Kids in breweries – Wrong or right?
My friend Josh Quick, a very talented artist from Missoula, and I have been having an ongoing argument about the good, the bad and the ugly when it comes to alcohol use. From my angle, I’ve long held that craft beer is more expensive and specialized and therefore not to be blamed for many of the societal ills often attributed to alcohol consumption. Josh argues that it’s all the same.
One of the things about Montana that I’ve been lauding since I moved here is the freedom to take your kids to taprooms. Adults are allowed to have 48 oz of beer or three pints, depending on how the taproom measures pints, and kids can get root beer or ginger ale. What I like about this is that it reminds me of growing up in Europe, where kids spend time at pubs and ale houses with their parents. While alcohol abuse is on the rise in Europe, it’s still way behind the U.S. I believe, and it’s just a personal opinion, that kids that are exposed to socially responsible drinking are more likely to become socially responsible drinkers themselves. I have no way to prove this, but I’ve certainly seen this in my friends who grew up with parents who did not hide their drinking but did so responsibly and who talked to their children about it. I was probably a young teenager the first time my dad made me a shandy, (beer and orange juice) while we were painting a house together on a hot summer day. There were half glasses of wine with Christmas dinner and on other social occasions before I was 21.
I’ve also seen the other side of this. Friends whose parents left them in the car while they drank at the bar or who became abusive because after over consumption of alcohol. Kids learn by what they see there parents doing, and many of these kids turned out to be binge drinkers who exhibited many of the same habits their parents passed along to them. Again, this isn’t scientific, it’s just observation.
Josh Quick recently posted this cartoon on his blogspot.
After rereading the cartoon several times, I think I understand where he’s coming from. Cigarette companies and the makers of alcopops have long been accused of subversive advertising to children. And nothing stirs up our anger like a business trying to get your kids to try their product. Around the state, there are a few taprooms that might fall under the description that Josh depicts in his cartoon. However, if you look at those places, they are a family run facility where the brewer’s children spend parts of their day at the family business. This is how it went down in the good old days before industrialization. The other aspect to consider here is the type of person likely to visit a Montana tap room. They are probably between 30 and 50 years old with several children. They are busy, but they love their craft beer. They are social and they value their time with others as well as with their children. When this is the model of the patron that pays your bills, you’ll likely cater to their needs a little more. If your clientèle is college age or twenty somethings, you’re more likely to cater to their wishes, which are likely fewer than those older, family oriented patrons. Again, this is just a theory, but I’ve seen this in most of the Montana taprooms that I’ve visited.
I for one enjoy spending time with my kids, and if after a long hike I want to go to the taproom and enjoy a beer with my wife and a few friends and I drag my kids along with me, and if that taproom happens to have ginger ale or root beer or chalkboard walls for kids to draw on or a few toys for the little ones to play with, then great. But I’d love to hear your thoughts on the subject. Please send me a note here at GrizzlyGrowler.com or vote on my poll and submit your thoughts as a comment.
Prost,
GG
I think the survey is poorly worded, as ‘Wrong vs. Right’ frames this as purely a moral issue when it is also an issue of personal choice and responsibility. Perhaps a better way to phrase it would be “Should children be allowed in taprooms- Yes or No’.
As one who is deeply involved with a Montana brewery and being the father of two young children (who do spend a portion of their lives in their family business) I feel obligated to reply to this point.
The nature of the Montana brewery tasting room is no more evil or destructive to the young mind than is the grocery store, fast food restaurant, or video store. Maybe less so. I would argue that a visit to any of the above poses more actual, real threats to the youngster (e.g. renting questionable videos, choosing extremely unhealthy foods) than visiting their local Montana brewery. In our tasting room, we have ALWAYS encouraged visits by families. We do offer craft-brewed sodas for minors and for patrons who may not want a beer. Per Montana law, we do not allow smoking and we do not tolerate profanity or disruptive behavior. We are restricted to serving only three pints of beer per person per day. If one isn’t comfortable bringing their child into a Montana brewery, how comfortable are you bringing your child into a Montana restaurant with a full liquor license?
Montana’s breweries offer a unique opportunity for their local community; a place to gather as a family, a place to relax and enjoy each others’ company.
I can see both sides of the issue. It is a matter of who and where it occurring. I would probably agree with the position that with the right supervision it is alright!
Correction: quickjosh.blogspot is my comic blog quickjosh.com is my website.
The only issue I take with it is when parents let their kids run around like it was a play pen. Doesn’t bother me in the least that they are in the tap room, until a little tyke runs into my leg and makes me spill some tasty brew!
I have taken my daughter (6 years old currently) to breweries and taprooms. She’s a fairly well-behaved child, if I may brag. She realizes that beer is “Daddy’s drink,” and has shown no desire to emulate me at this time. She enjoys the root beers and other soft drinks that some venues make available for her.
I would rather have her see beer as a “grown up” drink that is consumed responsibly rather than a “forbidden fruit” that she will be unnaturally curious about and want to experiment with at a too-early age.
And as David said, there are many other venues that offer alcohol where children are present, so what’s the difference?
I come at this from a slightly different angle. I agree that if you consume alcohol, then you should raise your kids to understand proper and improper consumption. That includes having them around when you’re imbibing, always in moderation of course. However, my husband and I don’t have kids, don’t plan on having kids, and enjoy the times we can go out with friends (who are also excited to have a “night out” sans offspring) and not have to worry about an enjoyable environment being marred by other people’s ill-behaved progeny. So I’m kind of torn on this issue: I don’t think it’s morally wrong to allow kids in taprooms, but I’d prefer that they not be kicking the back of MY booth. I appreciate the brewpubs in Seattle that have “family sections” that allow everyone to enjoy in their own way.
Good point Sandra. I guess the only thing I would say is that Montana taprooms must close by 8 p.m. Kids tend to be present in the earlier hours, and if we (parents) want to take our kids somewhere, it has to be during those early hours of the evening. Segregating only works to a point, especially when I want to connect with my friends who are single or those, like you, who’ve decided not to have kids. Believe me, I can see the pain in their eyes when the kids are especially wound up or obnoxious, which is usually exacerbated by copious amounts of sugar in the root beer or ginger ale. But given the choice of having a beer at home or going out with kids in tow even for an hour or two, I’d take being able to go out. Something about the little suburban turnips we’ve turned into. Because we can’t afford to live in the city center, we tend to seek out social opportunities that the taproom offer. I would say that if it’s ever my child kicking the back of your booth, I hope you stand up and give me a good bawling out. Parents who take their children out in public need to be aware that taprooms are a place for social interaction. They are not McDonalds play areas. People without kids should be able to stand up for their right to relax and enjoy the neighborhood taproom too.
Thanks,
Tim
The arguments for Kids being in breweries so far according to the comments are:
1.Fast Food Chains, Grocery Stores & Video Stores are more dangerous than breweries.
2.Taking kids to restaurants with full liquor license is no different than a brewery.
3.Breweries are great family gathering places because they’re unique.
4.The patrons can only drink 3 pints – profanity/negative behavior are not tolerated in breweries.
5.Manually lifting a pint of beer and pouring into the mouth in the environment from which it is made is good modeling for kids. Thus, the beverage will not be considered taboo and make it less likely the child will seek it out.
6.Kids are cool in a brewery as long as they don’t run into the adults to avoid spilling their beverages.
7.Kids are cool in a brewery as they don’t kick the back of the adults booth.
I feel as though my comic covered all of these in a positive manor, minus the spilling and kicking sector. Also the dangerous dangerous grocery store, video store & Fast Food weren’t covered. Turns out there’s much more to this issue than I ever considered.
Yet I still completely disagree.
That’s the beauty of living in this country. We get to disagree. Still, in the hopes of encouraging conversation and maybe finding a meeting point, some reasons for disagreeing would be helpful. Also, more out of curiosity than anything else, I’d like to know what sort of spiked your interest in the topic. Did you have a bad experience with a kid in a taproom? Taprooms didn’t exist when you were a kid, so you can’t really make the argument that something from childhood affected you. The taproom idea is relatively new in the grand scheme of things, and it’s difficult to both defend them or to chastise them thoroughly on the topic of kids at this point. Though the cartoon did a fair job of criticism, it’d be good to know what school of thought you come from and what drives your disagreement.
Thanks,
Tim
Sounds good Tim I will have a comic reply in relation to these comics in a week or so and let you know when it’s up.