anyone else's school say no babies at the school xmas play??

[sparklygothkat]

recieved a letter today saying no babies or small children at the key stage 1 play and at the key stage 2 carol concert. I can't leave callum with anyone as he is BF and will not take a bottle, also he needs topups after feeding. I thought I would feed and topup just before the play and concert and he should sleep for a few hours.

also it just doesn't seem very charitable or community minded to start excluding babies. whatever next? do we exclude infirm elderly relatives who might say something loud and innappropriate and disturb the play? or a child with learning difficulties for the same reason? or should we all just try to tolerate each other just once during this season of forgiveness and love?

I shall be taking DS along to DD's first one tomorrow. DH will be coming along too. I'm hoping he'll sleep. Especially since I'm sure he'll need some Medised for that cough and cold he's got

There have been no restrictions to this one, but this is just Nursery & Reception classes. I guess KS1 performance is different.

DD's school has always been very welcoming and inclusive of siblings in any case.

VVVQV - For a moment i thought you were hoping your DH would sleep .........

No babies or toddlers were supposed to come to this morning's showing of DD's school play as it was the one where they were recording it. Unfortunately had a nightmare experience earlier in the year with parents allowing their babies/toddlers to make so much nouise (crying, tantrum, run about) that you could no longer here the children on stage.

School put aside one classroom as a creche for parents to leave them should they wish. Play lasted 1 hour.

My friend wasn't so keen on leaving her 6 week old in the creche as still so little so I offered to sit in the creche room with him - I went to see the play yesterday. So I fed him, had a cuddle and a also a chat with the two teachers manning the room, and helped play with the toddlers a bit.

All were allowed in yesterday's showing.

TBH I did see a couple of preschoolers in the room today but DH says they were really quiet, which is good. So possibly not an all out blanket ban, but did make parents think twice.

It sounds fantastic to me that schools will offer a creche for babies and toddlers so that parents can watch and hear their lo's undisturbed. I wish they'd done that in my day!

In my school we have 2 performances one which children are welcome to and another for adults only. Parents are able to come to both we found it was the eaiset way of keeping everyone happy.

I would have thought they should make exceptions for very little ones who are breast fed.

That said I LOVE the fact there will be no babies and small children ruining my two nativities this year. My 2 year old will be at the CM so I'm lucky.

I have been annoyed in the past by parents who don't take their screaming or chatting little one out when he/she starts to ruin the show.

You could do without this hassle though SGK.

I think babies and toddlers should be allowed. I wouldnt be able to see my boys do their nativity otherwise cos I dont have any handy family to offload dd onto. We all know the story, its not as if missing the odd word here and there cos of audience noise is going to ruin the whole thing. Besides my 3 yr old love watching her brothers and the reception kids do their thing. Yes I had to whisper the story at times cos she wasnt sure who was who costume wise but dont think that spoilt it for anyone else. This was her 3rd nativity and she's been angelic for every one. The summer concert at 2hrs is the killer. Listening to 6 + 7 yr olds murder musical instruments is the worst torture imaginable, all to watch the 3omin play at the end.

I went to a panto last night and there was a lady with a little girl and a baby (prob about 4-5 months). theres always loads of noise anyway at a panto but the baby really really cried at different points and it really was irritating after a while. Couldnt understand why she took the baby. there was another lady with her who looked like her mum so she could have either left the baby with her or granny could have taken the little girl to panto instead. (obviously different if she didnt have any friends/family locall to leave baby with.)

But honeybunny what about the parents who might miss the only lines their offspring have in the play? I don't think you can say 'missing the odd word here and there' doesn't matter - it might to someone! Besides, DD's school play covered the Nativity via a spaceship crashing and aliens and all sorts, so no, the audience didn't all know the story already!

Keep the little blighters out - they only ruin it for people trying to listen to their 6 yr old's devotedly-learnt words

The thing is though that I know DD will be good. She is 3 1/2 so past the running around stage and a play is sufficiently entertaining to keep her occupied.

And to the person who said something about having nobody to leave her with - well my regular friends that I leave her with will also be attending the play. And the night clashes with the toddler Christmas night out for Mums.

Ok, havent read the whole thread so apologies if already said or this offends anyone but we had DD1 first nativity yesterday and we took DD2 (21mths) with us. She is usually a running around making noise kind of girl but she sat on DH lap and didnt utter a sound bless her, she loved it. Here we are moaning about little ones going well I am going to moan about the adults. We had to sit near the back barely able to see DD1 as parents AND grannys, grandads, aunts, uncle, neighbours, and however else the parents decided to bring along lined up infront. If you are going to start moaning about siblings going at least start with the other members of the family who are taking up seats for parents to watch. Far more frustrating in my eyes. Sorry if that offends grandparents, Aunts Uncles etc but surely its more important for actual parents to see not the whole clan??
PS! Sat next to Granny of one child and she tried talking to me the whole way through about nothing relating to the nativity, would much rather had child sat next to me talking.

It all sounds a bit harsh really- you would think being a school they would be used to having children around.

I have been really lucky with mine, there are 3 performances all with creche facilities, if you wish to use the creche then you book it in advance and it is free of charge.

They put the creche on for all school things-assemblies presentations fairs productions etc and because it is always the same people in the same place then DD (2) absolutely loves it.

The only thing they ask is that you only use one creche place. you can take children to the play if you want but hardly any did. i agree with islandofsodor (11th Dec07) I would just pull DS out of the play

God I think this is so crap. We have babies and small children in the audience - sometimes there is a wee bit of noise but parents are usually very good at removing the child if it gets too disruptive.

I have never noticed the 'actors' get distracted

I totally agree with Winston too. Bloody hangers on taking prime seats

hmc - Last year we had no problems either re noise and parents, but it really was awful at the assembly this term. Two parents allowed their respective toddlers to make so much noise. They screamed, tantrummed and ran up anddown the ailse. And the parents did nothing and certainly didn't remove them. You couldn't hear the girls on stage talking. After that I can understand why our school chose not to have babies and toddlers at the show that was being recorded (they were allowed at the other showing).

at our school they have two performances one where siblings can attend and the other for parents only

also the school does have creches etc for some events when necessary.

but tbh i do what most parents with toddlers/babies do and sit at the back so if my little one is a pain i can make a quiet and speedy exit.

I think Hulababy I am not appreciating that it might be a problem at some schools. Ours is a smallish village school (103 pupils total - perhaps around 40 families) so we are very close knit, and are all very clear on the Head's expectations of us. So I have never seen a lacksaidaisical parent with unruly toddler. Suppose it happens elsewhere though

I was really suprised at ours, and even more suprised when I saw who one of the parents responsible was - she certainly did not seem the type to allow it but she did. Have to say that I actually went to the showing where children were allowed and there were a small handful there and they were perfectly fine, no noise or anything. So hopefully that assembly was a one off or maybe someone spoke to the two mums afterwards about it even. The showing when it was no toddlers I was actually in the creche room watching my friend's 6 week old baby, along with the other toddlers and the two teachers in charge of them. Have to say that the little ones were having a fab time in the creche playing and making lots of noise, lol!

That is exactly why small children aren't allowed at our infants shows. Too many parents don't care about their pre-schooler making an noise and ruining the show for everybody else. Small children don't have huge projection up on stage and they were being drowned out by the little ones. It is quite a big school with 90 children in each year so that is a lot of parents and siblings and it can get very noisy. I know people say that they will take their child out as soon as it makes a fuss but there is still that time when the child is just getting worked up enough to be taken out which is still distracting for the children on stage and the parents who want to watch and listen.

The school wouldn't turn you away if you turned up with a small child but the supposed ban is enough to deter most people from taking a pre-schooler unless they have absolutely no choice and there is always the creche too.

Totally agree Niecie. The children have worked hard to practice for their special occasion and in my view deserve everyone's full attention. My daughter's school asks parents not to bring siblings and imho only breastfeeding mums should bring their little ones if necessary.

Little ones are now banned from most of our school/church events and I do despair at how uptight people get about this. The word precious springs to mind.

I had another mum glaring at me recently because my little one was singing along at a school show. I did take her out because the mother in question is as hard as nails and I thought she might thump me