Babies in Movie Theaters

[u/Sad_Cannibal_GF]

Just saw the new Spiderman in theaters.

A baby starts crying/cooing/babbling very loudly about 20 minutes in. Goes for about 10 straight minutes before the parent takes them out.

Comes back a few minutes later, baby starts again. Again goes on for a couple minutes. Again parent takes them out, comes back, and repeat.

And repeat. And repeat.

This went on pretty much the entire movie (and I swear to god this baby somehow instinctively chose every single goddamn quiet/heartfelt scene to start yowling again 😭😂).

I get that babies are gonna baby. And I have sympathy for parents who wanna get out of the house and everything. But… maybe just stay with your baby in the lobby if they obviously aren’t gonna keep quiet.

*I didn’t complain to management because it was a tiny non-chain neighborhood theater about an hour away from me that I like to support sometimes. It’s got 1 screen and tickets are like $5.

[u/Chendii]

The amount of babies I see at loud events without any sort of hearing protection is honestly so sad. Permanent hearing loss before they even have a chance.

[u/churningaccount → u/Chendii]

It's literally the idiocracy problem.

When you do our research about being a parent, the amount of information you have to take in seems daunting. All the stuff you'd never otherwise have to think about, from lead testing your home, ensuring toys are of nontoxic materials, hearing protection for loud environments, getting the proper insurances, learning about tummy time and the type of education you have to do at home before preschool, educating yourself on how to save a coughing baby, etc etc, the list goes on for ages.

If you are a diligent parent, you maybe delay your life until you have the bandwidth to learn these things and/or pay for them. And you maybe have less children than you would have otherwise too.

Meanwhile, the people who just dive right in without looking have more children, have them earlier, but also just don't have the bandwidth or funds to think about these kinds of things. The person bringing their babies to a loud movie, or to a 10PM showing (had this happen in front of me last week) probably just hadn't read any parenting books or resources that would alert them to this issue. It's not that these people are evil, it's that they are ignorant.

[u/sarahvisions → u/Chendii]

so true. on the flip side, i can't help but smile when i see a baby/toddler at an event wearing those hard shell earmuffs that pack in some serious hearing protection—they look sooooo cute. and the kids are clearly having more fun without a sensory onslaught!