- Top Features:
- War Room
- Glenn Greenwald
- Broadsheet
- Joan Walsh
- Camille Paglia
- Since You Asked
- Follow Salon:
Read other letters about this article
I have to weigh in with the parents here (of which I am one). No, I would not allow my daughter to run wild and annoy other patrons in a bar, and I agree that strollers impede access to the bar or the bathrooms -- but the suggestion that kids must therefore be banned completely is a false choice. As with other patrons, kids should be allowed in, providing their behavior is reasonable. Restrictions on underage drinking are for the protection of kids -- not to insulate people who hate toddlers from having to deal with an entire segment of the population.
Where I live (Los Angeles), a babysitter, particularly on a weekend, gets paid $12.50 an hour with a guaranteed minimum of four hours. That means I shell out fifty bucks just to walk out the door. Please don't imagine "hiring a babysitter" is as simple and casual an act as it was in your childhood.
