Whatevvvveeeer

Today's Post has a story on the "contested spaces in the city," the article "New baby boom fosters culture clash: Parents vs. public spaces‎."

This contestation is about the right and privilege of access to urban spaces and whether or not access privileges are extended to parents and children. Parents believe that their children deserve space. Many (I would argue, younger, privileged, and selfish) non-parents do not. For the record, I don't have children.

But frankly, the story is pretty damn boring (as our most of the columns by another Post writer, Petula Dvorak, which cover similar kinds of issues). The interesting aspect of the question inadequately discussed in the Post article or some of the other venues mentioned in the article is what we might call "the infantilization of adult spaces" by the introduction of children, for example, in bars.

This comes down to young adults not knowing how to act as adults while juggling their roles as parents. Accommodating children on buses is one thing ("Circulator starts banning unfolded strollers," the Greater Greater Washington thread mentioned in the Post article), even coffee shops (see the article below). There the issues are about civility and behavior management of children. Children in bars and certain kinds of restaurants are quite another issue.

Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times Mothers and children gathered to talk and drink at the Lucky Cat in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, in 2004.

The Post article is duplicative and repetitive of stories from the past ten years in the New York Times about similar complaints in both New York City and Chicago:

- Look Who's Getting Rolled Out of the Bar (2008)
- In Surge in Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead Way (2007)
- The Park Slope Parent Trap (2007)
- At Center of a Clash, Rowdy Children in Coffee Shops (2005)
- Go Ahead and Cry. It's Happy Hour.; Mothers Find Social Outlet, and Babies Are Welcome (2004).

I wrote about the Andersonville coffee shop issue back in the first months of the blog...

Also see this article from Salon, "Everybody hates mommy - Motherhood.