To not want to take my 2.5 year old to Peppa Pig live?!

[samanthajonespr]

We're setting off in an hour to see Peppa Pig Live, 2.5 year old son is having a little nap to ensure overtired tantrums don't tear their ugly head.
Husband is currently pacing around the kitchen putting shopping away periodically announcing that we're not going because our son won't behave and "all the other children will be sat nicely". I am fully prepared to go with the flow and am prepared to be either pleasantly surprised by his good behaviour or ready to carry him out of the theatre under one arm. How can I talk husband down? because it's putting us all on edge tbh. This is our first time doing this sort of thing as he's our only child (for now)

Think you need to leave your DH at home

OP
You're bringing back so many brilliant memories of disastrous 'family outings' with our DC when they were young! Don't let this kind of stuff get you down - Just go with it, don't let it get you down & you will laugh (like we do, much to the bemusement of our teenage DC) at it all in the future.
We love the 'Oh God, remember when...' stories!

That's how my son was when we took him to the local panto. I've decided to wait until he asks to go before paying for him to go to any more shows.

Good stuff! Sounds like you handled it really well.

However it was disturbing to read that your H thinks his own son is a ‘bad egg’. That attitude will be poison to your little boy’s sense of self and self-esteem. He needs to stop and look at himself.

Just never ever ever cave and decide to attempt Paw Patrol Live.

I could cope with the arena full of my own kids' clones, I could cope with the merchandising gauntlet... I even coped with the cheerleading chickens.

I lost it completely about the point where a giant Skye on a stick was being waved around to a hideously autotuned song about how she could soar through the skys. All you could hear was parent after parent muttering about how "jeez this is fucking terrible"

Sorry to hear your son didn't enjoy it. Maybe it was the puppet aspect that pit him off. Don't let it put you off taking him to things, but maybe one with people on stage or in costume, and sit a bit further back.
I can remember taking mine to cbeebies live. She was tired, but determined not to miss anything, and loved it. It was lots of short scenes, lots of child interaction such as dancing and shouting.

Try looking for a Christmas panto at a local theatre. If your husband doesn't want to go, maybe a friend with a little one the same age could join you.

I am sorry but i had to laugh at your description of your DS's reaction to the show. It reminded me of the first time we took DD1 to a panto at age 4 and she was terrified. She put her jacket on back to front then put her hood up over her face so she couldn't see what was happening. Keep taking your DS to things and hopefully he will learn to enjoy them.

Being scared and hiding is not bad behaviour though bless him so don't let your DH say "I told you so". It's unfortunate that your son didn't like it but certainly don't let it put you off doing other things that he might love.
Also IMO kids have to go for days out in order to learn how to behave in those situations. It's all trial and error so definitely keep going for family days out. I always try to see every tantrum or difficult situation as a learning experience. I will learn what works/doesn't work for next time and dc will learn about their behaviour in some way.

DD1 freaked out completely at her first few times into the theatre and the cinema (cinema was distractible by popcorn)... it's taken us till she's 6 for her to be relaxed enough to cope with how loud they set the speakers and the lights going down and actually to enjoy things to be honest... now she's demanding to go see The Greatest Showman repeatedly so that one backfired!

School had small scale panto and theatre productions in which helped a lot in that it was very familiar, normally lit surroundings and they brought the actors out obviously as actors at the end... but her first panto with grandparents (granted it was my mother-in-law who manages to turn anything related to my kids into a disaster) was an unmitigated disaster and she refused to go back in at all for it.

The time we took DD to see In The Night Garden live was catastrophic, as was the time we went to one of the London Symphony Orchestra's special performances for under 5s. We were the very first to leave the auditorium Mind you, the expensive pay termly swimming lessons where she screamed and cried and refused to get in the pool were the most stressful... shit happens. She loved Peppa Live and the cinema, and adores swimming now. You have to try these things . Sounds like you've done a fab job.

Do keep an eye on your husband. He really will shred your son's confidence by labelling him a 'bad egg' for perfectly normal behaviour.

Op don’t worry, all kids do these things. We took Dd to see bolt a film about an action hero dog) when she was about 3 - within 5 minutes she was beside herself with worry about the cartoon dog and started screaming don’t hurt the doggy at the top of her voice, needless to say we left pretty sharpish!

Oh no! I’m booked to go to Paw Patrol Live. @5000KallaxHoles did your DC like it?

Kids loved it - adults veered between amusement how bad it was and just despair we'd paid to sit through it!