IT IS a familiar sound. You are enjoying a quiet beerin your local watering-hole when someone starts crying. Unlike (most) adults, babies cannotseem to order a refreshing bottle without howling.
Those who visit bars to seek refuge from rugrats are fighting back. Last month Hot Bird, acraft-beer bar in Brooklyn, barred children. Its owner was fed up with parents who thoughttheir brats were entitled to VIP service despite drinking only milk. One pair of parents asked forthe music to be turned down because their five-month-old was trying to sleep. Unattendedsprogs have fallen after climbing on bar-stools. A dog bit one little girl after she petted it. Thedog-owner and the dog fled. The parents blamed the bartender.
Hot Bird is not alone. Other pubs plagued by prams have taken to excluding children. DoubleWindsor bans tots after 5pm. Union Hall, a hipster hot-spot, put a “No Strollers, Please” signon its door in 2008 (though it does allow kiddies in a few afternoons a week). Greenwood Park,which has a lovely beer garden and pitches itself as “family friendly”, closes its doors on kidsunder 21 after 7pm.
Bratophobia is not confined to New York. In January Grant Achatz, a Michelin-rated chef,complained about a crying baby in his Chicago restaurant. He could hear it crying even in thenoisy kitchen. Via Twitter, he wondered if he should ban children. Last year a Virginia sushi barbanned all diners under 18. Olde Salty, a restaurant in North Carolina, allows kiddies, but has ano-tolerance policy for screamers.
Businesses that shut out children argue that parents have plenty of other places to go. In NewYork Parkslopeparents.com lists lots of kid-friendly bars and restaurants. Cinemas are usuallyaccommodating. The “cry baby matinee” at the East 86th Street Cinema, for instance, showsgrown-up movies but welcomes babies. The lights are dimmed just a little bit and the volume isnot very loud. There is even a nappy-changing table near the back.
將孩子拒之門外的商家認為,父母們有很多地方可以去。在New York Parkslopeparents.com的網站上列出了很多允許孩子進入的酒吧和餐館。電影院通常也都是可以的。例如,在東86街電影院的“哭泣的寶貝專場”上播放給大人們看的電影,但也歡迎寶貝們去看。
Balancing the interests of parents and non-parents is hard. Families like to travel, but others onlong-haul flights want to sleep in peace. The Economist once published a wry leader advocatingchild-free zones on planes and trains. Malaysian Airlines has taken our advice: it bans infantsfrom its first-class cabins and offers child-free zones in economy in some planes. No Americanairline has followed suit.
Parents, by and large, think non-parents should grin and bear it when a wailing infant brieflydisturbs their tranquil, responsibility-free existence. It is not as if non-parents had to get upand feed the little horror four times last night. A cramped Brooklyn outlet of Barnes &Noble, a book chain, requires strollers to be left in a designated parking space on the secondfloor. Many mums are furious. Have you ever tried to hold a baby, sip a latte and read “TheGruffalo”, all at once? It's not easy.