Originally Posted by
patski
I doubt that you can legally do that. It would be discrimination. I just think if a child is present the parent needs to keep the kid with them at ALL times.
I disagree.
Discrimination would only apply if the child/other person was wanting to participate.
Our longarm group has two requirements - that you live within the state of SC, and that you "quilt on rails", meaning your machine can be a longarm/mid-arm/DSM on a frame.
That's not discrimination, that's defining the group's parameters.
Back to the original post...
There is a point of just plain common courtesy. Even within my LA group, we have a couple of people who have "side conversations" that are disruptive to the rest of the group. That's just plain RUDE!!
While I sympathize with those women with small children wanting to get out of the house and socialize with other quilters, that doesn't mean they need to inflict rowdy children on everyone else. Again, that's just RUDE!!
As someone else commented, "Dad" would not bring the kiddos along on his golf time.
When my daughter was younger (11 or 12 or so), I brought her to the guild meetings with me. Not because I didn't have a "sitter", but because she was interested and wanted to see other people who were quilting, and not just "Mom".
You will need to make some kind of generic "announcement", taking particular care not to "point fingers" but still making it crystal clear that this time together has specific intentions, and is not just a "general get-together" social time.
Hopefully, the mother's will be more considerate about not bringing children who have no interest in quilting.
As a side note about the age of interest for kids in quilting.... I personally began my interest at 4 years old. My kids (daughter AND son) both took an interest at around age 6... including the fact that since my hand-quilting frame was in the livingroom, neighborhood kids would tromp through the house, and seeing the frame, say "What's that?" Both my daughter and my son would show off "how to quilt". At one point, there were 4 little boys (about 7 years old) lined up in front of the frame, stitching. That quilt is well-used, and well-loved, even though some of the stitches are an inch long.
I think if you put the quilt out there, without being critical of the "quality" of the work, the sheer curiosity inherent in children will have them stitching.