People who bring small children to age-inappropriate movies, or talk loudly/use cell phones are precisely the reason that I always carry a water pistol with me when I go see a movie.
You should try it, it’s incredibly satisfying.
Working at Toys R Us is no picnic, EVER. (I worked there one summer while I was in college because I didn’t yet have the seniority to work my on campus food service job during the summer.)
I discovered, by the way, that $3.40 an hour isn’t an awful lot of money…Also that Garbage Pail Kids stickers were truly ugly.
Anyway, I love children–DESPITE my employment at Toys R Us. However, if there’s one thing that pisses me off more than an out of control kid (and I usually blame the parent–not the kid, especially when the parent makes no effort to control the kid) in a toy store or a restaurant, it’s a kid on a bus or an airplane. (Though in the case of an airplane, I’ll cut a bit of slack due to discomfort caused by ears popping if the parent is TRYING to comfort the kid.)
Kinsey-
Great idea, wish I’d thought of it when I was still working there.
I’ve arrived at the conclusion that PEOPLE THESE DAYS are more interested in doing what’s convenient, rather than what’s right. People don’t buckle their kids in because they don’t want to listen to them whine when they’re cooped up in the car w/o something to do. They don’t want to have to look after their kids while they’re trying to do more important things, like decide which lamp would look best with the particular shade of green the living room couch is…
They take them to the R-rated movie because they couldn’t find a sitter and, dammit, I DESERVE a night out, and to hell with all the other people who paid good money to go out to a theater and enjoy the movie in peace…
I once heard someone say on talk radio (damn, I wish I could remember the guy’s name) that people today love their children, but they don’t value them.
The idea was that, a hundred or two or three hundred years ago, a child was a potential worker on the family farm/family business, and therefore economically valuable. These days, parents have to support their children, who make minimal, if any, financial contribution to the household, until they’re eighteen or twenty-one, after which time they will strike out on their own.
Although on a moral level, I don’t agree, I understand the idea behind the thinking.
What an awesome idea.
Seriously. I prefer spitballs though. If you practice a while with bendy straws you can shoot spit balls behind you as well.
FTR: I have never taken my daughter to even a PG-13 movie showing in a theatre (maybe on VHS if I’ve seen it first) let alone an R rated movie. Sheesh.
I never had the guts to do this, but I know moms who have taken their teeny-tiny babies into movies. The wrap 'em up in the sling, nurse 'em to sleep, and enjoy. They also make a firm commitment to skedaddle if the kid makes so much as a peep. I didn’t have the nerve to do this. I was worried it would be too loud for tiny ears, and that I wouldn’t be able to spirit the kid out of there fast enough if he squealed. Plus I knew I culdn’t tolerate the dirty looks from patrons who expected bad things (or judged my parenting) when they saw the little bulge in the sling and the diaper bag over the shoulder.
I have no patience for people who take kids to movies which are inappropriate for them, and little for those who don’t have a commitment to removing a noisy kid in a G-rated film. But I’m very forgiving to those who attempt to get a movie in when they’ve got a wee little baby. As long as they’re prepared to make sure it is NOT a distraction. The little ones just sleep, and lord knows it’s scary leaving a tiny one with a babysitter.
I wish we had a crying room, or a parent’s night, at our local theater.
I’m posting from a library right now. There is one kid whining that he wants to go, one little girl running around the place, and a pair that are screaming (yep, screaming) for mom to come over and pay attention to them. And this is in a LIBRARY!
Bucky
Well, now, a library is different. You gotta take kids to a library. You just don’t let them go out of the children’s section, or the main floor. People don’t realize that the main floor is the working floor, and noises happen there and it’s okay. Anyone who needs the quiet should move to a different area altogether…
Don’t get me started.
Too late, I’m primed…
I’ve called DCFS because yuppie parents in a beemer left a 6 month old infant while they went to the mall. I wish I were kidding.
No diapers, no nothing. Both parents were doctors. And they left, just left, a baby for 4 hours on a couch in a public library. (They threatened lawwsuits when they ambled back and were told to speak to the cops.)
I’ve waited (unpaid) 45 minutes in snowstorms while kids tried to call any adult who cared enough to get kid home. And I’ve driven them home myself, because only a shit leaves a child stranded.
Most libraries have Unattended Children Policies, i.e. court tested documents that dare to enforce the radical notion that dumping children is wrong.
It gets even tricker when the parent(s) are present and don’t give a damn. These are the same folks who abandon children to screaming, yowling, Visigoth chaos and remain oblivious.
These are the simple facts: little folks have limited attention span, but are willing and eager to learn if given a clue. The situation has to be fitted to capabilities, and gentle lessons build upon themselves.
Okay, I’ll quit fuming now.
Veb
OMG, Veb, tell me you were just exaggerating for effect. Sigh, no, I’ve seen enough to know that you’re not. You should see our library after school, it’s like a freaking Day Care center. Same thing with toy stores, video arcades and playgrounds. I’ve often been tempted to take the little ones home myself, just to teach the parents a lesson.
It’s not so much that unattended children act up - which they do, and it is annoying - but how damned dangerous it is. Even though the dangers of kidnapping are exaggerated, the child could still wander off, get hit by a car, hurt themselves or others…I don’t even want to think of it. And can you imagine what it does to the kid’s sense of worth? You may as well tell them that Mommy and Daddy don’t love them very much and don’t want to be bothered.
The only ones I feel any bit of sympathy for are the parents of school age children. I don’t know about other areas, but here it’s hard to get into the after school programs, and very expensive. Still, you can’t expect Librarians to watch your children for you.
Okay - I can feel myself starting in on my “This Country Doesn’t Value Children” rant, so I’ll stop now.
Oh, and Cranky, I’m sure a tiny baby wouldn’t be much problem at the theatre, except it is so dang loud. A crying room, like they have at church would be a great idea.
Another pet peeve, people who bring their children to kid’s movies, but then don’t expect them to behave because it’s just a kid’s movie. Of course, I don’t expect perfect behavior from the little ones, but when the parent lets them run around the theater, talk to the people sitting behind them, ect. it’s gone to far. If your child can’t sit still for longer than 10 minutes, then they are too young to go to the movies. Rent a video!
I saw Disney’s Dinosaur Tuesday afterrnoon at 1:30 PM.
I was the only person in the theater. If the movie had been better (dazzling visuals, so-so story), it would’ve been the perfect movie-going experience we all dream of.
I guess the answer is to go to the movies in the afternoon on a weekday, but I realize most of us can’t do that.
Um, our library is one floor, one big open room, with nowhere to move to or away from. Except the bathrooms.
On the other hand, one of the local theatre (live theatre) is doing some major renovations and is putting in a ‘wiggle room’ with a large glass window for kids who act up during the show, and the parents who paid $30 a seat can still watch from the sound-proofed room (sound system so they can hear).
Now if only it would work as well as they promise
:crosses fingers:
I must say that I’m glad to see that the world isn’t completely full of people who support this liberal, permissive, parenting. You should see the looks my wife and I get when we tell our daughter that she can’t have what she wants in a supermarket. people look at us like we’re monsters, until they notice, with amazement, that Susan excepts our instructions without a fight. She knows where the boundaries are, and we didn’t beat her half to death to acheive that.
Agreed! It’s amazing how some of these parents treat their “entitled” children. "Sure lil Johnny can scream in a resturant, or a movie theatre because he is “expressing himself”.
I applaud you and your wife for actually instilling discipline in your child. (and knowing you don’t have to whack the kid to achieve it.)
Although I personally don’t think an occasional light pop on the butt, when warranted, is child abuse either.
The key to it working well is for the over-indulgent parents to realize that what they see as precocious and amusing behavior from their child is actually a major annoyance to the rest of the world. Either that, or equip the theater ushers with cattle prods to round the annoying kids and their parents into the corral.
I suspect that some parents will dump their kids in the sound proof room and return to their seats without them. :rolleyes:
well this has turned into the basic rant against idiot parents.
I’ve seen folks drop their kids off at Toys R US. drives me nuts.
My son is now 16. Until he was 13 or so, if he went to a movie, so did I. When he was 13 and 14, if he went to a movie, I was in the theater next door (I’d reached my life time Jim Carry saturation level). after 15, then he could go places with his pals.
When he was younger and we’d go out to dinner, or to an appointment or anywhere I’d expect him to sit still and not bother folks, I’d bring the “Ben be quiet bag” (yes, we fondly called it that). It contained all sorts of QUIET toys, puzzles, crayons, coloring books (found out cars and balls were NOT ok in there). these were things he’d only play with in those settings, so they retained some “mystical” allure, and he’d even participate in the selection process (Here, mom’s something that would be good for the Ben be quiet bag). travel games, etc were ok, too. I wasn’t looking to isolate him from the dinner table, just keep his interest going WHILE seated. it worked.
Klaatu, just to clear it up, we are not opposed to smacking Susan when she needs it at all. Here are our ground rules:
- Smacking is for disobedience. When we’ve drawn a line in the sand, and she’s put her foot over it with an attitude of “What’re ya goin’ to do about it?”
2)Its not something public. There’s no need to pulicly humiliate a child. We respect Susan as a person, not an adult with equal responsibility. A smack is not a casual backhand, but a serious matter, accompanied with a short discussion to ensure she knows why she’s getting it, and what we’re trying to acheive. - A smack should hurt, but not cause physical damage. So we use an old Vinyl belt (with the buckle cut off) so it stings but doesn’t leave a bruise. If a smack doesn’t hurt, its a waste of time, and eliminates respect for the parent.
I would point out the Susan is a happy, confident child, who is usually polite, yet isn’t scared to push the boundaries occasionally, to ensure they’re still there, without being scared of being beaten half to death.
A bit of a rant, I realise, but at the moment, our Govt. (N.Z.) is spending millions on an anti-smacking canpaign, associating any physical chastisement with child beatings, involving broken bones and cigarette burns.
Its a sick world we live in.
Hi Chewie
While I agree with you mostly about corporal punishment, I am sure your last post will draw ire from some members up here in the US.
I am curious though, do schools in NZ allow paddling of children? And if so, is there a movement against it?
And also, do NZ parents as a whole generally spank their children?
BTW, I have a good friend in Napier, which I understand is a bit north of Aukland. He says the beer up here sucks.
Oh, and since this is the Pit, my fuckin kiwi buddy still owes me money for that flight down yonder! Cheap ass shithead.
New Zealand schools are not allowed to use any form of corporal punishment (one of reasons I decided not to become a history teacher).
N.Z. parents run the whole spectrum. On one hand, here are very liberal parents, who are steeped in Rousseau and Thoreau, even though they’ve probably never heard of them.
On the other hand, in the news recently was the story of a child, under 5, beaten to death by his grandparents, into whose custody he was given, after his mother was deemed an unsafe parent by the state.
<rant>
However, the is a shortage of parents who are even aware of the need for loving discipline. It really pisses me off that the only definition of Love is affection. I would reccomend all wouldbe parents reads C.S.Lewis’s “Four Loves”. No, I’d go further. I think schools should teach ethics as a subject from the first year, based on C.S. Lewis’s works, and those related. Children should be taught Aristotle’s virtue ethics, the basic Judeo-Christian system, Confucius, and others. Children should be taught how to compare and contrast the various ethics systems they come across in life. However, this kind of training would lead to people who knew how to think for themselves, and evaluate right and wrong on the basis of evidence, rather than being lead by the nose, according to whatever the T.V. or newspaper told them to think.
</rant>
I love this board.
Napier is south of Auckland. A nice place to visit, wouldn’t want to live there.
And yes, American beer is like sex in a canoe. :-}
Have a nice day!
If you are offended by idiot parents taking small children to movies that are not appropriate then you should be appalled by the parents who drop their kids off at Gameworks (a restaurant/bar/HUGE video arcade).
The music in there is so loud ( HOW LOUD IS IT, SHIRLEY?) that you truly cannot hear yourself think. You go into a haze. The majority of the video games are extremely violent and I have seen children ( 5, 6 ) running around unchapereoned while their parents shop at the mall or take in a movie. All around 11pm. These kids are like zombies in front of Bloody Headless Nazi Death Camp Kung Fu game. It is very very scary.
I’ve been there once and won’t go back because of the free roaming critters and the noise level.
To be honest, I’m more worried about the behaviour of children than the type of movies they see. I would much rather let my daughter watch Demolition Man and Judge Dredd (with me there) than Telly Tubbies or Barney, or any other such stupididty. I want my daughter to think about what she see’s, and be in the habit of it, rather than turning into a passive sponge.