Barkeep, Can You Warm Up This Bottle?

A recent opinion piece in The New York Times ranted about the presence of babies in bars, an especially common occurrence in the family-oriented Brooklyn neighborhood where the author lives. She argues that bars are not an appropriate space for babies, since people tend to get loud, drunken and flirty. Shouldn’t there be at least one place reserved for grown-ups?

Although her anti-kid tone irks me (she seems to think that parents should be shut-ins, an opinion I’m interested to see if she still holds once she’s a “breeder” herself), I gotta say: I agree with her.

When my daughter was 12 days old, we took her to a bar (actually, a bar mentioned in the piece). After more than a week stuck indoors recovering from a C-section, I was desperate for adult interaction (and let’s face it, eager to show off my babe). A friend was having an afternoon 30th birthday party, and since the bar, like all bars in NYC, was non-smoking, we figured why not?

It’s one of those parenting moments my husband and I look back on and wonder, what were we thinking? Chloe didn’t cry, and we definitely didn’t shush anyone getting their buzz on. But as soon as we got there, we realized it just wasn’t the right place for a baby. Case in point: as we went downstairs to change her, a man stumbled into the restroom and relieved himself with the door wide open.

Don't we take our kid to the nicest places? Although we still frequent family bar/restaurants with the kids (even though some people don't even agree with that), we save real bar bars for date night.

Does this happen where you live? Should it?