Rac's Random Rants

I finally made it Harry Potter last night.  And I will write about that next.  But I have a major beef to air, and since this blog is called Rac's Rants, here is a rant.

Tim and I love to go to movies.  Our similar taste in movies makes it something we really enjoy to do together.  We are willing to fork out the dough to go to a good movie theater with excellent sound and assigned seats so we can have the best viewing experience possible.  One of the factors in a good viewing experience is not having our kids with us.  Of course, we take our kids to movies that are meant for kids, because it's a fun family experience.  But even at those movies, when our 2-year-old has had it and starts to get noisy, we take him out of the theater.  But we NEVER bring them along to a grown-up movie.

Last night, I called around until I found a babysitter so Tim and I could to Harry Potter 7.2.  I didn't purchase my tickets until I had actually found a babysitter.  This way, there was no chance that we'd be stuck with movie tickets and 2 little boys with nowhere to go.  Apparently, this is not how everyone does things.  When we got to the theater and had settled into our seats, a couple walked in with what looked like a 2-year-old and maybe a 4-year-old.  They were sitting in the row ahead of us.  Groan.  Then another couple walked in with a baby that was probably around 8 months old and ended up directly in front of us.  Double groan.  Here is why I think it is wrong to bring little kids to a PG-13 movie at 7:30 at night.

1.  Those of us who are paying babysitters at home did so so we wouldn't have to listen to kids whine and cry and kick the seats.  When the baby in front of us started to fuss, the mom nursed the baby for about 5 minutes to calm her down.  And then she kept fussing. So they gave her a toy to cheer her up, which she did, and then she was making happy noises.  But fussing and happy noises are both NOISES.  And we got to hear those noises for the first 20 minutes of the movie before Tim said, "That baby's got to go out," and they finally removed her from our row, and took her to the end of the row, where she continued to make noise.  The parents didn't completely remove her from the theater until about halfway through the movie.  It is EXTREMELY distracting to have a baby crying.  It interrupts any kind of mood the movie is creating.

2.  News Flash: Some movies aren't appropriate for little kids.  Harry Potter was one of those movies.  That 13 at the end of the rating should be an indicator to parents that the movie isn't aimed at toddlers.  And every time we go to a PG-13 movie, even at 8pm, there are little kids all over the place.  When we went to Star Wars: Episode III, there was a little girl that was about 5 sitting next to me.  She was terrified and cried the whole time, and her dad refused to take her out.  He just said to her, "Oh, don't be scared.  It's not real."  Yeah, that helped.  The same thing happened when we went to see Spiderman 2, and Doc Octopus was taking out the entire hospital staff.  There was a row of 3and 4-year-old boys in front of us, and they were whimpering and crying, and none of the adults with them would let them leave.  I'm not sure what's going through those parents' heads, but as an outside observer, it just looks selfish.  You wouldn't want to miss part of your movie just so your kids can have relief from the terror they're experiencing because you refused to get a babysitter, right?  Last night, every time something scary happened, I worried about those little girls sitting in front of us.  It's none of my business to tell other people how to raise their kids, but when those kids are screaming and the parents aren't doing anything about it, it ticks me off.

3.  It's just rude.  There is a huge effort going on to get people to turn off their cell phones, and it seems to be working.  People are turning them off.  So why isn't there an effort to get kids out of adult movies?  It is even more distracting to have a toddler screaming her head off next to you or a baby crying or a 6-year-old kicking your seat than to have someone's cell phone go off for a few seconds (although that's still lame).  There are plenty of kids' movies out right now.  If you're going to a movie as a family, why not see a family movie?  If you can't find a babysitter, wait until you can.  If you can't afford a sitter, arrange a trade with friends so you both get to see the movie without your kids.

The theater we went to in Mississippi had a policy that wouldn't allow children under the age of 10 (or maybe even 13) into PG-13 movies after 7pm.  It was the best idea I've ever seen.  I knew that if I went to a grown-up movie, I'd be watching it with grown-ups.  Maybe we can encourage that same policy in our theaters here. Who's with me?