I do wonder, however, why a bar?  What about cafés?  Isn't that where most city parents meet during the day?  I worked for a while at a café here in Norway and we had a no strollers policy - babies and kids, no problem, of course - but like the article said, strollers take up too much room!  Things are a little different here than in NYC, though; you can leave your stroller outside and you don't have to worry about anyone stealing it - heck, some people still leave their sleeping babies outside in the stroller while they hang out at cafés or nip into the corner store...

As for my opinion about alcohol and kids, I am pretty liberal, I guess.  I come from a "drinking" family - though I have never in my life seen my family drunk, there is always wine at dinner, beer at lunch on the weekend, and cocktails on festive occasions.  My relationship to drinking is relaxed.  On the other hand, I never go to bars.  This is not because I am a dad and feel it is inappropriate, but because I have never really liked going out to drink at bars.  I can, however, enjoy a pint at mellow bars and pubs like the dad in the article was talking about.  I don't think it is a problem for kids to see adults drink; the problem comes when the adults change their personality due to drinking.  I wouldn't take my son to a party where I knew people were going to be getting drunk, and I wouldn't bring him to a bar that I knew was a hangout for a rowdy crowd, but I wouldn't think twice about bringing him to a cosy establishment in the middle of the day to meet a friend.

To me this is less about babies in bars and rather the ongoing tension between people with kids vs no kids. I've never been to Park Slope, but here in Chicago there are comparable neighborhoods where there have been an explosion of families. A few years back one cafe in a northside neighborhood created a similar controversy when they put out a sign on the front door that demanded children behave inside. It ignited a firestorm of reaction and made the NY Times.

I'm hoping that venue owners begin to sense the trend involving families and start designing spaces to accommodate their needs.

Starbucks and movie theatres are a couple of places you can also have a drink while with your children as well as Pee Wee football and baseball games so is the debate more about where parents are drinking or is it having a drink with your child on your lap playgrounds in the beer garden,people leaving sleeping babies outside stores and cafes we live in a fairly upscale nieghbor hood where houses start at $250,000 and gated and we moved here to start fresh after my girls went to college and to get away from the over populated urban type setting where drinking in public people with back yards BBQ'd on the front porch kids cut thru your yard and were rude about it you name it im sure ive seen it so i met a guy last summer at the playground that shows up a couple times a week with a couple beers and just by watching people some were offended no one really talks to the guy and the mom was super embarrased i always ask myself when i see stuff that for me just aint right what can be that bad that i have to do what im seeing so i asked him one day man it looks like you had a rough day at the office and he said no i hate coming to the park so to make small talk i said man you live right across the street i have to walk a mile to get here he said id never come to the park for me i dont drink when im out anymore if i have my son not even one beer or a sip of anything just because im driving now i will have a beer or glass of wine at home with dinner after the wife gets home or if i know for sure im not going to be driving the funny part is when we go to the store and walk down the beer isle my son points to the beer and says DA DA and points to the wine and says Ma Ma so kids are sponges no matter what the setting is but kids in an actual bar setting i think is a bit over the top unless they have a play area for kids LOL!!!

As parents we can be as responsible as we know how and bad stuff can happen anywhere it doesnt have to be in a bar it can just be walking down the street and an out of controll car can hit and kill you and i do understand image is everything but you control your image and how you portray it to the world

We as SAHD's are a group of Extraordinary Gentlemen taking parenting to a whole different level dont get caught up in the SAHM-vs-SAHD mess its not a competition its all about being the best parent you can be

Im guessing bars aint the best idea in the world, they're loud (and depending where you live) smokey and there is a chance of some undesirable

situations possible.  I wouldn't take my young son into a bar in a million years and Im pretty liberal about things, just not THAT liberal, sheeesh.

nNow Im wondering how theaters would work for a 9 month old?

Is this not a good idea either?  I wouldn't want to disturb movie viewers so Im guessing it is not.

-JBird

Ruready60 Being a Airforce bratt we moved around alot when i was young. Like the guy from Norway said it was'nt unusall to find kids in the bars. Hell I wasa playing the slots before i was 7. I remember one time winning 10 nickles and telling my mother i had won a dollar. She told me no baby you have to have 20 of those to make a dollar. So of course i went back and lost the ten i had. The thing is this was in 66 or 67 and things just are'nt the same anymore. Now days I have a problem taking my 3 year old to a daycare.