taking a 2-week old baby to the ballet?

[AKMD]

Before you scream "YES, YAB SO U!"...

The PILs booked tickets for them, DH and me to go to the ballet two weeks after I'm due to give birth. This was done before I got pregnant and is a very big deal to them as the tickets are expensive and it's for my MIL's birthday, so I'm willing to tough out the tiredness bit of it. I am a first-time mum (i.e. clueless) and my plan is to take the baby in a sling and hope that she sleeps through it all. If she wakes up and starts to make a noise, I will take her out and stay out for as long as needed. The seats we have are in a row on their own with only 2 rows behind and right next to the exit, so exiting will cause minimal disturbance.

Am I being completely unrealistic in my expectations of a very small baby and being selfish etc. by wanting to take her at all and risking disturbing other people even a tiny bit, or does this sound ok?

The other option is for me to stay at home as I'm not comfortable with leaving such a small baby with anyone I know.

[yummyyummyyummy]

I think its very , very unlikely that they would let you take a baby to the ballet.

[yummyyummyyummy]

The venue that is.

[mellifluouscauliflower]

Just let your husband go. I am sure your PiL love you to bits but it's really your husband's presence that matters. They might even like the novelty of having him to themselves for a change. The venue can probably sell the extra ticket quite easily.

My team won the league a couple of weeks after my son was born. You'd have thought I would have minded missing the match as I'd been going all season. But actually I didn't even care. I was too in love with my baby. And you will be too.

[abra1d]

Oh I wouldn't do this. It's getting into a time of year where there are so many bugs around. A crowded, stuffy theatre is a real hotbed for viruses. I'm never sure just what newborns can or can't catch but one of mine had a cold at a very young age and it was horrid for them.

[janeite]

I don't think they'd let you take a newborn into the ballet tbh. I also think it would be a very bad idea for all concenred - yourself, the baby and the rest of the audience.

Quite honestly, I do think you're being unrealistic and doubt you'd want to sit still that long in a theatre seat, with or without a new baby. I think you should be prepared to stay at home and make sure that pil and dh have a friend or a relative or someone on standby to take your place.

[ManicMother7777]

YABVU. PLEASE - don't do it. I go to the ballet often and I would be completely horrified to find myself near a baby and also livid with the venue for allowing it. You say you would leave if s/he starts crying but by then the damage is done and you would have annoyed a great many people who have paid a lot of money. Sorry.

[ParisFrog]

"However Y-May-BU in that its the ballet. I had no idea ballet productions/audiences were so precious until I read the thread. I mean I know you have to be quiet at the theatre/ballet but I didn't think people were so easily upset by a 'little' noise. Surely people must cough now and then."

At ballets, like at classical concerts, people cough in between the movements. You do not cough during the music. It's plain rude.

And as others have said, a newborn cry is not a 'little' noise.

[flowerybeanbag]

I can't imagine for one minute MIL expects you to go, having given birth herself. I would think she'll be astonished at you being apologetic or anything.

[overthemill]

i wouldnt take a 2 week old anywhere like that - too noisy for them and they may be too noisy for other people. just seems obvious! tho i applaud the mother and baby cinema screenings during the daytime so you can still see the film eg odeon 'newbies'

[mumof2222222222222222boys]

I went to the ballet at the Royal Opera House last year. It was wonderful apart from the fact I had a cough. I bought loads of sweets from Boots and some cough mixture.

it was so stressful - any idea how much noise those sweets make when you get them out of the foil packet??? I felt terrible. Not ill - just guilty about the noise!! suspect my neighbours were a bit bemused by me swigging cough mixture out of the bottle too...

i see you've decided not to go - good decision OP!

[clarea1]

I think as much as u want to help make MIL's birthday a special occasion, it's\not very fair on the other people who have paid and made arrangments. i also think you will much prefer to leg out at home, my ds is 8 months and i still feel people tut if we go out with him late! i.e wedding do where he is bathed and in pj's ready to sleep in pram!

I think u feel too tired to appreciate it and other people won't thank u if baby cries.

[thereistheball]

OP, I think you said you were going to try to talk to MIL "with a view to not going". I have to agree with other ballet-goers here that it is completely unreasonable to take a newborn baby into a ballet performance, whether or not you are up to it after the birth and even if your baby is a relatively quiet one. Think of the evening in terms of the total amount of money it costs to put on: hundreds of thousands of pounds will have been spent on renting the theatre, hiring the performers, and putting on the catering, and more will have been paid by the audience for the tickets. Given that I'd be astonished if the venue let you in, as the performance could easily be ruined by a baby crying at the wrong moment. And consider how you would feel if, shaky from the hormones and physical exhaustion you are likely to feel post-birth, you became the focus of disapproval of an entire theatre full of people. You would do everyone a favour, most of all yourself, by staying at home with your baby and something delicious to eat.