IMHO They dont care and dont think hat their darlings make any noise .I've seen many a school performance ruined because of this programs that kids have practiced for for months ruined by inconsiderate parents. Even professional concerts.
I wish for once someone would say children under a certain age must sit in the lobby
The other night it was reported that a famous conductor stopped a performance of a Mahler symphony to confront a person in the fron rows who lethis cell phone ring. why not for noisy kids???rant over

I know what you mean about kids being noisy. I'm not against kids at all and I'm not against taking kids out in public. But parents really need to learn that they have to teach their kids how to behave in public. How else are they going to learn? If the kids misbehave such as being disruptive, then it's the parents jobs to take them out. But if I go to a rated G movie in the middle of the day, I fully expect that there will be noisy kids. It doesn't make it right but it is what I expect.

On another note, I'm take Zumba classes and this time of the year we get lots of new people which slows down the rest of us. I have no problem with that. But one woman brought her young daughter with her (I'd say about 8) and had her in class with us doing the moves. The little girl wasn't trying to do what we were doing and kept running into people and falling down and laughing about it. The mother thought it was funny. I told the instructor that if that happened again, I'd walk out. This is my time and I don't want it ruined by kids running into me. I think if they want to have their kids at Zumba, they should have a class for the kids and moms. Also, there's lots of young mothers there and this is their time without their kids. It's not fair to them either.

I wouldn't spend my time or money taking my child to a movie if they wouldn't or couldn't watch it but everyone's situation is different. Maybe there's a mom with a 5 year old who really wants to see a movie so she has to bring the noisy 2 year old too (because babysitters often cost $10 an hour and some people just don't have easy access to one) and maybe the mom can't easily leave the theater when the younger one gets loud because the 5 year old can't be there by himself.

I kind of expect a lot of noise at PG movies. There really aren't many, if any, G movies anymore. PG is the new G. Arthur Christmas, Adven. of Tin Tin, Puss N Boots, Rango... all PG. I wouldn't expect peace and quiet until you hit PG-13. The other option, if you want to see a kid friendly movie, but without too much noise, try going later in the evening or ask the theater when their more quiet (less busy) times are.

This concern comes up in our family quite often. If I go to McDonald's I expect to have young children being noisy and running around. Not a problem. But, if I go to a nice restaurant for an evening out I do not want to deal with kids. When I fly I can't stand to have to listen to loud children on an across country flight. However, my daughter in law will quickly tell me that child paid as much for his or her seat as I did for mine. I don't have the answers. I only have the complaint.

I will always take my kid away from the venue - so, to the car if we are at a restaurant or a hallway for anything else and home if things are crazy! They have more or less learnt this so they stay pretty well behaved - until we get home, of course.

I would have expected lots of kids at a daytime movie today. It is a holiday and is positioned as a family movie. I think you can expect kids to be noisier at certain events. When my kids were little, there were movies set up for the younger ages like that. We went one time and it was a zoo. Of course, I had a child need to go potty in the beginning and I couldn't leave the other two there so we lost our seats.

I brought my 8 yo dd to Zumba today since she didn't have school. She sat in the corner and entertained herself. I would let her Zumba in a corner if she had been interested. Running into people wouldn't have been tolerated. I take my kids places, but I expect them to behave. If they can't behave they lose privileges.

I steer away from attending movies during weekends, holidays.

Some noises here and there are fine, but continued whining and crying from the same kid should not be going on. No excuse except for lazy parenting.

I can honestly say my kids were so grateful to be taken to a movie they behaved themselves. Maybe that's the thing--we are giving kids too much too soon and they don't appreciate it. It's definitely something that falls on the parents lack of parenting, an all too common occurrence.

Scissors: You misread my post. This was NOT a G-rated movie. It was PG. I wrote that this was not a G-rated movie like Beauty and the Beast.

But I guess I agree with you, Carla -- there are hardly any "pure" G-rated movies nowadays. Even a lot of the animated features include some language that the creators believe will be over the heads of young ones but that the rating association still doesn't think merits a G rating.

Heck, even the Muppets movie is rated PG (the fart jokes, I guess).

My kids are no longer little but when they were, I simply didn't take them to the movies till they were old enough to sit still and watch the movie.

Aside from the obvious problem of disturbing others, I don't get the point of paying the ticket price for a kid to run around, cry, etc. They can do that for free at the park!

Most especially nowadays since we can watch movies at home so easily, why drag little ones to a dark theatre where they are not going to be happy and are also going to make others around them not happy? Till they are old enough to "get it" I say, stay home or do a more appropriate activity.

That's what I did, and come to think of it, that's what my parents did with me.

That's how I feel lowspark... but when do you know your kid is ready? I do recall I didn't know until I tried it. :-) I took my older child and a friend along with my younger child to a movie. My younger child just wouldn't sit still. He wasn't loud but, man, it was annoying. Thankfully, there were only a couple other people in the theater and we sat in the back. I had just spent probably close to $60 on tickets and snacks, and didn't want to disappoint the friend by leaving.

I specifically picked a movie that was shorter, that I thought my youngest could sit through... but they showed what seemed like 35-40 minutes of previews and other mini movies first. My younger kid was really to go when the first "movie" was over; he couldn't sit for that much longer. I learned the hard way and he didn't go back for quite a while.

Obviously if the movie is geared to adults, I would leave but when it's a kid's movie, I like to give mom's/families the benefit. You never know what their circumstances are, how often they go to movies, etc. I really don't expect the theater to be quiet for kid's movies. And, let's face it, you can usually follow along quite easily even if there are interuptions.

Funny, but there was a theater in my area that had weekly movies for mom's so they could bring their babies... not kid movies, but like R adult movies. The showings were to give stay at home or new or breastfeeding moms a chance to get out. Granted, I'm not sure how they could hear anything, but it was a nice idea.

Yeah, good question. I think you can judge it by how they behave in other situations. Can they sit through a whole movie at home without getting restless; How long can they sit in church; what does their teacher say about their school-day behavior; can they sit quietly through a meal at a restaurant? Etc.

Of course, you could think it's the right time and be wrong cuz kids are kids! I agree that a short kids' movie during the day is the best time/place to begin. And be ready to make a quick escape if it gets out of hand.

I've heard of the special matinees for parents with young kids. I don't know if they do it anymore, I wonder how necessary it really is with dvds & the like.

Honestly, I haven't gone to a theatre to see a movie in years. The last few times I went, I really felt the experience was not worth it. People talking through the movie, cell phones ringing, etc. And these are adults. I used to sign up through our local newspaper for free movie nights. They'd pick names at random and send free tickets to a new movie preview night. We used to go about once every couple of months. Free! But I got tired of all the commercials before the movie and disturbances I mentioned above. The last movie we went to see, the sound wasn't working properly and it was too low. After all the previews and about 20 minutes into the movie, they finally decided to fix it. Well, after about a 15 minute wait, instead of just picking up where they left off, they started the whole sequence over again, including previews! I swore that was the last time I'd go to the movies. I have a large screen and surround sound at home, cheap popcorn, clean bathrooms, and if anyone talks through the film, I can rewind!