Kids attending adult rated movies – My rant!

baloneysmom

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
1,081
Purraise
1
Location
New Brunswick
I just wrote a letter to our local movie theater. This will be my second letter of complaint I have ever written.

Now I don’t care what parents do with their kids, I wouldn’t let my kids watch certain movies but couldn’t care less what other parents let their kids watch. I have been to three adult rated movies with kids under ten in them. The first was “Saw” second was “The Happening” and the latest, on Saturday, was “District 9”.

This kid at “District 9” must have been around 7 or 8 and was sitting right beside me. They had smuggled Cheesies and canned pop into the theaters. His Mom was extremely nice and made room for my boyfriend and I.

Anyway, this kid was the loudest eater I have ever heard! He would take a Cheesie, slowly and LOUDY chomp his way through the cheesie, it took him about 5-6 chomps per Cheesie, then would loudly and wetly smack his lips while chewing with his mouth open. Then he would take a swig of his canned coke and slurp super loudly for like 3 slow seconds.

I figured because the Mom was so nice to us I would keep my big mouth shut and figured a bag of Cheesies would last MAX 20min. Boy was I wrong! The credits were rolling and he was still eating!! I guess that’s what happens when you need 20 chews for one Cheesie!

During the movie after about 20 min and the kid was still so LOUD! I complained to my boyfriend, then we started fighting because he didn’t want me to say anything because I was so irritated he knew I might be too harsh, and he said it was too late, I should have said something in the beginning of the movie.

Anyway, I missed almost the entire movie, I spent the whole time confused because I was so distracted, angry, and irritated at the crunching I couldn’t concentrate LOL you can tell I don’t have kids huh.

I could even see the people on the other side of the Mom and the peeps in front of us keep looking at the kid with annoyance faces, that’s how loud he was!

Anyway, I asked for my money back for one ticket, my boyfriend enjoyed it. I also asked that they watch more for kids in adult rated movies.

Sorry, I just HAD to rant! My blood pressure is still up! LOL Got to love PMS.
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
I don't blame you for being upset. Some years ago my then BF and I went to a movie and the kids were so loud we walked out after 1/2 hour and asked for our money back.

I can't believe the mom didn't say something to that boy - how ignorant. I would definitely have spoken up and said something to the mom and if she still ignored me then I would have pulled the "restricted" card.


A similar thing happened to me at a Roger Whittaker show I spent a rather steep amount of money to get a good seat at. The ignorant woman behind me sang along to every song he did and pretty much directly in my ear. I was beyond mad but younger and not as willing to speak up for myself.
 

bookworm

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
484
Purraise
3
Location
southern u.s.
Working in food service it's amazing what people let their kids do in public. We'll have toddlers who can't even see over the buffett getting their own plates from the hot bar. Older kids with their fingers in the pans so of course the entire pan has to be tossed, and parents blithely ignoring the sign that requires you to accompany kids under 10. Kids who actually have food fights. Kids going to other diners and interupting their meals. My favorite is toddlers playing in the heavy double doors while parents chat oblivious, and then get mad at the staff when the kid gets his fingers pinched.
 

yosemite

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Apr 26, 2001
Messages
23,313
Purraise
81
Location
Ingersoll, ON
Originally Posted by bookworm

Working in food service it's amazing what people let their kids do in public. We'll have toddlers who can't even see over the buffett getting their own plates from the hot bar. Older kids with their fingers in the pans so of course the entire pan has to be tossed, and parents blithely ignoring the sign that requires you to accompany kids under 10. Kids who actually have food fights. Kids going to other diners and interupting their meals. My favorite is toddlers playing in the heavy double doors while parents chat oblivious, and then get mad at the staff when the kid gets his fingers pinched.
There certainly are some humans that should have been neutered and not allowed to have children. Children are a blessing and a gift and should be raised and taught good values. Too many people, once they have children, ignore them, try to get away from them or just plain mistreat them.
 

proudmamiof4

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 29, 2008
Messages
1,390
Purraise
8
Location
Coastal NC
I have 4 kids ages eleven, ten, eight and six and they ONLY watch G rated movies and some PG movies as long as I either watch it first or watch it with them. My husband and I were just talking about how parents let their kids watch movies with killing and sex in it??? I get embarrassed if I am watching a movie and someone is kissing and the kids happen to walk in the living room!lol and how about when your at a store and there is a kids screaming bloody murder and on the floor kicking because he was told no about something or when you are out somewhere and you see a tiny 3 year old walking around with no parent in sight!! Some people just don't need kids! How about when you see Mommy dressed in brand names and got jewelery and looks like she walked out of a magazine and the kid is in rags and dirty!
 

gemlady

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 5, 2004
Messages
18,820
Purraise
31
Location
SW Indiana
It's amazing how many people treat movie night in a theater like they do at home. They forget they are sharing the experience with 100 or so other people..
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
I know what you mean - we rarely go to movies. But we deal with it cause most of them that we like to see are more kid's type of movies. Hubby doesn't like the blood/gore ones and we've gotten out of watching those types of movies.

We do like action ones like Pirates, etc.

However, in your situation, was there not any other seats you could have moved to to finish watching the show in peace?
 

bookworm

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Jun 16, 2009
Messages
484
Purraise
3
Location
southern u.s.
Originally Posted by gemlady

It's amazing how many people treat movie night in a theater like they do at home. They forget they are sharing the experience with 100 or so other people..
Oh, that was incredibly well put, sums it all up perfectly.
 

strange_wings

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
13,498
Purraise
39
I'm going to play a bit of devil's advocate here and point out that sometimes the tantrums and odd behaviors you all see in children and even adults are not necessarily a sign of bad parenting or lack of manners. Developmental disorders are becoming more and more common. Try looking at those around you and thinking, "maybe there's a reason they cannot help the way they are behaving?". Maybe parents let the kid have their odd little behavior because to attempt to stop it would cause a huge tantrum? (and no, again I'm not talking about bad behavior, but instead things like autism).

I personally have had a habit all of my life of tapping, shaking my foot, or moving in some small way. It's worse when I'm stressed or overwhelmed and I cannot fully control it, even if the tapping or shaking is annoying everyone around me.

That said, I hope the OP can get her money back. Whatever the cause she was not happy with the movie and does deserve a refund or credit to see another movie.

For those wanting to avoid the kids, and crowds, early shows are great. I prefer to see movies when there's less than a dozen people in a theater.
This should be even easier now that school is back in.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #10

baloneysmom

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
1,081
Purraise
1
Location
New Brunswick
They did get back to me and I will be getting my money back for both myself and my boyfriend. I insisted they only give me only one refund since my boyfriend loved the movie but they said they would send me two tickets.

I would have moved seats if I could but the theater was packed. I even looked around for one empty seat and I would have left my boyfriend there lol but i couldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t find one.

If you know your kid is a loud eater, who may have a tantrum or anything else obnoxious about him, why on earth would you bring him to a theater... let alone on the most popular night? I would never even think about doing that.

I am an extremely considerate person, I am constantly thinking of other people and how they will feel if I do something. Even when I smoked, which everyone knows is extremely addictive. If I was around people who didnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t smoke i would NEVER even consider smoking, I would suffer, even on long trips (like 10 hours drives to family) so i wouldnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t put anyone out. It really pisses me off when people do things without thinking of other people, because i would like to be treated the same way i treat others.

I find no excuse for this. If you kid is loud in a theater, donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t bring him to the theater. If he will have a tantrum because you tell him to be quiet, donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t bring him to a theater. That makes sense to me. Why put other people out?

Either way i went to an adult movie to stay AWAY from kids, i never go to kids movies for that purpose.
 

otto

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 7, 2008
Messages
9,837
Purraise
197
Originally Posted by Yosemite

There certainly are some humans that should have been neutered and not allowed to have children. Children are a blessing and a gift and should be raised and taught good values. Too many people, once they have children, ignore them, try to get away from them or just plain mistreat them.
My exhusband didn't "believe in forcing his values on his kids". can you imagine? In retrospect that wasn't such a bad things as he had none. (hehe.) and now, neither do his kids.

I finally started refusing to go places with him and said kids because I could not stand the way the kids behaved (and wasn't allowed to correct them)

water under the bridge now, I guess. But when I told my family we were splitting up, their reactions were invariably "sigh, you were those kids' only chance"

oh and more on topic..he was one of those who let his kids watch and go to anything, and did not make them behave in movie theaters. (or church)
 

strange_wings

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
13,498
Purraise
39
Originally Posted by BaloneysMom

If you know your kid is a loud eater, who may have a tantrum or anything else obnoxious about him, why on earth would you bring him to a theater... let alone on the most popular night? I would never even think about doing that.
But the same thing can be asked of you. Why did you go to a popular movie on a busy night? Everyone knows there's always annoying people in a theater, the more people the more chance of there being more annoying people there. You know the type - the ones who have to get the last little bit of soda out of their cup and make awful noises with their straws, those who smack their gum, chew their popcorn with their mouth open or have that squeaky jaw thing when they chew, the person who keeps shifting around behind you and ends up kicking your seat half a dozen times or more. Or my personal favorite, the people who took a bath in perfume or cologne (or didn't take a bath at all) and sitting behind guys who fart the whole movie long.

You can't escape these sort of things, and it's only worse on busy nights.
Personally I'd trade your loud kid with a "Mr. cheap cologne" any day.





Originally Posted by BaloneysMom

I find no excuse for this. If you kid is loud in a theater, don’t bring him to the theater. If he will have a tantrum because you tell him to be quiet, don’t bring him to a theater. That makes sense to me. Why put other people out?
Who are you to tell people they have to live their lives as shut ins? You like going out, so do other people. You can't expect everyone who's even remotely annoying or have kids that are to hide away in their homes. For all you know, that mother may only take her kid out like that once a month or less.

As for kids in adult rated movies. I don't agree they should be at the ones that are extremely gory or have a lot of sex scenes... that's just not right. But that's a parents prerogative and responsibility to make sure their child can deal with what they see.
Personally I'm more offended at seeing children, particularly young children, at rock and metal concerts without any sort of ear protection...
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #13

baloneysmom

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
1,081
Purraise
1
Location
New Brunswick
Originally Posted by strange_wings

Who are you to tell people they have to live their lives as shut ins? You like going out, so do other people. You can't expect everyone who's even remotely annoying or have kids that are to hide away in their homes. For all you know, that mother may only take her kid out like that once a month or less
I still agree with my point. I donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t see why you would bring a kid out to a place if he/she is going to distract everyone. Iâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]m not saying if your kid has problems to lock him up in the house. Im saying to bring him to appropriate places. Loud, friendly restaurants, movie geared towards kids, the mall, the park, etc.

I think itâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s plain rude, people should be more considerate especially if you KNOW they are loud, i will stand by that.
 

natalie_ca

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 2, 2006
Messages
21,136
Purraise
223
Location
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Hmmm, they let kids under the age of 18 into an R rated movie? They don't allow that here. The only movies under 18 can attend are G or PG rated. Are you sure the movie you saw was "R" rated?

At any rate, the Mom was probably so used to her kid making those horrendous sounds while eating that she tunes him out. Frankly I would have spoken up. She certainly needs to instill some manners into the kid.
 

skyecat0117

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Sep 21, 2007
Messages
786
Purraise
1
Location
Az
I went and saw Bruno with a friend and this lady walked in with what looked like an 11 year old son and maybe 13 year old daughter. Now the people at the counter were required to give warning about the content of the movie and they had signs posted about the movie being graphic. About 20 min into the movie she was trying to cover her children's eyes and she ended up leaving. I mean DUH they warn you and if you don't want you children seeing adult content don't bring them.
 

pushylady

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
16,398
Purraise
451
Location
Canada
Originally Posted by strange_wings

But the same thing can be asked of you. Why did you go to a popular movie on a busy night?
Who are you to tell people they have to live their lives as shut ins? You like going out, so do other people. You can't expect everyone who's even remotely annoying or have kids that are to hide away in their homes. For all you know, that mother may only take her kid out like that once a month or less.
Who are you to tell someone not to go to a movie on a popular night?! It's a busy night and popular movie for a reason! The OP shouldn't feel obligated to wait until an inconvenient time just out of fear of someone else rude kids.
People should feel obligated to teach their kids manners. Period.
And the fact is, if it's an R rated movie, the kid shouldn't be there in the first place.
 

goldenkitty45

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Aug 29, 2005
Messages
19,900
Purraise
44
Location
SW Minnesota
In some of the theatres around here, its not that hard to get kids under 18 in an R rated movie - the ones selling tickets really don't care, and you could easily have one person purchase the tickets and the rest wait on the sides.

And there usually is NO one around to collect the tickets as you go look which theatre your movie is playing in. If we wanted to do it, we could switch movies initially or go into another one playing when the first one is done.

No one's around to babysit who's in what theatre.
 

strange_wings

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 20, 2006
Messages
13,498
Purraise
39
Originally Posted by pushylady

Who are you to tell someone not to go to a movie on a popular night?! It's a busy night and popular movie for a reason! The OP shouldn't feel obligated to wait until an inconvenient time just out of fear of someone else rude kids.
People should feel obligated to teach their kids manners. Period.
And the fact is, if it's an R rated movie, the kid shouldn't be there in the first place.
I wasn't telling her when she could go. sheesh.
But it is simple, if people and kids annoy you, go when there'll be less of them.

And my basic point still stands as well. Tolerate others in public. No one knows why some kids or adults behave the way they do, you simply can't see inside their heads and you don't live with them. No one has any idea if the stranger next to them does what they do for a reason.
No one can dictate who can and can't use a public place (short of the owners), and everyone else has as much right to be there no matter how annoying they may be. You, I, and everyone else reading is not any more important or special than anyone else - you simply can't ask everyone to compromise completely for you.

Simple example, I hate the sound of babies crying. The sound is physically painful to me. I don't expect parents to leave their babies at home because they inconvenience me or others. That would be silly and selfish.

Again, no one can decide how someone else decides to raise their child, provided that the child is not being harmed in any way.

But I suppose none of this matters to anyone as people have already made up their minds against being more understanding and trying to see the other side of things.
 

aussie_dog

TCS Member
Super Cat
Joined
Feb 23, 2004
Messages
1,121
Purraise
28
Location
Alberta, Canada
Did you go see District 9? I'm getting the impression it's rated R, but here it's rated 14A. If it were rated 18A, then a kid can still get in, provided he's accompanied by an adult. Under 18, bring an adult. Under 14 (for a 14A movie), bring an adult. If you're under 18 and trying to get in an R movie, you're not going to get in at all.

I can't see how the theatre is to blame, because unless the movie is rated R, the parents are in their right to bring their children. Doesn't make it morally correct, but that's how the ratings go. And the ushers in theatres only check out the theatres periodically, every half hour or so. And I highly doubt they'd be pressed to evict someone because they were chewing too noisily (lol).

Just chalk it up to a less-than-stellar movie-going experience, and, of course, be glad the theatre is trying to make up for your unhappiness with the tickets.
 

krazy kat2

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 14, 2001
Messages
8,085
Purraise
41
Location
Somewhere in Georgia
I agree with Baloney's Mom all the way.
It seems to me that the more annoying people's kids are, the more they inflict them on the general public. I will say something in a heartbeat if I have paid for a movie and someone has brought their annoying brats to it. I don't go out to a movie that is under an "R" rating just for that reason, so their kids should not even be there.
I don't even carry kids in my cab most of the time because they mostly will not behave. I don't carry kid seats, and the law does not require me to. If they have their own, I will let them ride as long as they behave, and am very clear on that point. I cannot concentrate on safe driving if I have kids screaming and kicking my seat.
If you are eating, drinking, or chewing gum, it goes before you get in or you don't get in. I actually had a grown man chewing his nails and spitting them on my dash. I put him out right there by the side of the road. I am sure most of us mind our manners when we are in public, but I do not believe anyone should have to tolerate disgusting behavior from others.
 
Top