably how that American woman saw you, OP. You must be ignorant of the danger you are exposing your young son to by bringing him to a pub, and she is bravely overcoming the social inhibition on confronting strangers to tell you off and educate you. That the pub and social context she was in are different from an American dive bar and its context was lost on her.
She was probably drunk…
Fredrick Crane’s visit (starting at 1:10, but stay for the end), but other than that I wouldn’t know.