This evening I went to see Incredibles 2 with my dp and our 15 year old dd. We went to the 8.15 showing (ie programme started at 8.15 so actual film started later than that and didn't finish until after 10.30).
As it was the last showing of the day I'd expected the cinema to be filled with a mixture of families with older children and with groups of teenagers. On the whole it was.
But when we were queuing to get a drink the man in front of me had 3 children with him. The middle one and the oldest one looked to be about 5 or 6 and about 8 or 9. Personally I wouldn't have taken my dd to a film at that time when she was that age, but understand that different kids need different amounts of sleep, that some kids can cope with a late night by sleeping in late the next morning, that it could have been a one-off special treat etc.
But the youngest was only about 2. The dad was carrying him and the little boy was snuggled into the dad's shoulder, the way kids do when they're really tired. He'd occasionally lift himself up and blearily look around, but was so sleepy that he couldn't hold himself up for long.
Why would you take a toddler out so late when there were literally 13 other showings at that cinema earlier in the day?
My dp and dd think I'm being unnecessarily judgy and that it's nothing to do with me how other people parent their kids (and I know that 90% of the people reading this will agree with them and that I'm going to get flamed for my criticism), but I just felt so sorry for the toddler and thought that he should have been tucked up in bed long before that.