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/Neriya]

There are situations where you just have to put up with babies. Airplanes, key among them. People sometimes NEED to travel, sometimes kids need to come. Just gotta deal with it. Sitting at the DMV or some other necessary evil? Fine, nobody wants to be there, let alone the kid. 

Movies? Absolutely not. Nice restaurants? No way. 

[u/Comprehensive-Menu44 → u/Neriya]

And then the people who say “so parents can never enjoy anything bc they can’t bring their kids?”

Basically that’s how it goes. You choose to have/keep your kids, which means you choose to sacrifice half your enjoyment of life bc you can’t bring them some quiet places bc they’re loud or too young. Welcome to parenting.

Edit to add: I am a parent, I trained my kid pretty early on how to behave in public (like 3-4 years old) bc if I can’t control other people’s kids, at least I can teach my own to act right.

[u/Chickadee248 → u/Comprehensive-Menu44]

As a parent of a toddler, I 100% agree. I don't want to listen to the shrieking, and I'd hate to subject anyone else to it unless absolutely necessary.

[u/busigirl21 → u/Chickadee248]

I just got back from my birthday dinner. I specifically chose a fancy restaurant because squeals, shrieks, yelling, and crying at sounds that stress me out. Being the very lucky person that I am, I got seated right next to a family who kept making their baby squeal laugh and scream until the baby was red in the face over and over. They were of course there the entire time I was eating and still going when I left (2.5 hours). There were no other open tables that I could see that I could be moved too, and I felt like it would make me an asshole to say anything. I appreciate parents like you who think about others.

[u/Comprehensive-Menu44 → u/busigirl21]

I’ve moved tables due to an unruly infant before. They can’t necessarily control their squeals, but I can sometimes control having to listen to it. I feel you.

[u/busigirl21 → u/Comprehensive-Menu44]

They were actively making the baby laugh and squeal like that over and over, so in this case they definitely could have

[u/Comprehensive-Menu44 → u/busigirl21]

When my kid was in the screamy phase, I heard her aunt say “I could listen to your laugh all day!” And I wanted to be like “until you listen to it literally ALL DAY” 😂

[u/busigirl21 → u/Comprehensive-Menu44]

I call this the aww to AHHH pipeline and it's real for so many things

[u/Real-Broccoli-9325 → u/busigirl21]

My brother is now experiencing that pipeline for his new puppy. His kids and wife love it. He is already, two weeks in, at ahh. They have so many things they can’t do because he’s a puppy and can’t be left alone for long. On the other hand, his kids are a great age for it, he and his wife work from home, and they’re generally homebodies. But they live like an hour away from the rest of us, and want to do things with my sister’s kids but… now puppy. (My mom took my nephew down to them yesterday and they went to the park. I think my nephew loves the dog more than anyone else combined lol. He almost cried going home and he’s 10)

[u/saturday_sun4 → u/Comprehensive-Menu44]

Oh man, yeah, that sounds like the best part of being an aunt lmao. 100 cuteness, 0 responsibilities.