nota bene: I pretty much universally dislike children. that said, apart from the obvious places like tit bars and such, I don’t really care where you bring your kids as long as they can behave appropriately. If it’s in a high-zoot restaurant and your 6 and 9 year olds can dine quietly with their family, hell, points to you. if you think a classy restaurant is a great place to let your kids run around harassing other diners, well, fuck you and your spawn. If it’s at, like, McDonalds, well, they have a “playplace” so hell let them run wild.
Those people never catch on - they think they are doing their kids a favor. Then their kids grow up too fast, and you have to listen to the parents whine about the string of boyfriends at fourteen, drinking at sixteen…
A few art galleries aren’t very good for most kids - they get too bored of looking at picture after picture with nothing else to do. But they tend to be very small, so the kid won’t be in there long and TBH they’re not the kind of places many people would take an uninterested kid anyway.
The best art galleries and museums, as far as kids and people with kids are concerned, are the ones that give kids something to do; they keep the kids occupied and the adults often find those kid-friendly exhibits more interesting too.
The Science Museum is London is one of the best to ever visit simply because it has two dedicated sections for kids, so the rest of the museum (except for those areas leading to the kids’ sections) tends to not be over-run with them. At most (actually, all of the 42 I’ve visited so far this year) of the London museums during half-term there’ll be kids’ workshops and guides and activities, so the parents take their kids there.
This means that, at larger museums, a few sections (like the Chinese porcelain section at the V&A) are invariably kid-free even at the busiest times. Parents are of course free to take their kids into those sections, and kids are free to ask to go there, but they probably won’t be the unruly kids that would disturb your quiet cultural day out.
The larger museums also have regular adult-only evenings.
So if any art galleries or museums are inappopriate places to take kids, it’s because they haven’t planned properly. There is no intrinsic reason kids shouldn’t look at art or learn about fossils.
With obvious exceptions like the Sex Museum in Amsterdam. 
Dog parks.
Our local off-leash dog park has a sign in front stating the rules…and then, because they know people won’t read it, another one on the gate itself. Prominent among these rules is NO children under the age of 8. It is roundly ignored by a certain subset of parents – presumably, those with children under the age of 8.
Rambunctious dogs can mix with children under the right supervision; large crowds of rambunctious dogs, many of them present at the park because they were “acting up” and need to blow off steam,do NOT mix with young children, especially the little toddlers with questionable balance and paper-thin skin. Kids are going to get intimidated, jumped on, or knocked down. If they flee or cry they may attract attention from whole packs of dogs, and even innocent concern from a whole pack of panting dogs will scare a small child.
One time I saw a lady sitting on a bench inside the dog park nursing an infant (under a towel). Dogs started to realize she was doing something unusual with a small critter, and they gathered around the bench, gazing at the baby with intense interest. She became increasingly nervous as the circle of dogs grew.
The rule is clear, clearly marked, and it’s there for a sensible reason. But because the dog park is entirely fenced, it looks like a good place to let little kids run around – they can’t get into traffic even if Mommy is playing Farmville on the iPhone. It’s almost an attractive nuisance.
But those are very rare, right? Interesting though, thanks.
I was going to ask you to have more children until you said your youngest is now a working adult. Drat!
Last night at dinner (an Indian buffet) there were a handful of kids who were super well behaved. The infant screamed just once but the toddlers were wonderful. I wonder if this has to do with the fact they got to eat as soon as they arrived, no rumbling tummies causing anger or tension.
The Straight Dope Message Board.
“No rumbling tummies” has a lot to do with it! If you’re taking a young child to any restaurant where you have to sit and wait for your food, you can always request some crackers, or better yet, be smart and travel with little snacks and toys in your purse! A hungry, bored child is very prone to melting down!
Yeah, they pretty much are. I can’t remember the last MP17 movie that was released. I think it was a few years ago.
Well put.
Smart parents know that when bringing kids to a restaurant, it pays to go somewhere where they can eat as soon as you sit down. Buffets are great, and dim sum is also perfect.
I don’t think I’ve ever been invited to a formal-type party where the host specified that no kids were welcome (or indeed mentioned the issue one way or another) - usually the deciding factors are the circle of friends involved, and generally the sort of party at issue (one in the day, or starting in the evening and going late? Is it your friends who have kids themselves?).
The only sorts of “parties” I’ve been to where no kids would have been welcome, were parties of the sort where the main purpose was to meet others for pick-ups and/or get drunk and/or high - not something I’d want to attend myself, these days.
Oh holy crap. Art museums?? And kids will learn to develop an eye, enjoy art of all kinds, learn the sanctity of art and any museum, love creativity as represented by works of artists…where??
I could not disagree more vehemently. Kids DO belong in art museums. And you know what? Art Museum Administrators who want to know why attendance is so down in the 30 and under age group need only consider the attitude expressed above.
A kid who is bored with 90 % of what they are “dragged through” a museum to see will have their eye fall upon a work that they will never forget until their dying day.
What price, that ?
I have never heard of MP-17. The noone under 17 allowed in rating is called NC-17. And, yeah, they are rare. Most times films will be resubmitted to the board until they can get an R rating. It’s difficult to distribute NC-17 movies.
As to the rest of the thread I think Dangerosa makes excellent points, so I defer to her and her obviously correct opinion.
:smack: You’re right, it’s NC-17. Duh. Never mind. I was probably thinking of a video game rating I saw. :o
Many theaters have clauses in their leases that prohibit showing NC-17 films.
I’ll add that more and more museums - including art museums - are putting into place resources specifically designed to attract kids in. Obviously, those who run such institutions do not share the notion kids ought to be excluded.
See for example the art museum in my city:
http://www.ago.net/family-friendly-activities-in-the-galleries
Our circle has both types of parties - kids welcome, kids not welcome. And we do drink, but we don’t get high and most of us have been married for years (we aren’t swingers either).
We didn’t all breed at the same time - which I think is part of it. Those that have kids in college now are so over having kids all over the house - and there are some people who still have small kids. When our kids were small, we didn’t mind having a lot of kids around during a party…but ours are past the “spread toys all over the place” stage - and well past the “have to be supervised” stage. We’ve also moved onto wanting to do a different kind of entertaining…wine tastings, for instance. A friend of mine rents a hall every year and throws a grown up dance party (no kids) for 200 people.
You get different people at your parties depending on the child status. If you really want the entire set with young kids, you’d better make it a family friendly event - they don’t hire too many sitters. But your less likely to get the child free.
As far as I recall, $25 is about the lowest cost of an entree at one of the fancier places in my area (I thinking of Clinkerdagger in Spokane, WA specifically).
For a formal party you don’t specify who is not invited, at least not by traditional etiquette. You send the invite to the adults of the household. If the kids names aren’t listed, and there’s no mention of “Kid’s welcome!” then the kids are not formally invited.
This is something I’ve read multiple places in wedding planning, it’s actually not something I just made up.
Kid’s fingers do not belong up my asshole, but yet that is my life every day here at a Japanese elementary school.