The rise of child free holiday resorts – why not use birth control instead? (From The Argus)
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The rise of child free holiday resorts – why not use birth control instead?
7:54pm Monday 20th June 2011 in Blogs
For heaven's sake, don't let me splash you when you're swimming or sunbathing!
Having caused something of a furore with a blog entry about taking children into bar/restaurants, back in September 2010, it seems that we Brits can’t even tolerate the future of our nation – i.e. the younger generation – in a holiday resort.
I was shocked to read a press release from Thomson Holidays, which is launching “Thomson Couples, a new child-free holiday experience at resorts worldwide”. This ‘experience’ is “aimed at couples who want to spend time abroad in a child-free environment, away from their own kids, and other people’s”.
And the raison d’etre? According to a recent survey by Thomson, “one in three adults agree that ‘hell is other people’s children on holiday’ while “40% say their own children adversely affect their holiday enjoyment”. Well, why have ‘em then!
It seems that 48% of respondents find the “general noise and whining” made by kids on holiday irritating, while 32% said that “over-tired youngsters can spoil an evening’s entertainment”. Furthermore, 30% were annoyed by being “splashed while sunbathing around the pool” while 21% disliked being “splashed by kids in the pool”. A disturbing 4% of the adults surveyed said that their own children can “ruin a holiday completely”. Calls for segregating sections of resort swimming pools for adult usage and banishing children from the bar followed, as predictably as night follows day.
What a load of old misery-gutses! I have news for these moaning minnies… when on holiday with my children, I find couples who insist on rolling around in the sand and making drunken whooping noises in restaurant areas annoying. Perhaps it really is the best plan to divide and separate everybody: let’s put the snogging couples in a “walled garden” retreat where nobody has to watch them smugly canoodling, and consign the kids to a hectic “family resort experience” where they can’t ruin unsuspecting adults’ sun-tanning opportunities by splashing water on them in the 30C+ heat. I mean, how terrible… getting splashed in or around a swimming pool area! It’s lucky that these adults don’t have to worry about a proper problem, such as a famine or a war.
I believe it is just the Brits who maintain this type of attitude towards their own and other people’s offspring. In more relaxed and socially civilised European countries, it’s doubtful whether an offering such as Warner Leisure Hotels – another child-free ‘experience’ operating within the UK – would thrive. If you suggested to a Spanish family that they should leave their kids behind because ‘los ninos’ are too noisy / annoying / might whine / could splash water in a pool, they would look at you as if you’d gone ‘loco’ and probably walk away in disgust. And who could blame them!
I’m not advocating water pistols in the restaurant or bun-throwing at breakfast but, hey, where is the tolerance? If people are so averse to their own kids having fun in a holiday resort, I suggest that they should have taken advantage of the many forms of contraceptives available, instead of starting a family. With that sort of attitude prevailing, no wonder UK society is ‘breaking down’ and disaffected ‘yoofs’ would rather don hoodies, smoke fags and rob alcopops from the local “offy”, rather than join in with what their families are doing.
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Comments(4)
Clueless Constable
says...
9:19am Thu 30 Jun 11
Helena Hancart
says...
11:35am Mon 4 Jul 11
"If we want a meal or a drink out with our son, (and I do believe it is important to get youngsters eating out early) my husband and I have a huge rota of all the local family-friendly pubs and restaurants in the area, there are loads of them and no one minds a bit of screaming or running around. If they did there would be little cause for complaint, unless of course the children were being badly behaved (which is a whole different ball game all together). There is however, cause for complaint if a quiet evening meal out with your loved one - which you too are paying for and have a right to enjoy - is ruined by a screaming baby who’d much rather be at home anyway. Just watch out who you complain to, maybe approach the manager as opposed to the angry looking diner with a wine bottle! (I believe that last part may refer to your good self.)
Helena Hancart
says...
2:40pm Mon 4 Jul 11
"I once left a pub in Rottingdean because the manager said my two year old was “allowed if he’s quiet and doesn’t run around”. I decided that a cheap bottle of Chardonnay in my own back patio was a preferable option.
It is the concept of child movement that causes the most serious problems, it seems. Recently, my family was asked to leave a bar on St James Street because the kids were “running around”. In the past, a diner moaned in Café Rouge because my little boy was “moving”. Some men in Gatwick Airport complained that my eldest son was “moving and looking at us”. And on a recent flight from Spain to Newcastle, an angry fellow passenger complained to me: “how would you feel if a child was standing up on his seat and looking at you?” Well, perish the thought! A child looking at an adult. Sheesh.
It is THIS attitude, not the alternative view you hold, ( I HAVE NEVER BEEN ASKE TO LEAVE A PUB ANYWHERE!) that is breeding the types of feral malcontents you are parenting.
Balloon Popper says...
11:19am Mon 27 Jun 11