Jun 07
Stay-at-homedadblunders recently published a post about the grandfather asked to leave the kids’ section at an Arizona Barnes & Noble. I wouldn’t find it odd to see people without children in the kids’ section. I routinely give my twins books as gifts so I often shop by myself in the kids’ section at my local Barnes & Noble. Plus, have you ever tried to shop in the kids’ section of a bookstore while accompanied by a toddler or young child? My local Barnes & Noble has a Thomas the Train train table, making it a battle to get my kids to leave without a full-on, fall-on-the floor meltdown occurring. Honestly, I could understand a policy banning children from the kids’ section more than I could understand a policy banning adults. If you’re a retailer, particularly a book retailer in this day and age, you want to attract as many customers as possible. A policy banning adults who aren’t accompanied by a child seems more likely to drive away business than attract it. Not smart retailing. Let’s look at a few other situations, though.  Children’s FairyLand is a children’s theme park in Oakland, CA. It has a policy that states, “For safety reasons, adults must be accompanied by a child to enter our storybook park.” I take the kids to an indoor entertainment center in Concord, CA called The Jungle. It, too, has a policy that states, “All adults must be accompanied by a child.“ I suspect such a rule is legal since it’s not gender specific. What do you think? Is it acceptable for these types of businesses to ban adults not accompanied by children?  As you can see from the picture accompanying this post, there are several parks in San Francisco that don’t allow adults into the playground area if they are not accompanied by a child. And, don’t think this is unique to CA. These bans are appearing all across the US. It was about this time last year that two women, who weren’t accompanied by a child, were given a ticket for sitting in a Brooklyn playground area while they ate their newly purchased doughnuts. Parks are a public space. They are built and maintained with taxpayer funds. Is it acceptable to exclude law-abiding taxpayers from public parks simply because they aren’t accompanied by a child? Do these bans keep children safe or do they play into hysteria and feed upon irrational, parental fears? Image Credit: niallkennedy on Flickr.

Stay-at-homedadblunders recently published a post about the grandfather asked to leave the kids’ section at an Arizona Barnes & Noble. I wouldn’t find it odd to see people without children in the kids’ section. I routinely give my twins books as gifts so I often shop by myself in the kids’ section at my local Barnes & Noble. Plus, have you ever tried to shop in the kids’ section of a bookstore while accompanied by a toddler or young child? My local Barnes & Noble has a Thomas the Train train table, making it a battle to get my kids to leave without a full-on, fall-on-the floor meltdown occurring. Honestly, I could understand a policy banning children from the kids’ section more than I could understand a policy banning adults. If you’re a retailer, particularly a book retailer in this day and age, you want to attract as many customers as possible. A policy banning adults who aren’t accompanied by a child seems more likely to drive away business than attract it. Not smart retailing.

Let’s look at a few other situations, though. 

Image Credit: niallkennedy on Flickr.

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15 Notes

  1. brooklynsweetwater said: In most parks in NYC the playground is a gated area inside a larger park. That means there’s plenty of other places in the park for adults to sit and therefore it’s really creepy for an adult to be in the playground area sans kid.
  2. joyfulreasoning reblogged this from electradaddy
  3. bumbleeebeees said: Tough call. I see where the…logic is, but these are still public recreation areas. I understand what they’re trying to prevent, but citations are a bit much, as is kicking out a poor grandpa.
  4. retrobasset said: I think it’s odd that adults cannot sit in parks without children. They should be able to enjoy a comfortable outdoor spot, too!
  5. electradaddy posted this

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