A friend recently added to her Facebook album a picture of her sitting inside a pub with her baby while on holiday in Ontario. Yes, Easterners! I don’t know about the rest of the country, but B.C. has taken this “no minors” thing way too far.
Case in point: a while back I ordered a couple of hamburgers for pick-up at my neighbourhood pub in Lynn Valley, North Vancouver. I had little Hale with me (he was 16 months at the time), and of course I wasn’t about to leave him in the car. So in we went, straight to the cash register at the bar to pick up our grub and skedaddle.
Within about a nanosecond, the manager came up to me and said “We don’t allow minors.” I said “Oh, of course; I’m just picking up a couple of burgers to go.”
Instead of leaving it at that, she continued: “Well, babies aren’t allowed in here."
To which I responded: “Well, if someone would like to deliver my food to me in my car I’d be happy to wait there.”
“If the cops came in right now, they could take away my licence and shut me down immediately.”
“Oh. Okay, but I seriously doubt the cops would take away your licence if I explained to them that I was just running in to pick up some food to go.”
“Well, just so you know, we don't allow babies. For next time."
Next time I'll order my food from somewhere else!
Obviously, none of us modern moms are about to take our first-graders into a bar and start feeding them kamikazes. Nor are we going to stroll to the pub with our babies in their Bjorns and get plastered ourselves. But it would be entirely civilized to be able to sip a draught cider (I can't stand the yeasty taste of beer; ick!) with our infants in our laps. It's commonplace in the U.K., where some pubs have entire sections dedicated to families.
As far as not being able to step into a pub for two minutes to pick up an easy weeknight dinner? Gimme a break.