A PUB manager sparked a lively debate after complaining about badly behaved children visiting her business.

Caroline Roylance, manager of The George in Fordingbridge, said dealing with parents and children is becoming “more and more difficult.”

And she expressed fears that a child could be hurt if allowed to crawl or wander around the pub unsupervised when staff are carrying hot food and glasses.

In a Facebook post at the weekend she referred to two ladies with toddlers who had visited the pub restaurant that day.

She said: “One of the toddlers was continually crawling round the restaurant and into the bar area. On more than one occasion the child was out of sight of the table.

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“We asked the lady once to keep her child at the table as we were very busy and people were tripping over the child while carrying hot food. She said she would try.

“As she was leaving she angrily told us that we had ruined her lunch and that we should have asked her if she had slept last night before asking her to keep her child at the table.”

The comments prompted a lengthy debate with more than 150 people taking part.

Many agreed with her and Janice Wright said: “It’s a pub, not a child care service. If you can’t be bothered controlling your child go to somewhere which gives a safe area for children to roam.”

Caroline Deardon said: “If folks can’t keep their children sat down and behaving in a restaurant they shouldn’t take them out.

“If they are unruly and a handful it’s up to you to sort them out, not inflict them on other people.”

And Paula Mantle added: “All the people in there want to enjoy their meal, not babysit your child because you can’t be bothered to get up and stop them crawling about on the floor.”

But Jackie Davison said: “Sounds like a bit of empathy could have gone a long way.”

Joanna Gartside agreed with her and said: “As a first time mum this makes me feel like I never want to go out to a pub again for risk of public shaming.”