Children are indeed allowed, its purely a management decision to restrict them. What this all boils down to is some people want to be able to have a pint in Dicks bar and don't mind having kids around, others want to have a pint without kids around. People will be disgruntled what ever the decision.
I don't mind having being in a bar/pub with kids around, as long as they are well behaved and quiet and not running around screaming. Our son comes to the pub and sits quietly and plays with whatever he's bought with him (books, lego, star wars figurines etc) and we've taught him not to bother others who have come in for a quiet pint. Problem is in all of this there are people who have children who run riot, are loud, rude and generally unpleasant, none of us want to have a drink with that sort of behaviour around so in the end all kids are not wlecome. Sad but true.
I don't want to drink in the company of people of ANY age, who are loud, rude or generally unpleasant.
Fair point, usually the ones with unpleasant children are fairly unpleasant themselves!