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.

I cant read ta. Ive read the whole thread. With some sweets.

For all those who are saying that eating sweets is distractong to the performers, the performers were throwing them to the Audience when I was there!

I think something like Matilda is different from Charlie and bloody Lola as well actually in both price and attention needed.

YANBU. It irritates me when I see that some people need to EAT all the time. No breaks at all from munching. I have friends like that and it drives me MAD. Every waking moment of your life need not be about food.

Last week we were on holiday in Somerset so we went to Wookey Hole. The actual tour through the caves doesn't really take that long and as soon as you get out of the caves you are in the picnic area. You do the tour with a group of other people and a guide (who does not have a microphone) does the commentary about it all as you walk round. So having paid quite a lot of money to get into the caves I was fairly keen to hear what the guide was saying, but instead had to listen to the unbelivably loud incessant crunching and rustling of crisps and crisp packets because the family next to us clearly felt their kids couldn't get round the caves without constantly eating bloody Monster Munch!! I do think that it is ridiculous that people think their kids can't go more than a matter of minutes without snacks! And when you are in a relatively quiet place where other people are trying to hear what they've paid to go to hear (theatres....CAVES!!!!!) then to allow your child to noisily crunch their way through crisps is just rude and inconsiderate!
So in answer to your question, no, YANBU!

Oh dear. Where they Pickled Onion? I could understand if so, I couldnt wait for them. If they were Beefy ones then they should have refrained.

YANBU. I take my DD (3) to the local children's theatre all the time (as in ever other week or so) and I have NEVER seen that sort of behaviour. I'd be pissed off if I did - I expect DD and other children to watch the show, not eat during it! What an odd thing to do - the kids are usually totally ensconced in the show, they don't need or want distraction?!

Perhaps the OP on here can tell you

The OP has explained why it bugged her: the noise of sweets being passed up and down the row with accompanying comments from parents and children. Sounds quite disruptive to me.

I don't see why children can't manage the same kind of behaviour at the show as they can in assembly or at carpet time in the playgroup: you don't talk while somebody else is talking!

If they are above 3 they will have experience of this; they just need someone to tell them that that's how it works in the theatre, too: somebody else is talking and if you make a noise nobody will be able to hear.

Passing sweets doesn't need to make any noise. If it was the talking that's a whole different issue and I don't think anyone would say that was wrong.

True Primafacie. The shows I've taken my DS to (Charlie and Lola, Tiddler, Tiger Who Came to Tea etc), he has been totally engrossed in it and even if I offered him a sweet he wouldn't be that bothered by it, let alone ask for sweets. The first time we went, I explained to him that we can have ice cream in the interval thinking that he might want a snack during the performance, but he was so into the performance, eating wasn't a priority at all. And this is a boy who loves sweets.