How old for solo cinema?

[FortySheepNoSleep]

DD is turning 11 next month and wants to go to cinema with 4 friends on their own. Friends are all 10/11. Film would be a PG.

I’m not sure if this is okay? If I put an invite out saying we will be dropping them and collecting them from cinema but not going into the screen will the other parents think I’m mad and decline?

How old would you allow solo cinema trips? For reference DD hasn’t gone eg to the shopping mall with her friends solo yet but plays out locally with them.

YABU - 10/11 is too young to go into cinema alone. Go with her and she’ll have to accept mum tagging along.

YANBU - 10/11 is fine for group cinema trip without an adults

This is yet another of those "depends entirely on a whole bunch of variables" thing. Around that age though, DS started going to the cinema alone with a friend. The first time, I was in the building having a coffee and reading my book. DD went to a movie with a friend recently and the mum let the two of them go in while she stayed in the cafe with her toddler - DD and her friend were 9.

The considerations are:
1 if there's a problem, will they know what to do?
2 Can they be trusted to behave appropriately in the cinema?

I'd be inclined in a situation like this to allow it but to stay in the area. I'd probalby sneak into the screening once or twice just to check - if I heard excessive giggling or spotted a child running around, I could then intervene.

Most cinemas do not allow children under 12 unaccompanied.

You will put some parents in an awkward situation suggesting that 10 year olds go to a PG film and unaccompanied.

In principle kids this age should be fine alone in the cinema, my friends and I did it many times, but that was then and not against the rules / guidelines

As always it completely depends on the kids themselves.

But in this scenario it also depends on what they're like when they get together.

My DS wanted to do this around the same age but due to one or two of his friends being a touch 'excitable', my DH took them and sat about 6 rows back.

I think the risk is that they’ll make a ton of noise and run about / disturb the other people watching the film and that’s very annoying if there’s no adult with them to sort them out (had this exact scenario recently ourselves when we went to the cinema the other week). Even the best behaved children can get a bit loud and excited without an adult.

I think 13ish is a more sensible age (my Ds is 13).

Depends entirely on the children

And of course, any restrictions the cinema might have!!

If you’re thinking about stranger danger, I think they’d only be at risk if one of them went to the toilet alone.

I think you need to have this conversation with the parents of the other children. If all parents are comfortable with it, and all children are wanting it, I think it is fine. They will mostly be sitting down for 2 hours and then get picked up again by their parents. I would think it is fine if you can trust their behaviour and trust that they would not leave the venue, accept sweets from strangers, throw popcorn at other patrons etc.

I think I'd also buy a ticket and sit somewhere away from them so they get the experience of being on their own but you can intervene if anything happens or if they are disruptive.

I think it’s okay, as long as you buy the tickets! I have vivid memories of when I worked in a cinema (one of my first jobs) and this woman called to complain that we’d allowed her 8-year-old child and her friend of the same age to watch Bridget Jones’s Diary. Well yes, it didn’t have an age restriction, so why not? This woman was livid, and she didn’t seem to understand that actually SHE had allowed her daughter to watch it. If I recall correctly the two 8 year olds had been dropped off by themselves to see a children’s movie, found that it was sold out, so decided to watch Bridget Jones’s Diary instead.

10/11 doesn’t seem unreasonable to be left at the cinema if you’ve bought the tickets and seen them safely inside, and will be waiting to collect them when the movie is done. As long as they can be trusted to behave themselves.

DD hates the cinema so this was never really an issue for us, but I know some of her friends were going without an adult in the summer between year 6 and year 7 so must have been about 10/11.

If I was "hosting" other people's kids for a birthday, I'd probably hang around and have a coffee with a book, just in case.

For my own DC I'd have been happy to drop them off.

Mixed (and quite sensible) replies - thanks all.

My DD is quite sensible though can have a loud voice. I know 2 of the girls well and they are very well behaved. I don’t know the others as well. I’ll have a think then as suggested speak to the parents or go in but sit away from them a little.

I wiuld be ordering the tickets online and taking the girls to the ticket check then collecting them so they’d only be alone inside screen or toilets (they’d go in pairs or whole group). I can easily wait inside cinema with a coffee but thinking I’m best to just go inside.

If they're a sensible bunch and other parents are happy with it, I think it's fine. In fact, I think it's healthy to give children their independence and 10/11 is a good age to start. I would let them go in alone and sit and have a coffee and a cake and read a book - bliss! I used to take my youngest and his friends to the pool with slides and stuff at this age and I would sit in the cafe while they went swimming. To be honest when I think how free we were at that age, often being out on our bikes and playing in the woods for most of the day, I think it's sad that children don't have as much freedom these days 😢

I’d probably just buy myself a ticket in the back corner and supervise from a distance ( more for the enjoyment of others tbh!)

Feels a bit young tbh. Especially for a total drop and go. If you could hang around close by I would

I think I was probably about 12 ish when we would get driven with a friend and their mum would wait in the car park (single screen, rural cinema). Depends on the layout really, if there was eg a cafe in sight if the exit you could sit in then i would do that. Or if you just go in with them then sit away from them?

Perfectly fine for a group of kids that age to go the cinema on their own.

I’d edging with the accompanying them potentially. I don’t predict any behaviour issues from DD or her closest 2 friends and think they’d just sit nicely and watch the film but I don’t know the other girls and potentially with the newness of the experience and birthday excitement they could be a big loud giggle etc and I wouldn’t want them ruining the film for others (not exactly cheap these days!)

The cinema is take them too is stand alone (ie not in a big shopping centre) and although maple scenes there is only one exit from the screens to the foyer.