to wonder why you would attend if your going to talk ALL the way through!

[TakeMeDrunkImHome]

So it was the Year 6 leavers play tonight. It was bloody brilliant, a kids/toned down take on the Rocky Horror Show. Really funny .

2 rows in front of us were 3 adults. Who talked...all...the...way...through. Did NOT whisper. Talked. About their highlights, the bin collections, the latest offers in Sainsburys, it never stopped. Headteacher was firing his best evils and I was seething but tbh did nothing. I know I would have been effed and blinded at if I had said anything.

Why attend if they just plan on sitting there talking the whole time? It put off the more nervous on stage kids who fumbled their words every time they had to shout over this ignorant aholes. Grrr.

This was a definite opportunity to use the sssssh-glare-tut technique.

Ooo if I'd have been there, I tell ya.

I've perfected the sssssh-glare-tut already!

They were the type of people (awaits being jumped on but it was true) who have told me to effff orf.

I've just been to a school musical and all the parents, even the rough-arse ones like me, were totally into the production and were supporting the cast and would have stamped on anyone who tried to talk through it.

As the culprits were a few rows away, I would have stood up and directed a few polite words in their direction - 'excuse me, would you please stop talking as we can't hear at the back'.

I'm surprised that no parents took the bull by the horns, and astounded that school staff were mute in the face of such rudeness.

That wouldn't have deterred me as I also have a reserve of less than polite phrases to call on in an emergency

I'm surprised no one said anything. I do allow for a certain amount of talking at things like this, but if it went on for a large part of the event I couldn't help but say something (politely) in the hope that's all it took.

I've been sworn at many, many times with this attitude, most recently in the cinema where a perfectly lovely looking young couple decided to continue to talk after the trailers had finished right into the start of the movie for a good 10 minutes. The woman had such a foul reaction to my (I thought veyr polite) "can you be quiet please" I ended up threatening to go and get one of the cinema staff. She quietened down - but really, I'm constantly amazed that people think they aren't in the wrong in these cases. Utterly mad!

It annoys me so much when adults cannot behave and yet children are expected to, what a terrible example to set.
We have to do rota duties in DDs playgroup, go in to help out every 4 weeks or so, and there are a couple of the mums who every single time I have been on duty with them continually want to chat shit all morning, all through registration, all through prayers, all through everything, and yet there are 20 three year olds trying very hard to keep quiet and well behaved.
OP I hope it didn't put the actors off too much, sounds wonderful idea for leavers do.

Our ds had his little graduation from preschool last weekend. Each child walked up to the stage and one of the 'aunties' said a little speech for each child. All very lovely and by no means did it go on a longtime, but, again there were a group bf mothers that talked the WHOLE way through. Incredibly rude. How did they think that that was ok?

I had this in one of my modules at university. There was a group of girls who were normally in different modules but were all together in this particular module. They were always talking the whole way through the lectures but normally they were far enough away for me to still be able to concentrate on what the lecturer was saying. One day they were sitting right in front of me and I was finding it almost impossible to listen to the lecturer and I got so fed up that I ended up shouting at them something along the lines of "if you're going to spend the whole lecture talking about shoes and make up then do it somewhere else so that you're not preventing the rest of us from learning" (there were probably a few expletives in there). The lecturer just waited for me to finish and continued the lecture without a word and the girls didn't chat for the rest of the module.

Headteacher was firing his best evils and I was seething but tbh did nothing. I know I would have been effed and blinded at if I had said anything.

If I'd have been there I would have told them to stfu. I also would have been asking the Head after why he did not say anything instead of sitting there 'firing his best evils' leaving his students to speak over them. It's his job to put his pupils first, if he cant stand up for them when needed he's in the wrong job.

I wouldnt have sworn by the way but you get my meaning

I work in the theatre and I can tell you that talking during live performances is becoming an epidemic.
People have become total morons at live events because they just don't get out enough these days.
They aren't theatre literate and don't understand that they are in a social situation and not in their fucking living rooms.
It constantly amazes me that people are too stupid to turn their bloody mobile phones off and just shuttup for a couple of hours. I took my son to a show last month as was flanked on both sides by men texting all the way through.
Cretins.

Hope the kids enjoyed doing Rocky - it is always a winner.

queenstromba Well done

As a lecturer I often tell them to be quiet or get out.

Or the more condescending 'I expect to tell my two year old not to speak when others are speaking but not supposed adults'

As a supply teacher, it amazes me how often classroom helpers (not just parents, but people who are childcare professionals and really should 'get' what's going on) will sit and chat while I'm trying to get the kids to be quiet so that we can actually teach them something. Why should the kids bother to shut up if the adults can't manage it?? It's so rude, not just to me, but shows utter contempt to the children. I use my big voice and say 'Could EVERYONE be quiet please', looking pointedly in the direction of the adult huddle, but even that doesn't work with some.

I am that the HT didn't do anything. He should have asked them to be quiet or leave after the first five minutes. By not reacting he sent the message to the children that those parents were more important than all their hard work.

I also feel for the child/children of the people who were talking- I expect they were mortified.

I think schools can be quite weak about this. I go to a few school events (because I get invited as the clerk to governors). I wish someone would just stand up at the front and ask everyone to switch off their mobiles, mention that includes not texting or playing games, and politely point out that a lot of work has gone into preparing, and most parents are really looking forward to it, so obviously it will be expected that the audience will refrain from chatting.
Very effective is to be brave enough to do what one Head did at a leaver's assembly. After glaring several times at three nattering mums she gave out a prize, then instead of calling the next child up she just went silent. Then she waited, gazing into the hall, until the only thing that could be heard was these three wittering on...

Lucyinthepie Love it! Classic teaching tool. Dh and I went to dd's secondary school induction evening. Two women behind us talked and talked and talked. When the Head of Year 7 stood up, one of them said, "ooh innee lush?" and her friend giggled and said "behave yourself". WTAF?! Dh turned round and said "Please! I can't hear a word". They shut up but gave him the evil eye when we left. Stupid bints. Why bother turning up?

We had the school summer festival & some patents really let their children down. The school has a photo only no video policy & this was stated at the beginning if the show but teachers had to come over several times, some parents thought it was a good idea to scream 'Go X' the whole way through their childs classes dance which was off putting & annoying & then you had the chatters as OP says talking about everything. I have to say after numerous parents politely shucking them, the head asking them to be quiet on the microphone & teachers coming over I did turn around give a death stare & calmly hiss 'Will you shut the f* up' which happily worked. Guess sometimes rude needs rude?!?

Sorry for dodgy spelling, blame the phone!