Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6

Original poster

Baby in the cinema???

129 replies

Lalapaluzza · 24/02/2019 11:31

Just that really. DP and I went to the cinema last week. It was The Lego Movie and I fully expected it to be full of children (we were on our own). When we got there I saw a group of three women, five children between I would guess five and ten, and a baby of about nine months. When we got tickets and went into the movie, I noted the whole lot of them, including the baby. I made an effort to sit a good bit away from them as I could see what was coming. For the next two hours the baby had to be entertained, handed over three rows, cried and fussed. At no point was the baby taken out of the very loud movie though there were two other adults who could have watched the other children.

Help me. Is this a thing?? I found it really distracting. Maybe I'm in the wrong, but it seemed really bizarre to me.

OP posts:

showmethegin · 24/02/2019 14:37

Since when was this a thing? If I'd paid 12 quid to go to a cinema and a baby cried throughout I'd be understandably pissed off. You don't take babies to the cinema for that reason. Get a babysitter or don't go.

I get babies cry hence why babies crying in every other place doesn't bother me, including planes etc but you don't take a baby to a place where the general idea is that you sit quietly and watch a film.

I Suspect the kind of people that do this are the same people that let their kids run riot in pubs and restaurants. It's entitled and selfish.

my2bundles · 24/02/2019 14:47

Family films are not specific to very young children who might be noisy. They also are there for older kids 5 plus who do want to sit and enjoy the film without noisy babies and toddlers spoiling it for them. If a baby or toddler carnt be quiet don't take them

PregnantSea · 24/02/2019 14:51

I agree that it's inconsiderate and I would have been annoyed too. But if it's half term and she had older kids too then maybe she was just trying to juggle all the kids wants fairly? Bigger kids want to go to the cinema so she has to drag the baby along?

I do think she should have taken the baby out when it was crying. That's just plain rude in the cinema, especially when there were other adults with her to supervise the older kids.

my2bundles · 24/02/2019 14:54

Considering there where other adults there to supervise the kids she really didn't need your juggle all the kids needs and bring the baby.

Nanny0gg · 24/02/2019 14:58

I would have thought it would have been far too loud for the baby anyway.

Can't understand why the noise levels even of people speaking, are deafening.

Huntlybyelection · 24/02/2019 15:00

I don't think I claimed I was the only person in there who was possibly suffering. But I did say it was a specific circumstance.

What is good to know though is that there will always be someone somewhere judging decisions you make.

For what it's worth, if my child was annoying someone else, hurting someone else or being cheeky or bullying then I would (and have) pull them up on their behaviour and make them apologise. I've left cafes and restaurants before when they have annoyed other customers. It doesn't happen often but I parent appropriately when it does.

But crack on and extrapolate my very specific situation I used as an example as a wider example of the entirety of British citizenry not giving a shit about their child's behaviour.

I'm not a thoughtless person, cloudytuesday but you are judgemental and disparaging. I hope your day isn't ruined by someone else's bad day.

CloudyTuesday · 24/02/2019 15:00

"maybe she was just trying to juggle all the kids wants fairly?"

Yes, fair to her kids. Because she can't say no incase they spontaneously combust from the disappointment or something? Because it doesn't matter if other people's kids can't watch the film properly.

GlossyTaco · 24/02/2019 15:03

You are at all unreasonable.

We went to the planetarium a few years ago , which is for over 7s only. A family had a small baby with them that cried throughout and was at times louder than the speaker. It was bloody annoying.

FixTheBone · 24/02/2019 15:05

It very much depends on the baby imo.

We took my now 2-year old with the rest of the kids to see despicable me 3 knowing she'd behave and be quiet (she was)

I wouldn't dream of taking our 3 month old to a cinema, or our usual weekend away knowing that she's cry enough to be a nuisance to the other people there.

BartonHollow · 24/02/2019 15:09

And what I clearly said was that nobody was criticising YOU or that specific choice

And I absolutely did not say you were representative of that attitude.

I said that what we were discussing was a general approach to parenting in public - not your SPECIFIC incident which was fine.

HappyDinosaur · 24/02/2019 15:11

I have taken my 9month old to the cinema, but only to an early morning re-screening of Sleeping Beauty. If she had cried at all I would have happily taken her out, but she loves the music and had a bottle and slept in parts. I wouldn't take her to an evening showing though.

CloudyTuesday · 24/02/2019 15:12

"What is good to know though is that there will always be someone somewhere judging decisions you make."

If your shitty decisions spoil things for other people needlessly, i am happy to judge and/or disparage.

"But crack on and extrapolate my very specific situation I used as an example as a wider example of the entirety of British citizenry not giving a shit about their child's behaviour. "

No, you've just provided a good example of how some people think when they're inconveniencing other people.

" But I did say it was a specific circumstance. "

And that's the trouble isn't it, when everyone justifies their actions as specific, unique, more special than everyone else, circumstances.

The family next to you may also have suffered a bereavement, may have saved up for weeks for a special day out. It may be the first day they've left the house following an illness. Any number of special circumstances equal or similar to your own.

showmethegin · 24/02/2019 15:16

And that's the trouble isn't it, when everyone justifies their actions as specific, unique, more special than everyone else, circumstances.

Mmmhmmm · 24/02/2019 15:17

@Lalapaluzza

"I forgot to mention it was 7pm. For this reason I fail to see how half term is relevent and now I think about it why wasn't this baby in bed? confused"

Why does the baby need to be in bed because it's 7 pm? Our 10 month old daughter sleeps from 10 pm to 7 am, has a bottle then usually goes back to sleep for 2 or 3 more hours. She's always been a good sleeper but never goes to bed early evening.

For that reason we take her out in the evenings sometimes, though never to the cinema ofc.

EwItsAHooman · 24/02/2019 15:25

Baby in the cinema = not rude or inconsiderate.

Baby in the cinema starts making noise but immediately taken out of the cinema = not rude or inconsiderate.

Baby in the cinema starts making noise but isn't taken out and continues to be noisy = rude and inconsiderate.

BartonHollow · 24/02/2019 15:30

Baby in the cinema makes noise but is immediately taken out not inconsiderate

Beg to differ, baby starts fussing or crying, time it takes Mum to scoot they have already crates an unnecessary disturbance

Baby starts fussing but as they have no volume control is loud, Mum thinks, it's not that bad, it's more sound than silence so it's bad enough

Baby starts fussing/crying Mum hopes they'll settle and waits they don't settle - damage is done

BartonHollow · 24/02/2019 15:30

CREATED - FFS what is wrong with my phone!

notanothernam · 24/02/2019 15:34

I wonder if we were at the same showing?! (No I don't have the baby lol)

Huntlybyelection · 24/02/2019 15:42

I like how there seems to be some sort of imagined top trumps at play on mumsnet.

Someone posts an example from their life.

Someone else posts how wrong and inconsiderate their situation is because someone else may have had it worse.

Someone else joins in and shows it as an example of modern society going to wreck and ruin.

Also: the baby didn't actually make a noise or disturb anyone.

And: I've probably been more disturbed by old folk (example: my parents) going to the toilet umpteen times in the cinema because it involved whole rows of people getting up and letting them out then in again. That's not them being inconsiderate or selfish, it's because they have to wee. But maybe this is an example of selfish behaviour in Britain today...

Eminybob · 24/02/2019 15:46

I thought the op was about me for a minute - I went to see the Lego movie with my baby last week (and my 4 year old, not just me and the baby!)
But mine is only 3 months old and he slept in the sling most of the time apart from coming out to have a feed and then went back to sleep. I have done it a couple of times now, but I think this was the last time as I think he will be getting to the age soon when he won’t reliably sleep for a whole film.
There was however a group of 4 women with their kids, and the women chatted at full volume through the first 20 minutes of the film! I had to get up and ask them to stop talking in the end (at the end of the film another woman came and thanked me, loudly, then proceeded to get into an argument with the 4 women while I made a sharp exit)
It would have been rather embarrassing if my baby had been noisy after I had told them off but luckily he wasn’t.

Cautionsharpblade · 24/02/2019 15:46

I complained recently to a local arts cinema about a baby ruining a film. They said everyone is welcome but at the same time changed the rules so that a baby would need a ticket and would no longer get in free.

snowball28 · 24/02/2019 15:49

I took my baby to the cinema from day one, I took her to the special parent and baby screenings until now (she’s 18 months) I take her in with my older DS on the weekends and I’ll take my newborn too. Especially if it’s a kids film in half term, it’s to be expected they’d be you know actual children there.

Cineworld, Vue and the light don’t let under 2 yr olds in though the Odean does.

The only problem here is the adult didn’t take control of an upset baby, I would always take mine out if needed.

BartonHollow · 24/02/2019 15:50

I've already said twice that my comment wasn't a personal attack and I have every sympathy for the decision you made that day but you seem determined to take it as such so...

For my part personally, I love going to the cinema hold a monthly pass and people refusing to observe basic cinema etiquette is one of my greatest pet peeves in modern life. That's me. I'm as entitled to express a fairly rigid view on it and see it as symptomatic of other things as others are to express "meh, Barton, BOTHERED"

CloudyTuesday · 24/02/2019 15:51

"But maybe this is an example of selfish behaviour in Britain today..."

No it isn't. Someone having to use the toilet is understandable and not in the slightest bit inconsiderate.

It's not rocket science is it?

Ask yourself 'might this inconvenience someone else?' and 'is it entirely avoidable?'
If the answer to both is yes, don't do it.

Nanny0gg · 24/02/2019 15:52

Beg to differ, baby starts fussing or crying, time it takes Mum to scoot they have already crates an unnecessary disturbance

^^This.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6