So the MP meet at DD AMC to see Wall*E on June 28 has me wanting to go, but we have a 5 mo. old. We have always been "those people" who thought it in poor taste when people brought a baby to the movies who ended up crying or babbling through the movie.

My idea is to nurse him and let him fall asleep in the movie and then we can see it with friends. Leaving him at home (Pasadena) isn't really an option as we'll leave afterwards and go to my dad's house (Claremont) for his b0day party and going abck home to get the baby would be out of the way.

Should I even consider doing this trip to the movie, or not? Your advice/opinions are welcome. Thanks!

Should I even consider doing this trip to the movie, or not? Your advice/opinions are welcome. Thanks!
Quite simply... you know your little one best. If you think you are going to have to get up all the time because he will become (and/or stay) restless, then you may be better off not going. Otherwise, the plans you mention have worked in the past for GusJr.

Personally, I dont think it is a problem to bring a baby in a movie theater. Its just rude to do nothing when he/she disturbs everyone else in the theater.

Go have a great time!! Cant wait to see it myself.

Its just rude to do nothing when he/she disturbs everyone else in the theater.

Just had to repeat this part!

Oh, and everyone going to this meet, please let Karin sit on the aisle!

Have done this numerous times. 5 months is actually a good age. They generally don't want to be down on the floor too much, yet, etc. Esp. since you are nursing, baby is likely to totally conk out, or you can alleviate a slight fuss quickly. At 5 mo., you're probably a pro, esp. since you're in the dark. ;) Def. sit on the end, though, jic.

I don't see it as bad form at all. I think it unspeakably rude, however, when people allow their child(ren) to ruin others' experiences (be they movies, rides, dinners, etc.) My children do not run up and down the aisles in restaurants, they don't throw their food at the other patrons (food falling on the floor while the toddler is eating doesn't count), and they don't make high pitched shrieking noises that make the dogs in the next county want to rip out their ears. If they BEGAN to display such behavior, they would be removed from the situation, and the behavior corrected. I do not subscribe to the wimpy "stop or I might say stop again" type of "correction" that you MIGHT see applied soooo often these days. I'm not talking about beating the child, but kids need limits, and won't do well ultimately if they don't learn them when young.

OK, that was slightly OT. Sorry. Have had several bad experiences lately. Not that I'm bitter or anything. My point was that you are not them, unless you force everyone around you to LISTEN to screaming baby for the whole movie, lol. Motherhood is about flexibility. If your little one is saying "gee, mom. I know you really wanted to hang out here today, but I'm saying this is not the day." Listen. If they say that, and you ignore them, be warned. If you are only in the movie for a little while, btw, you might be able to get your money back. I have. It's worth a shot, lol. Just show them the screaming infant, and they'll be so glad you are removing them promptly they might refund you on the spot. Worked for me!

Oh, and everyone going to this meet, please let Karin sit on the aisle!


I was actually hoping to sit in the back row on the aisle! So I don't disrupt other's view if I have to get up and leave as well as walking past them with a crying/screaming baby.

All my kids went to Disney presentations of animated features when they were babies. I took them in the bjorn because that was the easiest way to hold them. I nursed them and they usually fell asleep or at least stayed quiet enough that we didn't need to leave, but we were always prepared to leave if we had to.

And then we saved the tickets and made cute little scrapbook pages of the events, too. ;) My favorite is probably the one with me nursing M on Hollywood Blvd outside of the El Capitan in line for Bug's Life.

Adrienne

(1) You know yourself and your child best.

(2) I think MP folks are very family/baby friendly.

(3) I took my son at about that age to see "Revenge of the Sith." I nursed him comfortably and he fell asleep during one of the biggest fight scenes :geek: :~D

My 2 cents: go for it and have fun!

And yes -- this (or something like it) should be displayed in theatres:
Originally Posted by GusMan
Its just rude to do nothing when he/she disturbs everyone else in the theater.

I think MP folks are very family/baby friendly.


I mean, consider the crowd that MPers are used to hanging out with, lol. We love to be at DISNEY parks. With a gazillionty kids there, lol. A kids movie is not exactly the same as a dinner at the Ritz.

Adrienne, cute idea about the scrap booking the tickets. :)

Uhg.. I went to a 9:30 showing of the Hulk last weekend, and there were SO MANY kids and babies there! I couldn't believe it!

Luckily, most of the children (at least 5 families in there) were well behaved and quiet. But there were two babies that just kept crying through the whole thing! It finally got to the point where the other patrons were shouting some very rude things before the offending party would remove the crier from the theater, but not after exclaiming "He's just a kid!" (Someone responded with "You're the parent! Take him out!")

Anyways, you obviously seem like someone who is sensitive to your other movie-goers, so if that's what you have to do, well, so be it. If the kid needs removing, then remove them, but otherwise I'm sure you (and the little one) will make it through just fine!

Should I even consider doing this trip to the movie, or not? Your advice/opinions are welcome. Thanks!

IMO, the biggest consideration would be what works best for you and baby. Given that it's a Disney animated movie during a morning show, anyone going would have to expect a lot of kids there, and not just there, but for kids to be making some noise. Obviously, if someone's child is screaming and crying, yes, it would be nice if they'd take them and leave, but otherwise, I kind of expect little ones to do a little chattering during the movie. I'm not fond of non-stop chattering, and I'm *really* not fond of parents talking to the child throughout the entire movie, but I'm figuring neither is going to be an issue with you and baby.

I think for an evening show, it might be a little more of an issue (simply because of the later hour in my book), but for any Disney animated movie, you kind of have to expect a large contingent of non-silent kids there.

Now, if we're talking "Shaft", "Minority Report" and "sex, lies and videotape", that's a whole different discussion.

Give it a go, Karin. You just might be pleasantly surprised. I took DD to see The Heffalump Movie when she was not much older than Cub is now. We had a little booster-seat thing with a tray on it (like a high-chair, except it can be strapped to all kinds of chairs). She had snacks & a bottle -- and she loved the movie. We could tell because she was grinning and bouncing & making happy baby noises. ;)

Now that she doesn't tend to sit still for long periods of time, we haven't tried another movie. We're considering Kung Fu Panda for her though -- during a matinee when we won't feel horrible if she talks to the characters on the screen.

So, just a follow-up to let everyone know how it went today, from my perspective.

We got into the theatre and got the seats I had hoped for. I had initially told DH that I wanted to wait to take my seat and try and get Cub settled in after the previews. Well, that didn't quite work out. And I wished that it had. The previews were extremely loud. And it scared Cub. So I took him out of the theatre. We sat on a bench right outside and listened for them to be over and then went back in and sat down.

I got him settled into nursing, but it wasn't as comfy as it is at home as I didn't bring the Boppy. Meant to. Forgot. He nursed only a couple of minutes on the one side and something noisy happened on the screen and he wanted to see what it was. So much for that side. So I tried to get him to nurse on the other side, but he was very wriggly. He did that only a few minutes and wriggled the whole time.

Meanwhile, I think I missed a few crucial moments in the movie. Oh, well. I'll see it again some day, I hope.

I held him on my lap for a while and that worked for a bot, but then he'd had enough with sitting still and started to whine. So I got up and walked to the hallway towards the exit and stood there for a bit with him. I went back after a few minutes and decided to make a bottle for him. I did that a DH held him. Then I took him back to the hallway and gave him the bottle while I watched probably 1/3 of the movie, standing. We walked back and forth in the hallway and again, I think I missed some crucial pieces. Oh well.

Sacrifice thy name is mother.

Finally he dropped his little head onto my shoulder and I bounced him and patted his back, staying in the hallyway for a few more minutes, ensuring he was out. Then I went back and sat down, patting his back for the rest of the movie. So I think I got to see almost 1/2 of it sitting.

Hopefully any of you that were there weren't disturbed by his whining and short bouts of crying. I don't think they were too loud.

Not bad, all in all, I think. Not as smooth as I would've liked, not as easy, but I give him a solid "B" for his first movie venture.

I have taken my daughter to the movies since she was an infant, brought in the infant car seat, made sure she had a bottle ready, and put the car seat on the seat next to me so she could see the movie. Even as an infant I swear she was watching the movie. We try to go early and get in the back row and take the end seat so no one is in front of us and there is some room to move around if you have to change them or stand and rock them.

Then as she got older, and was out of the infant car seat, we brought the stroller in, and I sat with her in the handicapped section, and she stayed in the stroller. Again making sure I had treats with and her tippy cup etc...

Now she is 22 months and we try to go to early movies in the daytime, sometimes we are the only family in the theater, which is great, or we go to an early evening show. SHe thinks it is great to be able to sit in the chairs like the big kids. I think since she has seen so many movies, she knows what she is supposed to do. We still try to sit in the last row in case she gets antsy and needs to walk or stand a little bit.

I did the same with my son who is 9 now, and it worked with him too.

I'm glad you went and enjoyed the movie, Karin!

Hopefully any of you that were there weren't disturbed by his whining and short bouts of crying. I don't think they were too loud.

Sorry you missed parts of the movie, but otherwise, it sounds like it went well. Like I said, considering you were at a screening of "Wall-E", people shouldn't be too surprised to hear kids talking and such.

Now, you can imagine what I might have to say about the people who brought their 3ish year old to the late afternoon screening of "Wanted" today. You know, that R rated movie with a lot of swearing (lots of f-bombs), a couple fairly graphic sex scenes and TONS of explicit violence? :rolleyes::mad:

Movies are so loud these days that I wonder if it would be wise to cover the little one's ears? I don't know if that's even feasible with a baby though.

Movies are so loud these days that I wonder if it would be wise to cover the little one's ears? I don't know if that's even feasible with a baby though.

It's hard when I need both hands most of the time to hold onto him as he's at a wriggly stage. I do try as best I can when possible. Like yesterday when we went down to see the Magic off and when anthother cruise ship went by and blew it's horn, I tried to cover his ears.

Karin -- I thought of you as we left the theater after Wall*E last night. I'm glad you got to see at least SOME of the movie.

Mom took DD to see Wall*E ... AND Kung Fu Panda yesterday, so now DD has 3 theater movies under her cute little belt. She apparently got a little squirrelly during some of the slower dialogue scenes in Kung Fu Panda (I still haven't seen it so I can't be more specific), but did really well during Wall*E. I was concerned that she might not understand what was going on without much dialogue -- then I realized that it might be better that way for kids. She was apparently commenting to Mom about stuff that was going on & did a pretty good job of understanding.

When I asked her what her favorite part of Wall*E was, she said "when Wall*E found someone to date." :D

Karin, I'm glad you were able to go. I feel your pain about missing part of the movie. Reading your posted sounded a lot like when we went to see Madagascar when ds #1 was 2 months old. I missed quite a bit of the movie for the same reasons.

When we take the kids (4 and 3), we try to sit in the row right behind the handicap seats. There is a little railing there that you can put your feet up on (rather than someone else's seats). We put one adult on each side, with one on the aisle. Then, we can corral them in our seating area, without disturbing those around us. If they get wiggly, they can stand and walk to mommy or grammy, without blocking anyone else's view or kicking the chair. If they talk, I remind them its a whispering only zone.

We also try to time going to the show when there are likely to be other kids there.

Oh, and I will never again take them to see a pixar or disney movie on opening day. Poor things were just unable to sit through it. We made it 1/2-way through Ratatouille and had to leave.

And the manager was very willing to give us our money back and thanked us for being considerate of others.

When we take the kids (4 and 3), we try to sit in the row right behind the handicap seats. There is a little railing there that you can put your feet up on (rather than someone else's seats).

This is exactly where we sat, HTanner.

Thank you to all who offered advice and congrats when it was all over! I'm glad we tried it, but I don't know that there's another movie coming out for awhile that I feel compelled enough to see to attempt this again til he's old enough to be still longer than he was this time.