At 1:00 AM, the door jerked open and a rush of cold air made the room suddenly feel like an icebox. All of us who were there turned to look, our jolly faces turned to shock.
In with the cold wind stumbled three couples along with their six kids. The parents spent about 15 minutes unwrapping the little burritos and instead of using the coat hook, they stacked their winter gear on top of a stool. The parents proceeded to take off their own coats and stacked them on top of the already enormous stack.
“Quiero ir a casa.” the pudgy little girl who was cringing her face told her mother that she wanted to go home.
“Huele mal aquí,” she added with another cringing face to her friend.
The other little girl who was flipping her hair with a certain air replied, “No huelo nada pero quiero irme a casa también.” She couldn’t smell anything but apparently she wanted to go home too.
The bartender walks over,
“¿Qué os puedo servir?” What would you like to drink?
I was still taken back by the initial shock but I just couldn’t help from listening to what they were going to order.
After they were served, the parents were perfectly content with their pints of beer, talking amongst themselves while their children seemed to take over the bar because they had zero parental supervision.
The noise kept getting louder and louder and at the same time my face, according to my friends, was showing more disgust. It wasn’t the typical noise you hear in a bar at 1:00 AM but rather that of a day care center. The four boys from ages 3 to 6 were suddenly playing tops on top of the bar stools and shouting at the other when they thought they had spun the top better than the other. After boredom struck, they sat on the floor laden with popcorn kernels, peanut shells and dirty napkins in front of the ladies’ room to continue playing tops. After that they started running around the crowded bar.
The buzzed that I had so nicely achieved from drinking 2 pints of Magners cider vanished. The habitual clients were starting to get pissed. The kids were out of control.
At 1:45 AM, I couldn’t take anymore of the rowdy, overtired kids so we decided that it was time to go home to go to bed. The kids and their parents were still there. Way to set an example, folks, I thought to myself.
It is not that uncommon in Madrid to see children in a bar and it depends on how you define the bar. The concept of a bar in Spain is sort of a lose term – most of the restaurants, like in the States, have a long bar where you order drinks and tapas. Most have an aperativo in the afternoon at about 13:00 at a bar in the restaurant and they bring their kids. Almost all of the kids I have seen at 13:00 are usually engrossed in their portable game players and barely even look up, much less acknowledge where they are. I have never thought it out of the ordinary at 13:00 in the afternoon but at 1:00 in the morning? Shouldn’t kids be sleeping? I would never let me own young children stay out that late.
I have asked several of my Spanish co-workers and friends how they feel about kids in bars and they say it is “irresponsable”. One of my bosses says the latest his kids have ever been out was 23:00 and he felt a bit awkward about it. They went to eat out at a restaurant at 20:30 and the kids were in bed at 23:00. He would never bring them to an actual bar de copas or any bar after 20:00.
Spain just went through a drastic change this past January; smoking in all public places has been outlawed so bars, restaurants, hospital entrances etc are now smoke-free environments. Could that be why I have noticed more children in bars lately? Even if the bars/restaurants are smoke-free should kids in Madrid be allowed in a bar past 20:00? I don’t think so. Kids should be allowed to be kids and adults should be allowed to be adults.
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