Dad's outrage after spotting parents treating playground like 'f****** pub garden'

A furious dad has hit out at parents who drink in children’s playgrounds - claiming they are ruining "safe spaces". Matt Dunford, 50, said of the issue: “This is a children’s playground, not a f*****g pub garden.”

It was the first warm, sunny weekend of the year in his home town of , Kent, but many adults were pushing kids on swings with a beer in their other hand. Matt was in the town’s Grove Park, not far from the Compasses on Friday, had taken his son to play on the swings and slides at the weekend when he was confronted by dozens of parents drinking.

The dad, who became later in life and now helps others do the same, said the behaviour took away other parents’ choice to keep their little ones protected from the scourge of alcohol. Matt fumed: “You want a drink? Go to the pub garden. That’s your space. But a children’s playground? No. That space should be safe! Some of us are out here trying to model something different. Trying to raise kids who don’t associate swings and slides with the smell of lager.

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“Trying to break cycles that ruined childhoods. But we can’t do that when you bring your six-pack to the playground and act like it’s all good, normal. Only in the UK do we protect alcohol more than we protect our kids.

"We don’t talk about it because too many of us are part of it. We are failing our kids by pretending this is normal. We are failing ourselves by refusing to question it. And we are part of the problem if we stay silent.”

He said kids ranging from toddlers up to age 12 were being forced to watch adults necking drinks while they played with them. But he said he didn’t pull anyone up on it as he didn’t want “some half cut mum or dad” arguing with him.

In a post post read by 80,000 people, Matt - who owns a coffee shop in the Kent town - said: “I was in Grove Park this afternoon with my son, and it was absolutely packed with kids having a great time. Sunny , families out - it should have been a brilliant vibe. But what really threw me was the number of parents openly drinking alcohol in the playground.

“Pints of lager and Pimm’s brought up from The Compasses, tins from Sainsbury’s… all while pushing their kids on swings. Look, I’m not anti-alcohol. If you want to have a drink in a pub garden with your children, that’s your choice. But bringing alcohol into a public children’s playground crosses a line.

“It changes the environment for everyone and not all of us want our kids associating playtime with drinking. It’s not about being uptight. It’s about basic respect for a shared public space designed for children, not for casual day drinking. It felt more like a pub spill-out zone than a place for families. Is Grove Park even in an alcohol control zone? It probably should be.”

But his post has caused a stir, with one agreeing: “You’re spot on - a children’s play space is no place for boozing". Another said: “Yep, it’s a public space provided for small children to play while being supervised, so drinking alcohol in it should be prohibited…common sense really!! How is that even up for debate?”

However, others feel the presence of alcohol was not a big deal, with one person commenting: “I’m an 80’s baby, I fell asleep on pub chairs, with piles of coats placed on me, for dinner…Coca Cola from a glass bottle, and a pack of pork scratchings. Birthdays, they consisted of a bouncy castle in a hall surrounded by parents drinking and smoking around the edge of the hall.

“I’m a mother of two incredibly driven children. Myself, a successful self employed business woman and amateur boxer. And if I could choose to have that childhood back, of the pubs, the parties, running about with my mates whilst our parents took the laid back parenting approach, I am all for it, and I’m sure most 80’s babies on here would agree, live, and let live.”

The number of children in England with parents who misuse alcohol remains consistently high, with more than 70,000 cases recorded each year by the NSPCC since 2019/20. A study conducted by the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACOA) of 4,000 respondents estimates there are 3 million children in the UK living with parents who have alcohol problems.

The research suggests youngsters are six times as likely to witness domestic violence, five times as likely to develop an eating problem, three times as likely to consider suicide, twice as likely to experience difficulties at school and twice as likely to develop alcoholism or addiction themselves.