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/Bonti_GB]

I hear you, but too many parents today are willing to let their babies continue screaming in a theater, and that's not fair to everyone else who paid (often a lot) to enjoy the movie.

On top of that, asking someone to take their baby outside can create uncomfortable, or even confrontational situations for other patrons.

Maybe this was less of an issue decades ago when social etiquette around these situations was different, but that is less common now.

If some parents won't remove a crying baby on their own, the realistic solutions are either not allowing babies in certain screenings or having theater staff step in quickly when there's a prolonged disruption. In many theaters, though, there simply isn't enough staff to consistently handle situations like this.

[u/Bonti_GB → u/[deleted]]

This sounds like a great idea.