to be confused why children cannot go for 35 minutes without food

[PrincessScrumpy]

I left dtds at home with dh and took dd1 for a treat to the theatre - Charlie and Lola. She loved it and each side if the interval was about 35mins. From start to finish, the 2 families in front of us passed sweets up and down the row. I just don't get it - the theatre isn't the cinema with popcorn, but I understand some dc may need the odd chocolate button as a bribe, but my dd sat and watched the show, then had ice cream in the interval. tbh I think the kids infront would have been fine without food but their mothers insisted on them having it. I just think it's unnecessary and bad etiquette but I'm probably a grumpy old woman.

wordfactory, don't you get a dinner break in that particular production of Gatsby? Are you going? I'd love to hear what it's like.

Is this the new parenting social divide? Parents who let their children eat sweets during a performance and parents who make their children wait until the interval?

So is the typical Charlie and Lola audience generally quiet enough that the performers would be distracted by someone eating sweets?

wordfactory do you mean at Charlie and Lola or at other theatres?

There was no sweets and drinks on sale at the Charlie and Lola show I went to, they just brought round a sweets/drinks/icecream trolley during the break.
And the other theatres I've been to, they don't sell sweets, icecream etc, apart from during the break.
It's only at cinemas I've seen sweets on sale all the time.

Oh just generally. I haven't seen Charlie and Lola .

I think there is a big difference between a child unwrapping a boiled sweet and eating it and opening up crisp packets and munching loudly. The latter would be very irritating to others trying to watch the show.

I have never been to a theatre which doesn't have a kiosk selling boxes of overpriced sweets

It is good wordfactory even I enjoyed it. ITNG on the other hand...shudder.

Kids that want to eat all the time annoy me, and their parents annoy me more.

Someone I know has 3 kids aged 13,8 and 5, and she takes a massive carrier bag of food with her when she goes out as the kids literally never stop eating. She never tells them to wait for their tea or to go and play instead of eating. They are obsessed with food.

YANBU

Don't say that choceyes, I have up endure that in August. There again if I can survive peppa pig live I can survive anything surely?

longs for day when she can take DS to enjoyable shows

That wasn't meant to be in bold, never mind!

Depends on the theatre I guess. If it was a noisy musical and a massive venue then people eating wouldn't be noticable. But in a small venue with a quieter play, then rustling of packets would be very noticable.

At £9.50 EACH for one of those mini-bottle of wine the last time I went to the theatre a) damn tooting I took it into the performance with me to finish up and b) damn tooting I'll be taking a bottle of my own in next time.

If you aren't meant to eat sweets at the theatre why are they always for sale in the foyer pre-show?

Why do they sell condoms in the ladies lav in my local pub? Am I supposed to be having sex in the loo?

Just because something is sold in a place doesn't mean you use the item in the same place

What an odd comparison!!

Why else do they sell sweets then if they don't want people to eat them?

Ivy, they are sold in the foyer and then they are taken somewhere else.....the theatre!

People with manners / consideration for others eat them before curtain up, and during the interval, not when people are trying to enjoy the show.

Bloody hell it's a children's show, A whole theatre full of children yet you want us to believe the most annoying noise was children passing sweets

The annoying noise was from the parents though. A squeak or two from a toddler is to be expected; grownups should be able to keep quiet.

Eating in the theatre is not a modern thing. My gran often tells of how she and her friends used to buy a huge bag of crab claws to eat.
Imagine the noise, and the smell?! Maltesers don't seem so bad really.
The particularly naughty ones amongst them (usually boys looking to impress the girls) would then throw the shell pieces over the balcony onto the unsuspecting people below. She roars when she tells me this, the old devil.

Those 1950's teenagers had no respect tut tut.

Eating in the theatre is not a modern thing

Exactly! As i said earlier, without eating in theatres Nell Gwynn's career would have been a whole lot different! Orange anyone?

Unless I am at the National then I enjoy a large packet of maltesers at the theatre, if I am seeing a fun thing then that goes along with it. If I am watching yet another gloomy Chekhov then not so much.

The worst offenders in terms of foyer shops,has to be the Wizard of Oz musical, bloody hell that was sweet tastic.

Never go to the Globe OP, you will be pissed off at the likes of me wandering in and out for more booze/toilet breaks etc though you possibly may not notice from up in the expensive seats.

I think enjoying sweets in a theatre is fine.

youbroke if you dont wander in and out for booze etc at the Globe then you arent being authentic so thats fine. Infact to be completely authentic you should have a piss where you are standing :o

I read this and began to lose the will to live.

Really someone hand me some minstrels quick.

Just realiseda typo....

if you dont wander in and out for booze etc at the Globe then you are being authentic so thats fine