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?

Not a cinema story, but some woman once threatened to beat me up because i moved seats on a train after her child (who was standing on his seat and leaning over the back of mine) sneezed in my hair. She then spent the rest of the journey phoning everyone she knew to tell them what I'd done.

I was tempted to chuck her phone out of the train window but she had a 20 stone weight advantage so I didn't risk it.

Heidi - you should have stood up too and blocked their view ...

One kick, one warning, two kicks, leave cinema - that's what we do.

Although a small part of me thinks that if you are watching a film suitable for my 2 year old, you've got to expect to have your seat kicked once and hear my hissed threat....

Glad to see its none of you on here, and it's always "the others"

Ah yes, MadamDeathstare, going to the cinema in the Caribbean is a whole other experience I was completely astonished the first time I witnessed the audience engaging in conversation with the characters on the screen, shouting out warnings, sucking their teeth and commenting disapprovingly... dp is from Jamaica, where apparently it is not unheard of for young men to whip out their guns and join in during the shootout scenes...

I hate people on planes who let their child play peek-a-boo with you.

I'm happy to play along for five minutes, but not for the whole flight. If I wanted to be a children's entertainer I'd wear a checked suit and charge a fortune.

And people who haul themselves out of the seat behind using my head rest.

KatieScarlet- you made me snort with "DC's fear the Death Stare more than Nintendo going bust."

Brilliant!

I did come across someone on another forum who said she talked at the cinema because going to the cinema with her friends was socializing and she couldn't see anything wrong with it.

Shame on her!

StyleandBooty, it wouldn't have made a difference, they were standing in the aisle beside me not right in front of me IYSWIM, if they wanted to stand why buy seats in the seated section though .

Quite agree with everyone. Can't stand being kicked and also having to get up for loo stops. Which is probably why the DSs will be 21 a lot older than 5 before we take them as DS1 is so unreliable. At the moment we have to stop a DVD at least twice - sometimes more!

DS2 hasnt been to the cinema yet at 3, as I would not be able to control him at all.

He has been to the theatre though. In fact yesterday he went, and was good as gold (kids interaction theatre thing). DS1 (5) however spent the whole beginning throwing himself back in his seat so the whole row wobbled until he realised me saying "stop it" at increasing decibels was rather annoying and embarrasing.

I always pick end aisle seats. Theatre and cinema. I pick the row in the cinema for DS1 which has a barrier in front of it instead of a row of seats - he can fidget as much as he wants then. Its all in the planning

And I have been one of those annoying mums with a mobile in a cinema. Mainly when it the first time I had left the kids overnight and DS2 had a meltdown so I had to come out of the screening to speak to him on the phone, and then panicked checking my phone every 10 minutes. Am better now though

My DS was kicking the back of a ladies chair once and I didn't notice. She turned round and said to me very nicely "please ask him to stop" Which I did and he stopped but I was mortified! He never did again thankfully.

When DCs were little I took them to see the lovely Dave Benson Phillips. There were two ladies with a group of little ones (but older than mine) in front of us. One of the little girls kept getting up and walking back and forth so blocking our view and the women were busy chatting about the Brad Pitt film they saw last night. I had a go but they couldn't see what was wrong and said the girl was only little (about 4 or 5) and couldn't be expected to sit still. The fact the rest of the theatre was full of lots of little ones sitting engrossed seemed to bypass them.

The worst was when I took dcs to see a small outdoor version of treasure island. The children sat on the floor at the front and most of the adults sat on chairs. One girl got up every 10 minutes and went back to her mum either to get sweets or a drink. She was actually walking across the stage at some points.

This happened to us once. I said we would be moving to the row behind them (having checked it was free). It stopped.

you tell the child to stop.