Night at the Movies: A Rant
Friday evening, my lovely future husband and I decided to go out for a date night. We enjoyed a super tasty dinner at Sonny's, which is one of our favorite "non-fancy" restaurants. We were both stuffed to the gills, when we decided to catch a flick at a nearby dollar theatre. I was super excited to hear on Fandango that Bridesmaids was playing there. I guess that's the perk of a dollar theater--you can catch the movies you meant to after they are out of the big theatres.
We stopped at the dollar store to get some candy before the movie started. Yep, we're those people. I'm not paying $4 for candy that costs $1.
When we got to our seats, we overheard the people behind us. I should say we overheard the infant crying and toddler chatting behind us. For a 9:15 movie. We actually started to whisper about what were we going to do/how inappropriate that was when Brandon started texting me for the sake of discretion.
Then, we watched another mom come to the door and tell her little kids to go sit down. Okay. Another group, presumably a mother, her mother (grandma), and little boy-who appeared to be only about 18 months-joined us in the theatre. I am guessing by the time the movie started there were 3-5 groups who all decided to bring their children ranging from age infant to 6 years.
If you haven't seen Bridesmaids, you may want to stop here. If you have, then you'll know the scenes I'm referring to.
The first few minutes of the movie show a woman and her F buddy having an exciting "romp" with lots of position changing. Awesome.
During the 2 hours and 5 minutes of the R rated film, there are multiple scenes that, while hilarious, are entirely inappropriate. I wouldn't bring my child to see that movie until well into high school because let's face it, it isn't that hard for a smart kid to sneak into an R rated film. I also figure that by that point, they've probably heard (and said) the F word, which was dropped multiple times in the film. There was also a great pooping your pants/vomit scene.
What happened during the movie really ruined the whole film for me. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but I was so furious that it was hard to focus on the movie.
The grandma/mom/little boy group was not far from us, just across the aisle. The baby would fuss a little and both mom and grandma would grab him and tell him very harshly, "Stop! Stop!" This happened again and again and again. The grandma tried rocking him, in a very spastic manner I might add. At one point, grandma took him out of the theatre, and I'd like to hope that she was being sweet to him, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was out there giving him a whoopin'. The baby was extremely well behaved, and I wanted to go over and give those "ladies" a piece of my mind. How on EARTH did they expect to bring a LITTLE BABY BOY to a theatre at 9:15-11:20 and expect the child to sit still, quietly the whole time?? What was he supposed to do? Watch the raunchy sex scene? Or laugh at the potty humor?? I'm not one to hold back, and when I left the theatre, I was ashamed of myself for not saying anything.
My heart ACHED for that little boy. I wanted to go scoop him up, give him a big hug, and take him home so he could go to bed.
I understand that for people who don't have a good support system, it is very hard and daunting to find someone to trust enough to leave your baby with. Guess what? If that were my situation, I would not go to the movies. Does that suck? Yes. But guess what? That's parenthood! You are supposed to put the well-being of your child above your wants. Do I think parents should get out, catch a movie, have some alone time? Yes, but not if it means dragging your baby to a movie that is too late and far too inappropriate for little eyes. Have we ever taken Ayla out past her bedtime? Sure, but guess what? When she's done, we're done. Her actions-crying, fussing, whatever-are our signal that her needs aren't being met.
Overall, the night was eye-opening and disheartening. Not only did this one warped pair of mom/grandma feel it was acceptable to bring the baby and treat him so poorly, but so did all the other parents who wanted to see a movie so bad, they didn't care what their children were watching or the fact that maybe they should've been at home reading bedtime stories to their babies.
We stopped at the dollar store to get some candy before the movie started. Yep, we're those people. I'm not paying $4 for candy that costs $1.
When we got to our seats, we overheard the people behind us. I should say we overheard the infant crying and toddler chatting behind us. For a 9:15 movie. We actually started to whisper about what were we going to do/how inappropriate that was when Brandon started texting me for the sake of discretion.
Then, we watched another mom come to the door and tell her little kids to go sit down. Okay. Another group, presumably a mother, her mother (grandma), and little boy-who appeared to be only about 18 months-joined us in the theatre. I am guessing by the time the movie started there were 3-5 groups who all decided to bring their children ranging from age infant to 6 years.
If you haven't seen Bridesmaids, you may want to stop here. If you have, then you'll know the scenes I'm referring to.
The first few minutes of the movie show a woman and her F buddy having an exciting "romp" with lots of position changing. Awesome.
During the 2 hours and 5 minutes of the R rated film, there are multiple scenes that, while hilarious, are entirely inappropriate. I wouldn't bring my child to see that movie until well into high school because let's face it, it isn't that hard for a smart kid to sneak into an R rated film. I also figure that by that point, they've probably heard (and said) the F word, which was dropped multiple times in the film. There was also a great pooping your pants/vomit scene.
What happened during the movie really ruined the whole film for me. I enjoyed it, don't get me wrong, but I was so furious that it was hard to focus on the movie.
The grandma/mom/little boy group was not far from us, just across the aisle. The baby would fuss a little and both mom and grandma would grab him and tell him very harshly, "Stop! Stop!" This happened again and again and again. The grandma tried rocking him, in a very spastic manner I might add. At one point, grandma took him out of the theatre, and I'd like to hope that she was being sweet to him, but I wouldn't be surprised if she was out there giving him a whoopin'. The baby was extremely well behaved, and I wanted to go over and give those "ladies" a piece of my mind. How on EARTH did they expect to bring a LITTLE BABY BOY to a theatre at 9:15-11:20 and expect the child to sit still, quietly the whole time?? What was he supposed to do? Watch the raunchy sex scene? Or laugh at the potty humor?? I'm not one to hold back, and when I left the theatre, I was ashamed of myself for not saying anything.
My heart ACHED for that little boy. I wanted to go scoop him up, give him a big hug, and take him home so he could go to bed.
I understand that for people who don't have a good support system, it is very hard and daunting to find someone to trust enough to leave your baby with. Guess what? If that were my situation, I would not go to the movies. Does that suck? Yes. But guess what? That's parenthood! You are supposed to put the well-being of your child above your wants. Do I think parents should get out, catch a movie, have some alone time? Yes, but not if it means dragging your baby to a movie that is too late and far too inappropriate for little eyes. Have we ever taken Ayla out past her bedtime? Sure, but guess what? When she's done, we're done. Her actions-crying, fussing, whatever-are our signal that her needs aren't being met.
Overall, the night was eye-opening and disheartening. Not only did this one warped pair of mom/grandma feel it was acceptable to bring the baby and treat him so poorly, but so did all the other parents who wanted to see a movie so bad, they didn't care what their children were watching or the fact that maybe they should've been at home reading bedtime stories to their babies.
I dont get why parents think it is ok to bring their kids/babies to movies that are late at night and R rated on top of it. When we saw the Hangover, there was a 5 year old in front of us...what??? I couldnt believe it. Then the parents tried to cover her eyes at the very end when it showed a penis...all the words and other parts were ok?!?!?
ReplyDelete