To think children should be made to behave in a theatre?

I take my son (with SEN) to the "relaxed performance" of our local pantomime.
I don't need to worry about him not sitting still then as none of the kids have the attention span to sit still for that long.
Of course I still supervise him constantly throughout and if he had a meltdown I would take him out (even in an SEN friendly performance).

Are you sure this wasn't a SEN friendly performance of the pantomime?
That would explain why none of the children were sitting still.
It just seems a bit unusual that it was ALL the children.

This is not acceptable and they should have been told to leave. Am dram or professional, the same behaviour expectations stand.

These were year 4 children BTW.

Ex teacher also. I remember the school trips to the annual local panto and the kids there were well behaved. Once, due to staff shortages, about four parents were invited to come along to help supervise. Those four parents' children were the worst behaved in the entire theatre.

Exactly as you describe, OP, running to the front shouting and screaming at the actors, running up and down the steps, standing on their seats and generally causing a huge disturbance. The parents did absolutely fuck all and after having to step in for the fifth or sixth time, one of them loudly exclaimed that their kid was just having fun and said I was 'bullying them'.

The TA eventually managed to take out the worst behaved to sit in lobby but a other of the parents followed and took their kid back inside.

Another's ex teacher - for a reason.

I'm not a rubber chicken

Have taken my kids since they were small and they know how to behave they are 10 and 13. That said I had to ask a teenager maybe 16 who sat next to me at the ballet to please stop eating Pringles during a performance two weeks ago. It was a Christmas Carol - there were 3 acts which only 30 mins long with 20 mins intervals in between yet he only ate during the performance. Lots of kids in the audience really well behaved. By the second act I lost it and asked him to wait to the interval to eat. But I have never seen anything like you are describing except once at a cinema screening of Frozen 2 where the kids were dancing in front of the screen blocking everyone's view. I got an usher who told them to sit down. I'm mean and horrible

I've never seen it. My own kids did used to respond to the questions, though. Are these children very tiny?

I'd have expected a refund for that as the theatre didn't act

A Christmas Musical Show. Not cheap.

My kids are older so thankfully don't go to these performances anymore. But yes, some behaviour was terrible. If your child is screaming or behaving badly, take them out the damn theatre! Why should everyone else that has paid have to put up with it. And don't get me started on parents taking babies! I've seen newborns at performances. Unbelievable.

Can you actually imagine doing that in the 80s you wouldn’t have been able to sit down for a week your arse would’ve been so sore
Even in the 2000s mine would absolutely have been taken home at the first hint of that nonsense

I went to a 6pm showing of Wicked last night at the cinema. There were kids running up and down the aisle the entire way through, I was furious! It is not normal behaviour at all to act that way in a theatre of any kind. If they can’t sit still then you don’t take them until they can!

Awful parents raising awful children, and it won't be long before people come along to start mitigating the behaviour.

I’ve not seen this and we go to all sorts though not pantomimes since they were a lot younger as neither like them. I’ve taken my two regularly since they were about 5/7 to all sorts (musicals, plays, ballet/dance, concerts etc). I think you expect some level of noise/moving about if it’s a performance aimed at kids and with a lot of younger ones but even with that I’d expect parents to intervene well before anyone tries to climb on the stage. Even at things like the Julia Donaldson shows when kids were tiny we didn’t see that.

Sadly doesn't surprise me. Mine would never be allowed to do this.

Earlier in the week, I went into school during the day to see my DD sing with her class.
There was a little girl of perhaps 4 in the audience with her dad, sat in the second row. He allowed her to push through the parents sat in front to stand in front of the audience and parade around and dance to all the music. She was getting in the way of the parents trying to record/take photos. Her dad was totally clueless.

Seriously? What kind of performance?

Were these families told to leave?
That behaviour sounds unbelievably extreme.
I can't believe the theatre (or whoever was in charge as you said it was an amateur production) let it happen without chucking these people out.

@Sziasztok utterly shocked at this!! I have taken grandkids to theatre for many years and never saw this kind of behavior from any child! what are the parents thinking of???

Totally agree , it is shocking how some parents allow their kids to behave in public . It is no wonder that the teachers have such problems in some schools as there appear to be numerous children now who are raised with no boundaries or rules at all .

Yes. People don't behave properly in public any more so many children aren't witnessing appropriate behaviour. Even some adults can't conduct themselves politely in a theatre.
The school brought us to a children's play for a treat when we were about 10. The expectation of no noise, no messing about and respect for the cast/venue was made clear. There was a big bag of sweets passed down the line twice and that was it. A few of the boys threw their sweets at each other and were immediately removed from main group to sit beside the teachers.
It shocks me how some kids are allowed to behave these days, and I'm only early 40s.

Yanbu.

However, it isn’t just children. I went to the theatre last weekend and a large group of adults talked, whooped and play fought each other through the whole performance.

Other people were telling them to STFU but they didn’t care. An usher threatened them with security but nothing happened when they continued.

I would say the average age of the group was 45, and the ringleader was a woman of about 70.

Sadly not surprising. I can’t believe people just stood by when their kids were climbing on stage - totally disgraceful parenting (and yeah, I am judging).

I dint understand parents like this. Awful parenting.

I thought you were gonna say that some kids were making a bit of noise or something. This is insane. My DD is autistic so does get a bit excited and overwhelmed but I would still be sitting with her and trying to manage her behaviour during performance like this 😳

I agree.

5 years ago this sort of behaviour would have shocked me, now i'm shocked if I don't encounter it.