Heaventree's post got me thinking. I can not understand people who bring their infant children to a movie theater. I always feel so bad for the baby when the lights go down and they get scared either by the darkness or the loud noises from the movie. I just don't get it. Before I became a parent it would annoy the hell out of me but now as a parent I just want to smack the parent. I totally understand if you can not find or afford a babysitter but do what we have done in the past and not go.

By Jackie on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 06:16 am:

I have brought my kids to theatres when they were infants. Actually that is the easiest time to bring them. I do not bring Faith anymore, as she is 22 months old. She wont sit long, and one of us would have to chase her around, so we dont go to movies as a family anymore. When Faith was an infant, it was so easy to go to a movie as a family, as she would sleep the whole time, or if she was awake one of us would hold her and she was quiet. She never got scared or cried in the theatre. We dont use babysitters, so now we never go as a family anymore because of Faith. Sometimes I take the older 2 kids to a movie, while my husband stays home with Faith.

By Insaneusmcwife on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 07:40 am:

I have always brought my kids to the movies and never had a problem with them. From the time they were tiny infants to now. They never got scared and if they cried it was only for a brief second because they were hungry. Only once did I have to take my ds out of the theater and thats because he needed to be changed. I think the kids that get scared are the ones that have the parents that tip toe around the baby when the baby is brought home. You know the kind that keeps the house completly quiet at all times when the baby is sleeping, never runs the vacume for fear it will scare the baby. Not me my house was never quiet. I would vacume while they slept, had my radio up loud while I was cleaning and at a tolerable level when I wasn't. We always had people over. There was/is always noise at our house.

By Kiki on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 03:18 pm:

Kristie,

I share your belief in not tiptoeing around a baby. I have never done that. I don't have an issue with parents who bring their babies to movie theaters that are okay with it like your children and Jackie's. I am referring to the parents who will sit there with their baby screaming throughout the movie and do nothing. That bugs the crap out of me. Just like the idiot who talks loudly on his/her cell phone during the movie.

By Hol on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 03:47 pm:

The last time DS and I went to the movies, they had those advertisements on the screen before the previews. I saw SOMETHING about a "family movie night" where you could bring babies. I don't know what it is about. Maybe they take one theater in the multiplex and have a showing for parents with small kids. It said to "ask the management for more details". I didn't, because it didn't pertain to me. MY DD and her hubby ARE the type who "shush" everyone when they enter the house when their 18 month old is sleeping (they have since they brought her home from the hospital), so they would never take her to a movie anyway. (DD and her siblings sure weren't raised like that. We were a military family on the move. They could sleep anywhere!) .
I guess the family night is a good thing, from a business standpoint. Making it easier for families of little kids to go to the movies opens up a whole new demographic. This was the Showcase movie chain.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 05:04 pm:

I didn't tiptoe around my babies. I remember Sarah being sound asleep on the living room floor and I was playing my piano, in the same room. She wasn't at all phased!

By Nicki on Saturday, July 8, 2006 - 05:08 pm:

I agree with you, Kiki. If a baby is clearly upset by the loud noises or other effects in a movie theatre, that little one should not be there. We were viewing "Cars" with our three year old last week. A young mom was behind us with a toddler girl and an infant. The poor baby would no sooner drift off to sleep when the volume of the movie would go up and wake her. She sounded so frightened. Added to that, we were sitting near the very back of the theatre where my DH and I noticed it was so much warmer and not terribly comfortable. This mom was there without another adult to help her, so she was not able to leave when the baby would wake, as the little girl didn't want to miss the movie. So I know I was very distracted throughout the film, worried about this little baby.

I have read that a baby's hearing is more sensitive than an adults. And a good way to tell if something is too loud for them is whether or not an adult is able to speak easily above the sound. (It's my thinking that perhaps the volume is high at the movies because people are talking and they hope to drown that out.) And I believe babies are as unique as adults. They are born with different thresholds for noise. Some are more sensitive than others. I guess I feel strongly about this because I am one of those adults! I am put off by the volume of many things these days. And I can tell you for certain, my mom did plenty of vacuuming when I was napping as a baby! Some of us are just more sensitive than others.

By Insaneusmcwife on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 09:00 am:

Since we are on the subject of what annoys us in the movies...ya know what really annoys me, the parents that let their older kids sit where they want and do what they want. Like playing with a lazer pointer, throwing popcorn and getting up and down a million times during the movie. Or worse they drop them off as if the theater is a babysitting service. Or even worse that, on the base we stand for the National Anthem before every movie. You are to put down your refreshments and stand at attention or if you are not in the military your hand should go over your heart and you should be standing still. I see more and more kids being rude and disrespectful during this, dancing around, eating and throwing popcorn, sitting. And is doesn't suprise me as I see a lot of the spouses not standing as well. I tell you what my ds only messed around once during the Anthem and afterwards my dh grabbed his arm and escorted him to the bathroom. Needless to say he has never done it again.

By Mrsheidi on Sunday, July 9, 2006 - 12:58 pm:

I feel that, if you can afford to go to the movies, then you can afford a babysitter.

I've never brought Connor into a movie theater and I don't plan on going with him until he's about 3. I pay a babysitter to watch him while I take my mother every other week.
I hate it when they bring toddlers to inappropriate rated R movies. I had that happen once and I never glared so hard at a person in my life.

By Paulas on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 02:18 am:

When DS was about 3, maybe 4, we took him to see a movie (Tarzan, I think) and the music was too loud. He screamed. We ended up leaving right away. They even refunded our money

By Dawnk777 on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 09:27 am:

We took Sarah to see Beauty and the Beast, when she was 2. She loved it. I was the one with problems, since I was 6 months pregnant with Emily and had to leave once, to go to the bathroom!

By Luvn29 on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:12 am:

We had to leave Tarzan, too. Emily had gone to other movies and loved them, but she couldn't handle Tarzan. It was extra loud, and the beginning was too emotional for her, I think, with it showing the parents had been killed and the baby was there alone.

By Nicki on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 01:24 pm:

Can you believe how many children's movies have the theme of mom getting killed, or worse yet both parents? I'm sure we could come up with quite the list. I don't understand what the writers are thinking. I'm getting to the point where I read the parent's reviews before letting Lara view any movie. Sometimes I feel old fashioned, but some of the Disney movies, even the ones I grew up with, don't seem appropriate for young children.

By Breann on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 01:50 pm:

We've taken our kids to the movies since they were infants. If they cried, we of course took them out as to not interupt the movie for others.

Taking them from such a young age really helped them to learn the proper behavior for a movie. I talk to parents who have 4 and 5 year olds that have never been to a movie, and they won't take them because they are afraid of how they will behave and they worry that they won't sit through the movie, or that they will be scared of the sounds, etc.

Taking our kids since they were babies has been a positive experience for us.

By Melanie on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 10:41 pm:

ROFL Heidi. You glared at her? You big bully! LOL. Sorry, I just have a visual of you in a dark movie theater glaring at a woman three rows in front of you...not all that intimidating. ;)

I never brought our kids to the the theater as babies but we had friends who did and whatever. To each their own. I certainly wouldn't want to be in a theater with a crying baby and wouldn't risk that scenario with my own kids. We took our oldest two to see Monster Inc a few years back and had to leave the theater very early in the film because our then five year old was terrified that "Boo" got lost and couldn't find her way back to her room. Who knew. LOL. I took our five year old dd to see Pirates of the Carribean the other day and she loved it. I've given up trying to guess what will scare which kid. LOL.

As long as we are on pet peeves in theaters, I will share mine. I hate popcorn. The first twenty minutes of the film all I hear is *crunch crunch crunch*. Drives me nuts. Of course, the crunching is always coming from dh and the three kiddos, so what is a popcorn hating mom to do??

By Mrsheidi on Monday, July 10, 2006 - 11:42 pm:

Melanie, I purposefully turned around and looked at the baby and then at the mother and, yes, glared. I can pull off some of the greatest facial expressions and let people know exactly how I feel. She didn't say a word but I know I got my point across.

I've actually told off many people at movie theatres. Mostly teenagers who are talking really loud or being plain obnoxious. I actually have words to say and I have no problem saying them. I guess teaching high school for 5 years does that to a person. With adults, I'm usually more subtle. Teenagers don't understand just "a look". You have to say it or they'll ignore it.