It’s no secret that the West is increasingly hostile to children. Long think-pieces are written about the ethics of taking babies on planes. A rambunctious toddler is likely to earn disapproving glares in even the most casual cafés and restaurants. Child-free weddings are more common than ever before. The idea that peace and quiet must be preserved above all else—even at the cost of creating new human beings—is now prevalent. Fulfilling the most basic function of human biology has become a weirdly revolutionary act.
Perhaps nowhere is the battle between parents and anti-natalists clearer than in France. There, more and more hotels and campsites are beginning to exclude under-18s. There has been a surge in demand for child-free weddings. According to one recent poll, over half of French people want more child-free restaurants, hotels, and public-transport options. This is largely down to what appears to be a rise in poorly behaved kids—three quarters said they believed that children are naughtier now than they were previously, and 86% said they felt like parents allowed their kids to disturb others too often, in either public or private.
Take the row over the Montessori International school in Maisons-Laffitte, a wealthy suburb in Paris, where neighbours actually went to court to shut the playground, arguing that the sound of children laughing and shouting caused a “disturbance.” They claimed they could no longer sit out in their gardens or on their terraces and felt “imprisoned.” Unbelievably, the court agreed with them. The area was ordered to be sealed off, accepting the residents’ complaints that letting pupils run around nearby would harm their health and shave thousands of euros off their property values. Teachers must now either keep children in the front schoolyard, confine them to the classroom, or take them to a nearby park.
According to local mayor Jacques Myard, this particular child-free crusade was led by “bourgeois people who do not want kids.” France should be more mindful that “we need children,” he said, and pointed out that the country would require an additional 125,000 births each year if it wants to stop the plummeting birthrate. It’s important to remember that there’s more at stake here than keeping public spaces tranquil. France is currently experiencing record low fertility rates, which currently sit at 1.62 children per woman—the lowest figure since the Second World War.
It’s no wonder that the birthrate continues to fall when having children can turn you into a social leper. Is it any surprise that growing numbers of young people are waiting longer to have kids, or refusing to procreate entirely, because it means being effectively shut out of many public spaces? Those who do have children can often feel pressure to put them in front of screens in order to keep them quiet while out in public—ironically leading to more of the bad behaviour and acting out that childless adults complain so much about. It hasn’t seemed to occur to these people that demanding children remain out of sight and hidden away will only result in even more under-socialised, maladjusted kids.
The French government has attempted to step in, with Sarah El Haïry, the French high commissioner for children, planning to introduce a new state-endorsed guide that promotes restaurants, cafés, and hotels that are particularly child-friendly. She has also, more controversially, warned she may take legal action against booking sites that market adults-only holidays. This is by no means a good solution to the anti-child movement. Private businesses should, of course, be free to offer these experiences to the paying customers that demand them. Wanting a child-free vacation does certainly not, as El Haïry has suggested, amount to “violence against children.” She’s right, however, when she describes the growing trend of believing that “children are a nuisance.” “A child shouts, laughs and moves,” she told RFI earlier this year, “we are institutionalising the idea that silence is a luxury and the absence of children is a luxury.”
This is not just a problem in France, either. There is a growing hostility towards children across Europe. Across the border in Belgium, this phenomenon is even more pronounced. According to one 2023 report, around one in ten Belgian restaurants refuse to admit children. Last year, one restaurant in Ixelles specifically faced scrutiny for not allowing customers with children. The owner argued that he and his staff were “not there to educate children” and that “some parents let their children behave as if they were on a playground.”
The trend is firmly established in Spain, too. In fact, the country now has the third-largest number of adults-only establishments, after Japan and Brazil. Here, there have been various public debates about whether these constitute a reasonable business choice or a breach of anti-discrimination laws. The story is similar in Portugal, which has a growing number of child-free hotels and resorts, which sell themselves as peaceful, relaxing, and aspirational—despite the fact that age-based discrimination is already explicitly banned under the law.
In many ways, it’s understandable that people are becoming increasingly frustrated with kids’ bad behaviour. A combination of children getting more screen time from an earlier age and the rise of permissive ‘gentle’ parenting means that this latest generation is barely getting a chance to grow into well-adjusted adults. But the solution to this isn’t to lock away the smallest and most vulnerable members of their society and to let the problem fester. If we want to raise socially conscious, polite, and well-integrated kids, we all have to be a bit more tolerant. Inevitably, babies will cry, toddlers will scream, and children of all ages will make a loud, sticky nuisance. But giving the space for them to do so also gives parents the vital opportunity to correct behaviour. It teaches them the appropriate way to act in public, how to be considerate of others, and how to manage their own emotions. Listening to someone else’s child shout, cry, and laugh for an hour is a small price to pay to avoid creating yet another entitled, iPad-addicted brat.
Even more importantly, adopting a more kid-friendly attitude might be one of the only things standing between Western Europe and total demographic decline. Any civilisation that believes children are better seen and not heard cannot be surprised when they disappear altogether. If we don’t want our countries to quietly die out, we’ll need to make a little more room for a noisy future.
‘Child-Free’ Zones Are Killing Europe
Monica Hudec on Unsplash
You may also like
The State of American Conservatism
The competing legacies of Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley still shape American political discourse, but the relationship between their conservatisms is more complex than commonly portrayed.
Hungary: Scapegoat for Western European Failure
When ‘liberal democracy’ becomes a suicide pact for one’s nation, you should not be surprised when people living in that nation prefer something different.
Keir Starmer: Dead Man Walking
If it’s true that the ‘grown-ups are back in charge,’ then they’re the same kind we always seem to get: self-serving, corrupt, lying bar stewards.
It’s no secret that the West is increasingly hostile to children. Long think-pieces are written about the ethics of taking babies on planes. A rambunctious toddler is likely to earn disapproving glares in even the most casual cafés and restaurants. Child-free weddings are more common than ever before. The idea that peace and quiet must be preserved above all else—even at the cost of creating new human beings—is now prevalent. Fulfilling the most basic function of human biology has become a weirdly revolutionary act.
Perhaps nowhere is the battle between parents and anti-natalists clearer than in France. There, more and more hotels and campsites are beginning to exclude under-18s. There has been a surge in demand for child-free weddings. According to one recent poll, over half of French people want more child-free restaurants, hotels, and public-transport options. This is largely down to what appears to be a rise in poorly behaved kids—three quarters said they believed that children are naughtier now than they were previously, and 86% said they felt like parents allowed their kids to disturb others too often, in either public or private.
Take the row over the Montessori International school in Maisons-Laffitte, a wealthy suburb in Paris, where neighbours actually went to court to shut the playground, arguing that the sound of children laughing and shouting caused a “disturbance.” They claimed they could no longer sit out in their gardens or on their terraces and felt “imprisoned.” Unbelievably, the court agreed with them. The area was ordered to be sealed off, accepting the residents’ complaints that letting pupils run around nearby would harm their health and shave thousands of euros off their property values. Teachers must now either keep children in the front schoolyard, confine them to the classroom, or take them to a nearby park.
According to local mayor Jacques Myard, this particular child-free crusade was led by “bourgeois people who do not want kids.” France should be more mindful that “we need children,” he said, and pointed out that the country would require an additional 125,000 births each year if it wants to stop the plummeting birthrate. It’s important to remember that there’s more at stake here than keeping public spaces tranquil. France is currently experiencing record low fertility rates, which currently sit at 1.62 children per woman—the lowest figure since the Second World War.
It’s no wonder that the birthrate continues to fall when having children can turn you into a social leper. Is it any surprise that growing numbers of young people are waiting longer to have kids, or refusing to procreate entirely, because it means being effectively shut out of many public spaces? Those who do have children can often feel pressure to put them in front of screens in order to keep them quiet while out in public—ironically leading to more of the bad behaviour and acting out that childless adults complain so much about. It hasn’t seemed to occur to these people that demanding children remain out of sight and hidden away will only result in even more under-socialised, maladjusted kids.
The French government has attempted to step in, with Sarah El Haïry, the French high commissioner for children, planning to introduce a new state-endorsed guide that promotes restaurants, cafés, and hotels that are particularly child-friendly. She has also, more controversially, warned she may take legal action against booking sites that market adults-only holidays. This is by no means a good solution to the anti-child movement. Private businesses should, of course, be free to offer these experiences to the paying customers that demand them. Wanting a child-free vacation does certainly not, as El Haïry has suggested, amount to “violence against children.” She’s right, however, when she describes the growing trend of believing that “children are a nuisance.” “A child shouts, laughs and moves,” she told RFI earlier this year, “we are institutionalising the idea that silence is a luxury and the absence of children is a luxury.”
This is not just a problem in France, either. There is a growing hostility towards children across Europe. Across the border in Belgium, this phenomenon is even more pronounced. According to one 2023 report, around one in ten Belgian restaurants refuse to admit children. Last year, one restaurant in Ixelles specifically faced scrutiny for not allowing customers with children. The owner argued that he and his staff were “not there to educate children” and that “some parents let their children behave as if they were on a playground.”
The trend is firmly established in Spain, too. In fact, the country now has the third-largest number of adults-only establishments, after Japan and Brazil. Here, there have been various public debates about whether these constitute a reasonable business choice or a breach of anti-discrimination laws. The story is similar in Portugal, which has a growing number of child-free hotels and resorts, which sell themselves as peaceful, relaxing, and aspirational—despite the fact that age-based discrimination is already explicitly banned under the law.
In many ways, it’s understandable that people are becoming increasingly frustrated with kids’ bad behaviour. A combination of children getting more screen time from an earlier age and the rise of permissive ‘gentle’ parenting means that this latest generation is barely getting a chance to grow into well-adjusted adults. But the solution to this isn’t to lock away the smallest and most vulnerable members of their society and to let the problem fester. If we want to raise socially conscious, polite, and well-integrated kids, we all have to be a bit more tolerant. Inevitably, babies will cry, toddlers will scream, and children of all ages will make a loud, sticky nuisance. But giving the space for them to do so also gives parents the vital opportunity to correct behaviour. It teaches them the appropriate way to act in public, how to be considerate of others, and how to manage their own emotions. Listening to someone else’s child shout, cry, and laugh for an hour is a small price to pay to avoid creating yet another entitled, iPad-addicted brat.
Even more importantly, adopting a more kid-friendly attitude might be one of the only things standing between Western Europe and total demographic decline. Any civilisation that believes children are better seen and not heard cannot be surprised when they disappear altogether. If we don’t want our countries to quietly die out, we’ll need to make a little more room for a noisy future.
Our community starts with you
READ NEXT
The EU’s Censorship Regime Is Coming for X—Again
Owens vs. Macron: The French Side of an American War
The Pope Praises Turkey as a ‘Model of Coexistence’