Mother tells of experience at The Little French Cafe in Broadmeadow

Judith Kotz, of Shortland, was one of five women and two children, aged 3 and 8months, who met at the cafe at 9.30am on Friday.

After their experience, one of the women reviewed the cafe on its Facebook page, awarding it one star and asking: ‘‘Are you child friendly because it doesn’t seem like it?’’

The cafe’s response, which included the declaration it was not child friendly and a detailed description why, has received strong support on social media.

‘‘If you are looking for ... an area for your children to run rampant, and annoy other customers, whilst you are oblivious to them - then the short answer is no, we are not child friendly,’’ the post read.

But Mrs Kotz said the children were well behaved at the cafe and she believed the staff had attempted to make them feel uncomfortable.

Mrs Kotz said the five women had come to the cafe to try the French pastries and to console one of the group who had just lost a close friend.

‘‘They [the staff] were snickering at us, laughing and looking at us,’’ she said.

‘‘They took away our plates before we were finished eating ... they asked us to move tables.’’

Mrs Kotz said if the cafe was not welcoming of children then their group should have been advised before they ordered.

‘‘They were happy to take out money,’’ she said.  

The Newcastle Herald  contacted The Little French Cafe but did not receive a reponse.

However, this was posted on their Facebook page on Wednesday: ‘‘I have been subjected to children emptying salt and pepper shakers into my fireplaces, parents changing nappies on my lounges, kids grinding their own food into my carpet, parents sitting babies in nappies in the middle of dining tables, kids running around the cafe like it’s a formula 1 track, jumping on the furniture ... and I’d really just had enough.  And yes, I am a mother. A single mother at that. Instead of being a ‘burden’ on society, I scrimped every last penny and put it into this cafe, and I’m very proud of it. When I have to stand there and watch people disrespect and damage MY belongings and property, it breaks a piece of my heart.’’

In its original Facebook response to the question, which has since been deleted, The Little French Cafe said children were welcome provided they ‘‘are happy to sit at a table ... and are well behaved’’.

SOMETIMES Imogen Perry, 2, is an angel when her parents take her out for breakfast, and sometimes she is not.

But the odd tantrum hasn’t stopped Megan and David Perry from enjoying meals with their daughter in venues around Newcastle. 

‘‘It’s a bit hit and miss,’’ Mr Perry said, before Mrs Perry described a recent incident at a cafe where the feisty toddler let loose with a crowd-stopping tantrum.  ‘‘I had to get down on my hands and knees and scoop her up off the floor,’’ she said. But despite the challenges of dealing with what sounds like very normal toddler behaviour, the couple persevere with their family outings to cafes and restaurants because they believe the best way to teach their daughter to behave in public is to take her out. 

She said the family had dined in lots of venues across Newcastle and had yet to experience discrimination. 

‘‘Most places are very accommodating,’’ Mrs Perry said.

At breakfast on Wednesday Mr Perry was particularly impressed that the eurobar, in Hamilton, had provided Imogen with a plastic drinking cup, just in case. 

Just around the corner at Love Tree Cafe, Teagan Pywell was having breakfast with her son, Zakai, 3.

Ms Pywell said she took her son out to cafes at least once a week and she couldn’t understand why cafes would not cater to children.

‘‘I would feel offended if someone said you can’t bring your kids in here.’’ 

EVERY man, woman and their dog is welcome at Love Tree Cafe, according to co-owner Fredric Holten. 

He said it was a ‘‘no brainer’’ to try to attract as broad a base of clientele to his Hamilton cafe as possible.

And for that reason he actively promotes the venue as family, dog and breastfeeding friendly. 

‘‘Most of the kids are well behaved and when they are not, you just deal with it,’’ he said.

Staff keep activity packs on hand for when children get grumpy.

‘‘We wanted to create an experience like what I like to experience when I go to cafes,’’ he said.

‘‘I’m a big dog person, I like to take my dogs out to breakfast.’’

 And so it follows that dogs are also very welcome at Love Tree, where they get pretty special treatment,  including doggy treats and puppy-chinos.