to want to watch the Nativity play without toddlers screaming.

[windchime]

Another Christmas, another Nativity play, and another hour of sitting in the school hall listening to the screams and shouts of strangers' toddlers. Before the play started, the Head asked nicely if upset babies and toddlers could be taken outside because the children and staff had worked so hard on the play. But, of course, the play was totally ruined for everyone because of a few inconsiderate, ignorant and selfish parents NOT taking their child outside when they started (and continued) playing up. The school was filming it to sell as a dvd. Good luck with that.

Yes, and what about the little children who have spent weeks preparing and rehearsing and learning their lines? The bible wasn't advocating selfishness, you know so stop trying to twist it around to suit your means.
Cheap trick.

So make the little children performing suffer instead? Ironic indeed.

Our principal is great with this. Everyone dreads the 'tap on the shoulder' from her if your child is causing a disturbance (or you are). She's just got that way about her. Plus, we have some of the more forceful teachers acting as ushers, and they lead people to where they will be sitting, which means that people with babies and young children are placed in a block towards the back of the theatre. No young children allowed in the 'good' seats, which is an incentive for people to leave their younger children at home. This is printed in all the newsletters leading up to the event, no one can arrive and whinge that they aren't getting a front row seat with their toddler on their lap.

Surely it's really not that hard?

Take a packet of chocolate buttons or a dummy or a bottle or install a jigsaw puzzle on your iPhone and mute it.

sit on end or at back so you can make a quick get away.

I am just impressed that any of you can actually see anything at your school nativity , this year will be my 16 th year of nativity watching and in all that time I haven't had a seat once , this year I will sit on someone's lap if i have to

No, it's not hard at all Giles but some parents make a point of sitting stubbornly with their disruptive child, ignoring all annoyed looks, because they and their child have a 'right' to be there.

My DS's school has no preschoolers. After reading some of these threads I am very pleased.

Obviously some pre school kids/ babies are very well behaved and will sit nicely through the performance. The problem comes from those who won't. Those are the ones who need to be taken out. They are the ones why schools need to ban them.

It's not even the badly behaved children who are the reason why schools need to impose a ban. It's the badly behaved parents who refuse to see anything wrong with allowing their toddlers to scream and drown out other children having their special moment on stage.

It's almost as depressing as those who think so little of it all.

yes as far as performances go it sucks. timmy forgets his lines, Ella was too busy standing on one leg to realise she was supposed to be herding the sheep. and someone somewhere is singing all the wrong words.

that's not the point.

those kids have put every bounce of effort into sitting and standing still. huge achievement for 4 yr olds and on top they have actually got to remember words to songs and their lines.

forget about the cringe worthy si going and dancing etc

that teacher has got every single one of those kids focused and confident and brought them out of their shells and got them up on that stage in front of all of you lot.

It's a huge achievement. really huge. It's taken them weeks. I couldn't go up. on a stage now. and I have 30 years on those kids.

yes there will be chatting. yes they will be giggling on stage because they can see up someone's skirt or miss flower hasn't noticed the tinsel stuck to her shoe. and no one is expecting that hall to he silent. They want you there. They want their sister or brother there.

They just can't handle kids running about screaming and it's not unreasonable to expect someone to realise how big a thing it is fir them and shove a biscuit in their toddlers hands.

or just take them. outside for two mins. you cab always go back in.

Yabu. It's a school play. Toddlers and babies are traditional. What should people do, get a babysitter?

Obviously my baby ds is an angel and therefore slept through the whole of his sister's school play today on his daddy. Ps did I mention she was Mary (non stealth boast!)? (Picked out of a hat but she was brilliant, of course)

Pps I am a parent governor and am proud to say I stood at the back as don't agree with reserved seats for governors.

Yanbu.

A little noise is to be expected but to sit there with a screaming Toddler/baby on your knee for the duration is just disrespectful to the children who have worked hard rehearsing for weeks on end.

Our school haven't went as far as banning young ones but for the evening performance children are charged the full adult price of a ticket to deter them from coming!

Yes a 'school' play, ie something that the school has put effort and time into and that the pupils have been gearing up to and been excited about for weeks. It is not traditional for babies and toddlers to be allowed ruin such occasions. It is traditional for parents to have a bit of consideration and either leave smaller children with babysitters, distract them to keep them quiet, or take them outside if all else fails.

I have no idea what you being a school governor and standing at the back has to do with the discussion. Unless you feel it gives your view extra weight?

What should people do, get a babysitter?

Yes.

PTA crèche at ours. It works well. Totally agree re filming. V annoying.

The same thing happens every week at Assembly. The last one I attended the primary 7 kids were doing a special assembly for Remembrance Day. They had written a lovely poem to read out and there was a 2 minute silence. A woman sat there allowing her toddler to basically run amok. A teacher eventually asked the woman to leave.

I've been there, I've been the mum that's missed plays etc due to a teething/tantruming toddler. What did I do? Sucked it up, the world doesn't revolve round me.

The comment about standing at the back is really meant for another thread - the why isn't my child Mary thread - where people were complaint about governors getting the front row seats. I personally agree with them. Just saw it as an mn theme.

I really think getting a babysitter to attend a school play is preposterous though. Many parents couldn't afford it for a start.

To be fair I think the parents whose kids were making noise took them out quietly at dd's show. It was more the grannies who you could hear making noise! The babies and toddlers who were there were v well behaved but maybe we were lucky.

Of course I respect the work the teachers and kids have put in.

But hiring a babysitter to go to a school play? Now I really have heard everything.

It happens at First Holy Communions here in Ireland. Children have spent weeks learning their readings and bidding prayers or rehearsing their singing solos; and some ignorant parents allow their younger children to shout, scream and cry through it instead of taking them outside.

Really Aher, it is preposterous to ask someone to mind a younger child who is too young to sit through a nativity play without shouting and screaming and ruining it for the children whose big day it is?

Why?

YABVU. Surely it's just primary school children squawking so what do a few toddlers make a difference? Why should other parents miss out on their children's performance just to make you comfortable because you chose not to have younger children? It's a nativity FFS not Macbeth. Get over yourself!

But hiring a babysitter to go to a school play? Now I really have heard everything.

If I want to go to somewhere that is not suitable for my toddler, then I hire a babysitter. Ironically, I also have to hire a babysitter to attend the school performance that I've spent months putting together for other people's children.

I think there is a bit of cross purposes because I do agree that toddlers shouldn't be allowed to run riot and I would take a screaming baby out. Maybe it's more that I think toddlers can sit through a school play without having to behave badly and most babies can be placated by a well placed boob/bottle/jiggling about on the knee.

I'm going to be a lone voice here saying that teeny dc doing Nativity don't interest me greatly, what with being a) a non-religious bod & b) a secondary school teacher who only really encounters her primary aged dc in the holidays

Last year afterwards , I approached a noisy pre-schooler and congratulated her on playing the main role.Hopefully her mum took the hint!

Just what the world needs, a passive aggressive way of saying "you ruined it for everyone". What a seriously twattish thing to do

My ds school is running a free creche for younger children this year so parents can enjoy the performance and kids can be looked after at the school, it's a win win !!

I don't doubt you would want to watch the Nativity without listening to toddlers screaming. That's not B.U. That's just life, but with a room full of toddlers and babies. That ain't happening.
You are being unreasonable however expecting parents to walk out bevause their child is crying.When their child is on stage. Let's be honest OP you only go to see your own.
News flash babies cry and toddlers are loud.