"There is no childophobia." This is how clear Marta González, director of the Mercado de la Cebada in Madrid, shows when she is asked about the controversy that in recent weeks has confronted some families in the neighborhood with the management of this establishment. Of course, from the other side, fathers and mothers think the opposite. One more chapter of a well-known topic that from time to time jumps to the headlines and puts the well-known debate on children and hospitality on the table. Can bars and restaurants veto access to minors? Are the little ones just another client with their rights and obligations? And what happens to the rest of the diners in case of discomfort?
“That some children in a bar or restaurant seemed like a nuisance to me has happened to me five or six times in my life. Let it be a group of drunken adults who are upset, possibly 500 times.” These words can be a perfect summary of the situation that any father or mother who goes out with his children has gone through. They can get annoying and annoying, but just like so many adults you share a bar with or end up being table neighbors at dinner.
Marc, who prefers not to share his last name, is one of the parents involved in the Barley Market conflict that has been making headlines in the media for weeks, with accusations and anecdotes of all kinds between families and those responsible for the public market, managed by the merchant group. To sum it up, on Friday afternoon some fathers and mothers from the neighborhood gather around some bars in the market.
Children's games create -according to the market management- inconvenience to merchants and buyers, so a space has been set up for families to be there. A luxury, according to the market. A ghetto, denounce the parents who downplay the supposed inconveniences, question the version given from the center, and speak of a more complex conflict in which children and their games are just one more piece of the war between merchants.
“We have all been boys and girls, they are not a separate group. Discriminating against children or being bothered by boys and girls is like denying your own identity,” says Mariola, mother of a four-year-old girl and another of the regulars on these, apparently, conflictive Friday afternoons at the market.
The director denies the major. In addition to pointing out that they are a market, not a catering establishment, although there are eight bars on the premises, she points out that the problem is not the children, but the lack of supervision by parents. "We are delighted that they come, they are customers, but there are rules like in all public spaces," defends González, who recalls that she has grown up in that same market and that she has children.
He lists cases of races through the corridors, children lost in the parking lot, protests by shopkeepers and customers and counts the number of adults and children who come to gather at more than a hundred. The problem, he summarizes, is not the children, but the lack of supervision by the parents.
The truth is that the messages sent from the management to the merchants and bars in the market are of a really hard tone, as we have been able to verify through some families that have had access to them. Also the rules, the limited areas and the deployment of security guards, denounce the parents.
A conflict with a complex solution but where, luckily, there is no shortage of people willing to build bridges. "I understand that children are not a discreet and silent customer, but together we can find solutions so that both they and their families - market customers every day - can enjoy a few moments in that space in harmony", proposes Helena Vaello, mother from the neighborhood and knowledgeable about the hospitality business.
Although the case has its peculiarities as it is a public market, these frictions between families and locals are nothing new. What would happen if the access to a place to the elderly was vetoed? The scandal would be enormous.
It is one of the most repeated comments when, in the park and after school, the subject is brought up in a group of mothers and fathers. The presumption of the weightiness of children is tempting and anyone who has children will have fallen for it, but it does not seem like a great legal basis to apply that right of admission.
Because beyond the conflicting opinions between those who defend that they can go with their children to any restaurant and those who do not want to share a room with minors, what does the law say? In 2021, Facua denounced a Bilbao restaurant that denied entry to minors.
Rubén Sánchez, president of this consumer defense entity, defends that "it is illegal to prohibit entry to any consumer profile based on age, sex, religion, race or origin, unless the reason is not that, but rather causes altercations , that is violent or that generates great discomfort”.
What happens, he explains, is that some establishments have the preconceived idea that children are going to bother when in reality there are more adults who cause discomfort. "The criterion of being a child is not valid, but in any case being noisy, so the right of consumers is being violated."
Along the same lines, the vision of Alberto García Moyano is especially interesting as he is a lawyer, but also co-owner of various catering businesses in Barcelona. Relying on the right of admission to deny entry to children, he points out, does not make any sense because this rule is only justified in cases where there is risk and danger to other customers. "Children don't make a noise that can perforate your eardrum, which would be the only case in which it could be justified," he jokes.
Although children are more than welcome in all its premises, it does speak of a kind of contract that allows the two parties to understand each other and that could have a certain legal basis for bars or restaurants that do not allow children. "I think it's a contractual agreement to use, as if an omnivore goes to a vegan restaurant and demands that they give him meat," he reflects. "A hotel that only admits adults, cruises for singles... I don't judge that it is good or bad, but it is a kind of pact between the two parties."
An issue with many vertices and around which issues such as the birth rate, neighborhoods, the gentrification of the city center, upbringing revolve... "In the era of globalization, Friday afternoons at the market are an act of resistance, a crack to make the city more livable, an act of political imagination”, points out Violeta Janeiro, another of the mothers of the Mercado de la Cebada.
For many, these cases are just the tip of the iceberg of the complex relationship between society and children. Or the problem that some people seem to have to understand that children are also citizens with rights and customers when they are sitting in a restaurant.
Something for which, of course, there are no borders. Journalist Jessica Blankenship recently wrote in Bon Appétit about an Italian restaurant in New Jersey that she had also banned children from. Restaurants, she defends, have become one of the few places for adults and children to live together in a society that is increasingly isolated and that no longer grows in a community as before.
A very healthy reminder that children are an indispensable part of society. Also for those who do not have children. "If you don't want children in restaurants, stay at home," she defended in an interesting script twist to what is usually heard. It does not seem like a bad motto to claim.
