Kids and Small Hotels and Breakfast Time Nightmares

Lotus-eater

PasturesNew wrote: »

People should be quiet. If I wanted a party I'd be in Ibiza.

Somehow I doubt it.

People should not be quiet. You think they should be quiet, the majority of the rest of humanity thinks different.

People should be considerate, but tbh I have no idea how these children in your hotel are really acting based on your responses.
They could be acting totally normal and being polite, yet you would still be unhappy about it.

I don't know what you thought you would get when you moved into a hotel which has other guests? It's not exactly Buddhist retreat territory.

Nicki

PasturesNew wrote: »

People should be quiet. If I wanted a party I'd be in Ibiza.

But there are (cheap) places you can stay in which won't have children and are almost guaranteed to be quiet. So, you could turn that round and say that if you want quiet, you should not stay in a fairly cheap hotel in holiday season, where you can expect there to be families.

Cheap quiet places to stay include: convents and monasteries, a tent or caravan in a farmer's field, an adult's only hotel (maybe - not if a hen or stag party books in), housesitting while owners are away.

I'm not unsympathetic to you not liking to hear children at all, but I do think it is unreasonable to expect families to accomodate that desire, when they are not behaving badly themselves and have as much right to enjoy their stay in the hotel as you do. We are trying to bring our child with autism up to have strategies to deal with situations which bother her due to her sensitivities - eg by using headphones or even ear defenders in places where the noise bothers her, sunglasses where light is an issue, etc - rather than expecting the normal world to change to suit her idiosyncratic needs, which frankly isn't going to happen. If you really can't stand the noise of children at all in the dining room and won't countenance having breakfast elsewhere, would some noise cancelling headphones help perhaps?

PasturesNew

Nicki wrote: »

would some noise cancelling headphones help perhaps?

Dunno - never heard of them to be honest. Are they huge and make you look a right plonker?

Welshwoofs

PasturesNew wrote: »

It's not me - the others have independently, and without being asked, told me that's what they were doing ... and now it's a friendly nod at early doors to indicate "I know why you're here now".

Anybody else done this?

Hell...I don't even book into a hotel with kids in it, let alone be in the breakfast room at the same time. The problem is, when you up the cost scale it's very easy to find 'kid inappropriate' hotels (Mr & Mrs Smith Guide is totally full of them), but at the budget end of the scale it's a bit of a free for all.

I'm a firm believer in 'family' venues and 'adult only' venues to give those who don't delight in being around kids a break. The needs of the two groups are completely different IMO.

Nicki

PasturesNew wrote: »

Dunno - never heard of them to be honest. Are they huge and make you look a right plonker?

No. They are normal headphones like you would use to listen to an ipod or similar. See here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/b?ie=UTF8&node=310193011

You can either use them to listen to music in which case you hear the music but not much of what is going on around you, or you can just wear them without any music playing, in which case it will considerably dampen down any noise around you.

lostinrates

Welshwoofs wrote: »

Hell...I don't even book into a hotel with kids in it, let alone be in the breakfast room at the same time. The problem is, when you up the cost scale it's very easy to find 'kid inappropriate' hotels (Mr & Mrs Smith Guide is totally full of them), but at the budget end of the scale it's a bit of a free for all.

I'm a firm believer in 'family' venues and 'adult only' venues to give those who don't delight in being around kids a break. The needs of the two groups are completely different IMO.

Another one proving it is not just PN.

I have an advantage, as i mentioned earlier in the thread, i have seen PN around normal volume kids, including one poor wee sick mite, and that certainly appeared to be within her tolerance level.

There certainly are really hoprrid grumpy strange childhating people, and there are people, of all ages, who have reasons to find norms difficult, plus there are people whose children are difficult or whose parenting is perhaps stretched. I find it sad so few parents admit that. Everyone knows that at times children need a cry, at times they don't need to but they do. I have grinned at a struggling parent reassuringly more times than i can remember, because i can imagine those times when you want the ground to swallow you whole having a feiendly face might be a line towards sanity. However, there are lots of times i have seen bright and understimulated children 'pestering' others while their parents fail to occupy them.

Last time i was at the hospital i was delighted to play with a child who obviously had some special needs but who made a lovely smile as an overture. The childs parents were obviously exhausted but still endeacouring to engage the child apin 'normal volume' play. I was delighted when the child invited me to admire then help with their lego tower of pisa, and the child's parents looked relieved to have found someone to join in, but had they been ignoring the dear thing and let behaviour escalate my feelings, at a time i was stressed too, might have been very different.

I love kids, i really do, and i admire good parents, or even the ones who just stay vaguley able to put things in proportion, but there are some times when i forget i like kids, and forget i admire most parents!

jellyhead

The headphones sound like a good idea

It seems to be acceptable for people to wear them all the time now, even if they are in company. My 16 year old feels uncomfortable on holiday with all the noises of people drunkenly staggering around, banging into walls and shushing each other too loudly, or having arguments in corridors or outside caravans. Other adults are more irritating than children, he reckons. He'll probably fall asleep listening to pink floyd.

When he was younger we used to take a tent to the beach for him to escape into when he'd had enough of people. He would zip it up and eat his lunch there, alone.

He sometimes has one earphone in when we're eating out, so he can be sociable and speak to us, but filter out some of the noise of 'people'.

shellsuit

jellyhead wrote: »

The headphones sound like a good idea

It seems to be acceptable for people to wear them all the time now, even if they are in company. My 16 year old feels uncomfortable on holiday with all the noises of people drunkenly staggering around, banging into walls and shushing each other too loudly, or having arguments in corridors or outside caravans. Other adults are more irritating than children, he reckons. He'll probably fall asleep listening to pink floyd.

When he was younger we used to take a tent to the beach for him to escape into when he'd had enough of people. He would zip it up and eat his lunch there, alone.

He sometimes has one earphone in when we're eating out, so he can be sociable and speak to us, but filter out some of the noise of 'people'.

Where on earth does he go on holiday? :eek:

PasturesNew

lostinrates wrote: »

Another one proving it is not just PN.

I have an advantage, as i mentioned earlier in the thread, i have seen PN around normal volume kids, including one poor wee sick mite, and that certainly appeared to be within her tolerance level.

I didn't even notice them. They were having fun, messing about, running round ... any noise they made (did they make any??) didn't register on my scale at all... nothing, nada.

Welshwoofs

lostinrates wrote: »

Another one proving it is not just PN.

I think there's an issue these days that if you say that you want to be in an adult-only environment, it's taken as meaning that you hate children. That may be the case in a few instances, but in lots of others it's totally untrue....I know a good few people with kids who like to go away for breaks as a couple in environments where there aren't any children.

In my view, me preferring hotels that discourage kids is no different to people preferring hotels that disallow dogs. It's simply a choice about what sort of environment you want in that instance.

Now, as I said, I check out hotels before I book and it does tend to be the case that the 'boutique' ones aren't geared up for families so those are the ones I gravitate to. If I booked in a hotel that was obviously family-friendly then I'd expect the normal level of kid activity and wouldn't complain.

Of course even in family friendly environments there are occasions where people allow their kids to go totally OTT and they're a PITA for everyone. I've been in a restaurant (not for long, obviously) for lunch before now where a kid on the next table over was screaming so loudly that on our table we were almost shouting to make ourselves heard. The parent of said kid did absolutely nothing and in a case like that I do consider it more the parents' problem than the problem of the diners who are experiencing the din.