What is too young for the Cinema

[surveyor]

Have today been to see Cars 3 with the daughter (film not as good as 1 & 2 by the way).

Lots of young kids as can be expected, one or two not capable of sitting quietly which was mildly annoying.

However what really got my goat was the mother who brought a toddler in a pushchair. Predictably they got bored halfway through. For the remaining half we were treated to screaming. A bit of a chase around the theatre, in front of the scream. At one point she moved him round the corner (but still in the theatre) - could still be heard very clearly.

Now I'm being told that I'm being harsh and that it's allowed now to disrupt a show, and this is not selfish.

I think it's bks. When our daughter was this age we would have found other ways. Either one of us taking the older child, child sitters, with a mate etc...

Thoughts.?

[dudleybloke]

You can go when you can spell it.

[Roofless Toothless]

Last time I went to the cinema there were plenty of adults there who were not capable of sitting quietly. On the whole, the kids were better behaved.

[Robbo 27]

First time I took my daughter to the cinema she was four years old, we went in the afternoon.

The lights dimmed and she said, "Night night daddy" and went to sleep.

"No No wake up."

"Nightime Daddy, night night"

[Ki3r]

Robbo 27 said:

First time I took my daughter to the cinema she was four years old, we went in the afternoon.

The lights dimmed and she said, "Night night daddy" and went to sleep.

"No No wake up."

"Nightime Daddy, night night"

You paid £7-£10 for your daughter to sleep...bet that stung a bit!

[Eric Mc]

I've never been to a "Cinima". I must be too young.

[Cognoscenti]

I used to work for ODEON (best job I've had) There is no minimum age limit for a Cinema (except 12, 16 and 18... Yep, even a 1 month old child isn't allowed into a 18) Except the cost of popcorn, the most common complaint was noise or disruptiveness in the auditorium, and theres no exemptions for kids films (not everyone has kids, everyone has guilty pleasures!) If you had approached a member of staff they would have came in and observed for 10 minutes or so and if they felt the need would have asked them to keep it down or they would be asked to leave. 9/10 times on the secondary observation they would be asked to leave. Every major cinema has a 'parent and child' scheme where there are exemptions to the 'no noise' rules.

(p.s No we didn't feel guilty or shame for asking a mother and her child to leave a kids film)

[antspants]

No you're not being harsh or unreasonable.

Irrespective of age if your child is being noisy and can't be calmed down quickly you take them outside until they're ok to bring back in.

It's common courtesy not to disturb everybody else, which is unfortunately in short supply these days.

[David87]

I took my son to see Cars 3 (not as good as Cars, but better than Cars 2 ) as his first proper cinema experience a couple of weeks ago. He has just turned 3. We saw some awful Peppa Pig thing a few months ago, but I don't really count that as it wasn't a film and it was just full of dreadful children.

To minimise any chances of him doing what the OP is complaining about (as would I!), I armed myself with a small diecast Lightening McQueen, a tub of chocolate buttons and a bottle of apple juice to keep him quiet when the boredom inevitably set in. We also went to an Everyman cinema on a weekday morning so that it was quiet and he had a nice comfy sofa to sit next to me on, in case things got fidgety. I'm pleased to report that I got away with it and he happily sat through the whole thing, but I'll probably wait until next year before we go back and see something else, as without the aforementioned Distraction Pack, things could have been very different!

Edited by David87 on Sunday 30th July 23:31

[steveatesh]

Not the cinema but a meal out in a local restaurant a few months ago, in walked a family of Mam, dad and two children, one of whom must have been around three yrs old. The youngster proceeded to start screaming soon as she was put in her chair.

Parents played turns each trying to keep her calm but totally ineffective. They then put her on the floor and she proceeded to run round the floor, still screaming from time to time whilst they sat eating their meal.

Wasn't an enjoyable occasion!

[NDA]

steveatesh said:

Not the cinema but a meal out in a local restaurant a few months ago, in walked a family of Mam, dad and two children, one of whom must have been around three yrs old. The youngster proceeded to start screaming soon as she was put in her chair.

Parents played turns each trying to keep her calm but totally ineffective. They then put her on the floor and she proceeded to run round the floor, still screaming from time to time whilst they sat eating their meal.

Wasn't an enjoyable occasion!

Unfortunately we live in the 'entitled' age - which includes the cult of the toddler. It's deeply depressing to watch a single family dominate an entire restaurant with their screaming brats. I assume they can afford a night out, but not a babysitter.

[bicycleshorts]

Ki3r said:

You paid £7-£10 for your daughter to sleep...bet that stung a bit!

Here speaks a man with no kids. I'd happily pay triple that sometimes

[ecsrobin]

I stopped visiting the cinema years ago as the other cinema goers annoy me, it really isn’t hard to sit through a few hours of silence and limited popcorn noise.

The better half dragged me to see the jungle book last year, we picked a 2100 Sunday showing expecting it to be quiet and it was, about 20 people.

Got to our seats and some teens are in them. “These are our seats”, “we wanted to sit with our mates” so rather than kick off as it was looking empty we moved to the row behind. Adverts started playing and the late arrivals arrived.

It appeared we were in their seats but rather than ask us to move went and got an assistant. He moved us out put the couple in them seats and then put us in the premium seats. Result!

Except behind us were 2 ladies who were clearly having their weekly catch up during the film! Then I kept seeing a white light behind me, looked round and there was a new born baby having photos taken with mum and them saying how they’ll put the photos on Facebook as his first cinema trip!!!

He then proceeded to start crying and rather than leave they decided to try and sort him out in the theatre.

So after that saga I do not step foot in cinemas.

Some cinemas do run relaxed performances at weekends at a cheaper price, the one near us does provide bean bags for the kids.

[DanielSan]

Saturday late showings are the key, no kids and usually not many adults. Perfect.

[P-Jay]

I take mine to the Saturday morning kids showings, it's crazy. About half way through there’s usually a pile of them playing about at the front, some playing about in their seats – lots of noise – but it’s a Cinema it’s not like you can’t hear the film, it’s very loud.
Cars 3, a near 2 hour film for small children. Small children don’t have a near two hour attention span for anything.

[Roofless Toothless]

Some months back I visited my elder son's family up in Northumbria, and we took my grand daughters to see Beauty and the Beast. It was unbelievably loud. The place was vibrating with the noise and it totally overwhelmed my hearing aids. I turned them down as far as I could go and still too much. In the end I took both out and pocketed them, and I could actually hear the film very well after that. I am very, very hard of hearing.

Coupled with that is a spectacularly fast moving film on a screen that is too large and too close for the size of the audorium. It was one of these multi-screen places with little cinemas everywhere.

I came out feeling like I was travel sick. Half an hour with the Red Arrows couldn't be worse. Am I just too old for this kind of thing now, or is the cinema industry deliberately aiming at sensory overload to fight off the challenge of small screen portable media?

[Sheets Tabuer]

Bloody kids.

I really wanted to see the last star wars film and no one I knew would go with me so I thought balls to it I'll go on my day off, now the thought never occurred to me that going to see star wars on a Wednesday lunchtime during the school holidays would be a problem.

I walked in paid and took my seat, a group of kids walked in followed by another and another, soon the cinema was full of 10 year olds and I tell you as a 44 male on my own in this sea of lynx and hair gel it was really quite off putting.

[Rutter]

My wife has taken our 5 month old to the cinema about 5 or 6 times in the last few months.

I must add that she takes him to "cinebabies" which is a showing tailored to parents with infants, the lights are left on just enough and the volume is turned down. seems quite popular with the local mums.

[louiebaby]

We took our two-and-a-half and four-and-three-quarters year old boys on Saturday lunchtime to the Paw Patrol thing.

It was pretty quiet, reduced prices, and the boys stayed awake. The eldest got scared of anything really easy, the youngest just sat and watched. It was fine at 1h05 long, just about right.

The trailer for Nut Job 2 looked funny, but we'll stick to watching feature length stuff at home. 2 hours is way too long for them.

[BoRED S2upid]

You need to go to the most expensive cinema you can find. All the chavs who can't control their kids will be in the Odeon. Last time we took little BS2 to see 50 minutes of Peppa Pig he was rightly bored after 30 mins so I took him out.