AN AUSTRALIAN CAFÉ owner who banned kids from her business has said that she’s sticking by her stance.

A Facebook post on the page of the Little French Café in Newcastle in New South Wales earlier this week stated:

Are we child friendly? If you are looking for a cafe with a children’s menu, baby chinos, a play area, lounges for your children to jump on, vast space for your prams, an area for your children to run rampant, and annoy other customers, while you are oblivious to them — then the short answer is No, we are not child friendly.

HOWEVER, if you would like to bring your children here and they are happy to sit at a table with you, while you enjoy a coffee, and are well behaved, please come in. Otherwise, there are plenty of places that are specifically designed to entertain your children.

That post has since been deleted, but the owner Jodie Morris has spent the past couple of days qualifying her stance after she received a fair amount of criticism for her words.

In a follow up post yesterday she explained that her original message was in response to a customer who had given the café a poor review and asked “are you child friendly – because it doesn’t seem like it”.

Morris explained that despite her reply seeming harsh, she’s a “straight shooter” who built and decorated the café herself.

It has my blood sweat and plenty of tears in it.

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, screaming – just for fun – not pain, and encouraged by their parents, upsetting the rest of the customers and I’d really just had enough.

She goes on to explain that she understands what it is to be a parent, as she is a single mother.

Some will agree with my stance, some will not, but it’s my stance for my business.

The issue has raised a huge amount of debate in Australia and beyond, with the owner saying she has been subjected to a sizeable amount of online “abuse”.

The majority of comments on her Facebook page show support:

Although some have taken issues with Morris’ message and delivery:

What’s your take on the debate? Let us know in the comments section…

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