New York Beer Garden Bans Children (After 4 P.M.), Parents Upset

A visitor to one of New York City's beer gardens may well recognize another kind of guest: children. Now, one Brooklyn beer garden has decided to ban children from the premises after 4 p.m., causing a big stir from beer-loving parents. 

Greenwood Park in Brooklyn opened in June, near four schools, reports the New York Daily News. And its lively atmosphere, often filled with parents and children, has escalated to a near "jungle gym," according to complaints on Yelp. So the beer garden took steps to ban children after the curfew, to allow adults to presumably drink as much as they want without the little rug rats running around. 

The biggest problem is that it's teachers who led the charge for the cut-off time — angering many parents. Said owner Diane Vasilakos to the Daily News, "They are surrounded by children all day... They don't want to also see them here." Parents, in return, fired back, saying teachers don't want the parents to see them drinking. 

Babble writer Danielle Sullivan defended the teachers' desire to drink without kiddos around, saying they wouldn't be able to fully relax. She wrote, "We all know that young kids would be giddy to see their teachers after school and probably talk/interact with them, and some parents might take it as an opportunity to chat up why Johnny is having trouble keeping quiet or what they are covering in Math, etc... In our day of technology overload, older kids might snap candid photos that could easily ended up on Facebook and Instagram. Those are all very real possibilities." Either way, parents aren't too pleased with the new rules. Said one mother to the Daily News, "I'm looking at these 21-year-old ... Wait until you have kids and want a drink." Burn.