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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To wish parents in cinema would turn off their mobiles?

28 replies

LightsOnNotIn · 18/09/2013 12:34

Went with son to see Thomas Tank Engine film recently. Parents had turned their phone to silent, thankfully, but the darkness of the cinema was studded with smartphones showing Facebook, etc. Can't these parents turn them off for an hour and show their children that they are (pretending to be) interested in the film?

OP posts:
LCHammer · 18/09/2013 12:40

It's bad form but sometimes needs must.

CaptainSweatPants · 18/09/2013 12:41

God do you know how boring a Thomas the tank engine 10
Minute show is?

A whole film ?

Christ!

BettySwollocksandaCrustyRack · 18/09/2013 12:42

YABU - as long as the phones are on silent it shouldn't matter. Good god, Thomas the Tank, I would need my phone to get me through that one :)

dontlaugh · 18/09/2013 12:43

At the grand old age I am, it is bad enough I have to watch the latest Pixar/Disney shit, without being told I mustn't MN, read news etc. So YABU.

YouTheCat · 18/09/2013 12:47

It's very bloody bad cinema etiquette. If you can't be bothered to watch the film wait for it to come out on dvd.

And I say that as a mother who has had a good few years of Thomas the Tank Engine, including the live show.

KellyElly · 18/09/2013 14:14

Not something that bothers me one bit tbh.

liquidstate · 18/09/2013 14:56

I sat through pokemon the movie in the early 90s without a mobile... was hell.

YouTheCat · 18/09/2013 14:59

Me too. But I like Pokemon. Grin

PaulInHolland · 18/09/2013 17:21

All those bright, glowing (smart)phone screens distract me from the film I am trying to watch. And that is just disrespectful to me and other audience members. And if you are doing that sat next to your DC, then you are showing him/her that it is fine to be disrespectful to other people.

I really like the cinema I once went to back in Blighty where if the usher saw you with a phone that was switched on, then you were told to switch it off immediately or leave the auditorium.

MammaTJ · 18/09/2013 17:24

Nope! Not going to! I have to sit through shit films as my DC are too young to on their own! FB and MN get me through!

Grin
HeySoulSister · 18/09/2013 17:27

God how precious!!

LividofLondon · 18/09/2013 17:27

All those bright, glowing (smart)phone screens distract me from the film I am trying to watch. And that is just disrespectful to me and other audience members. And if you are doing that sat next to your DC, then you are showing him/her that it is fine to be disrespectful to other people

My thoughts entirely, Paul. It's one reason why I don't go to the cinema any more. A phone doesn't have to be ringing to be distracting.

FreyaFridays · 18/09/2013 17:28

If you have to sit through shit films with your kids because they're too young to go on their own, why don't you just have them wait for the DVD to come out? If they're that young, surely they'll neither be aware nor care that a Thomas film has come out?

strawberrie · 18/09/2013 17:30

When I went to see King of the Mountain, the precious parents in front of us were taking photographs if their little treasure, on his first cinema outing I guess, but it was surely a crappy dark photo of child sitting in the dark!

MammaTJ · 18/09/2013 17:36

I didn't take mine to see Thomas, they are too old for that. They are also too old to not be aware, just too young at 7 and 8 to go on their own!

I don't take them often but sometimes they desperately want to see a film when it comes out!

If you are that easily distracted that my silent taping bothers you, or the dim light held do low I don't imagine you can really see it, the you should wait for the DVD!

pixiepotter · 18/09/2013 17:37

All those bright, glowing (smart)phone screens distract me from the film I am trying to watch.

Bolloxh!! Are you distracted by the glowing emergency exit lights too?

YouTheCat · 18/09/2013 17:39

The cinema is not the place for mobile phones. That is why you are asked to switch them off.

Why should you be any less respectful at a children's film?

If you can't manage an hour or 2 without your phone/facebook/mn then get a dvd and watch at home.

mrspremise · 18/09/2013 17:40

I take my knitting instead... Wink

LividofLondon · 18/09/2013 17:49

"I take my knitting instead"

And night vision goggles? Grin

RustyBear · 18/09/2013 17:52

Maybe the phones are on because they are using the RunPee app.

This app lists the best times to go for a pee during every major-release film, vibrates when your pee-slot is approaching and then gives you a brief synopsis of what you've missed. Oh, and it also has a handy flashlight so you can see where you're going.

Apparently the idea came to the developers while they were watching the 2005 remake of King Kong....

FlapJackFlossie · 18/09/2013 17:52

I stopped going to the cinema because of people crunching and slurping and talking their way through films. I think what OP said would move me to murder !

LCHammer · 18/09/2013 20:53

A RunPee app? Now I'll have to check it out.

misdee · 18/09/2013 20:57

YANBU

though dh and I did discuss whether the person tweeting in front of us was saying how shit the film was.

Rebelrebel · 18/09/2013 20:59

I got told off by cinema staff for this. In my defence, I we were right at the back, there were no other people anywhere near us, and it was Ice Age bloody 4 which is just bloody awful. I haven't done it since though. even when I took ds to see Planes

Ledkr · 18/09/2013 21:05

The kids should be grateful to see a film, in not sitting there watching it too.
I used to take my boys to see a film so I could have a kip.
I was a LP working nights.