You're in a cinema and your kid starts kicking the back of the chair in front .....

[Lorenz]

Do you make them stop it or assume the people in front don't mind??

Or do you think if the people in front DO mind, they should move?

madame i have shouted "shut up" in the cinema before. i was getting so annoyed with all the other non-talkers tutting and sighing under their breaths.

Oh god. The constant dipping of hands into tubs of popcorn / sweet bags, the glowing mobile phone screens as people text, the talking all the way through, the kicking of seat backs as in the OP...

when did people become so oblivious to everybody else? One day I shall lose it, stand up and scream 'Why the flaming Nora can you not go for a couple of hours without shovelling food into your gobs and carrying on conversations?!' Then I will presumably be carted off, drooling, stage right.

I love seeing films on the big screen, I hate people. Huh.

Lorenz, why would you say: "And the constant trips to the shitter"

Is that what you call it?

Ooh, has this become a general 'ranting at cinema behaviour' thread? Excellent ...

I FUCKING HATE IT when people can't sit still and shut up. Yes, kids should be made to desist from kicking chairs/throwing sweets. And yes, grown-ups who should fecking know better anyway should not flash their phones, bring in and unwrap the wrappedest crinkliest sweets in Christendom, talk, or otherwise disrespect the film. (I am going to use that line from now on, MadamDeathStare!)

My friend once shouted 'Shut up!' very loudly at a couple of idiots talking and laughing through a film. I favour the icily-polite approach e.g. 'Would you please stop talking?' 'Thank you.'

I also recently hissed 'Switch your phone off!' right from my end of the row to the other at some ignorant mare who got it out and checked it every ten minutes. Not in a flashy splashy action movie where it matters a bit less, but in a lovely, artfully composed, slow, atmospheric indie.

Fer Christ's sake!

I call it the shitter if I'm angry. Bog otherwise.

I remember one cinema visit - family in front - woman would NOT up:

"Oh it's good this bit - oh no, not this bit - THIS BIT - in a minute --- HERE IT IS!"

"Who do you reckon killed her?" well that's why we're here, to find out you smug twat.

"aww it's him!" oh ffs SHUT IT

-----

You occasionally get the irritating little shit child that doesn't pay attention so is constantly asking what's going on:

"mummy, why is she sad?"
"her puppy died, remember?"
"[SHOCK] THE PUPPY DIED????"
"SSSSSHHHHHhhhhh! yes, a few minutes ago! now watch carefully or you'll miss things, see?"
"But WHY did it die?"
"Because it was ill, now shush"
"What was WRONG with it?"

FFS SHUT UP!!! BUY THE FOOKING DVD AND REWIND IT EVERY 5 MINUTES TO GET THE GIST BUT WHILST IN HERE, SHUT UP!!! JESUS H CHRIST

If your children were kicking the back of my chair in the cinema, you wouldn't be left in any doubt as to whether I minded or not.

OP you are right, it shouldn't have got to the point where you had to say something. Unfortunately, some people are seriously lacking in self awareness and manners.

Tell them to stop. If they don't and they are still pretty young, I'd take the child out for a wee warning. More kicking would result in going home - unless I had other children watching the film, in which case I'd take the child out to the foyer and wait.

I had it for a lovely football match (the slope of the seating meaning not only was it my chair being kicked, but the odd mis-kick was actually hitting the back of my neck. Turned around to see what was booting me in the back at 30 second intervals... gobful of abuse about how I was a "fucking mean old witch and he's only a fucking child so go fuck yourself you fat cow."

Was a fucking pleasant (and bloody expensive considering the cost of my season ticket) experience. These days I'd bloody complain to a steward and have the cuntish parents kicked out of the ground - back then I was a little less assertive.

Tell the child to stop or straight home! Act on your threat if they continue to kick the back of the chair.

The best one happened to us when I was little. We'd gone to see The Lion King with friends and some wet drip behind us kept asking "is he sleeping? Is he sleeping Mummy? MUMMY why is he SLEEPING?" at the point when the cub's Dad falls.

My friends Mum spins round and hisses "he's DEAD now be quiet"

Oh how we laughed.

PMSL Norfolk Sometimes you just need to tell it like it is!

That behaviour would invoke the "Death Stare" and one icy word, "Enough".

I could freeze the Odeon, no problem. DC's fear the Death Stare more than Nintendo going bust.

Of course you should make them stop or leave. I would be furious with mine. It is one of my bugbears in taxis, my children not keeping their bloody feet still behind the driver's seat. It's common courtesy not to allow your children to annoy people like this.

I rarely go to the cinema now due to other people's appalling manners, the revolting smell of popcorn and the constant slurping from the buckets of soft drinks. I would gladly pay double for the pleasure of watching in a snack and moron free zone. As for children kicking my seat, I would let the parent know such behaviour is unacceptable.

A girl sitting next to me kept checking her phone. I was too cowardly to say anything because she and her boyfriend looked a bit lairy.

The man sitting next to her boyfriend reached over him and took the phone saying: 'I might give it back to you at the end if you don't do anything else to annoy me.'

Her boyfriend thought about saying something but this was the type of man you wouldn't want to argue with.

As far as I understand it, the kicking, slurping, talking, phone stuff are all tactics designed to make you move away so that the kicking, slurping, talking, phoning folks can have the whole row to themselves. According to my teen DS2 this is common knowledge (he doesn't behave like this natch).

I once had the misfortune to be sitting behind a twit who was talking on his phone as the trailers were on.I thought he'd hang up once the film started,but no he carried on.

So I lent forward,grabbed his phone and said to the caller He's going to have to ring you back cause some of us want to watch the movie,and hung up.

He moved seats,lol.

I'd have made them stop when we went as a family but thankfully they're old enough to go without us these days. Personally I haven't been in donkeys thanks to the relentlessly boorish behaviour that seems to pass as normal these days.

Of course the people in front mind. If the mother is being so wet she can't stop it, I shall certainly turn round, freeze the DC with my icy stare and leave them in no doubt that I AM NOT HAVING IT. (and I am not moving seats)

We hardly ever go to the cinema. I would rather wait till the dvd comes up, buy it and have the luxury of watching it at home, curled up on the sofa with the DCs, without any interruptions from other people and their bratty kids. It's cheaper too - and if they like the film they've got it forever

I'm so glad that other people are REALLY bothered by bad manners in the cinema

it makes it worthwhile for me that

I waited till I knew they would be engrossed by the big screen

they are marched to the loo just before the film starts and we share a drink so there is no need for wee breaks

and any talking, kicking, wriggling annoyance and they are taken out. end of.

we took dd1 to the cinema when she was 9 for her birthday with her friends and I had her sisters 4 and 2 with me

they sat GLUED to the screen the whole time, barely even eating the sweets

I was still stressed cause I couldn't have known they were going to lol

If no one stops bad behaviour when young it is no surprise that you get so many noisy adults.

I went to the cinema in boston with my friend who lives out there.

A boy started kicking the back of her chair and she grabbed his ankle and said "don't do that, alright?" and that was that.

I wonder if that's the etiquette over there, you'd probably get spanked by the parent for that here.

I cannot stand it when people let their DCs run around the cinema. If your little darling is bored then take them home as it isn't actually a play park and other people have paid good money to see a film.