Take the kid out!

Greetings all!

So today I moved up from couch status to movie theatre status! I have spent this whole past week on the couch (and have loved it, which is a first, usually I'm ready to get back to the classroom...not this year!) and a friend of mine invited me to see a couple movies in the theatre today. I was excited! I haven't done a double feature day in years! Sounds good, right? It was, but, not without a bit of drama...

So, first we saw "Memoirs of a Geisha", which was quite good. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it! It was an education for me in and of itself, as I've never studied other cultures like that in depth. Hey, I teach Fourth and Fifth Grade Special Education kiddos how to read and write, we don't exactly get to go indepth on other cultures! Anyway, good flick. And, it's an adult flick, no kiddos present! Yes!

Then we left that theatre, bought our tickets for our next flick, got our pop refills, and headed for the next movie. Now, I should preface this by stating, our double feature was at the dollar theatre here in town. (I can hear you now, "Uh Oh, EVERYONE goes there!") Yeah, very popular place today.

So, we walk into the "Chronicles of Narnia" theatre. This movie, I have looked forward to seeing, even though I just started reading the series. I wanted to see it before it left theatres. Of course, this theatre is packed more than the other one, and is full of little children. I do the usual "teacher" look around the theatre...whew, I didn't recognize one child! Yippee, Spring Break continues! So, of course, the only seats available are right behind a single mother with a 2 year old (my guess is 2, he certainly played the part well!) and a 7-ish year old kiddo. My thoughts were "okay, God, please let this go well!" Yeah, not so well...

We're within about the second preview and this 2 year old is screaming at the top of his lungs "no!" as the older sibling grabs popcorn out of the bag. Now, at this point, my thought is this: if he doesn't get quiet I'll be the one screaming! Yeah, haven't you been there? Haven't we all been there? I get a first row account of the drama between mother and children while trying my best to watch this movie (and it was good, I highly recommend it!). It made me wonder, where the drama was really happening, on the screen or in the row in front of me with a parent who doesn't quite grasp discipline with her children? And yet, at a pivotal point in the movie, where I'm trying to watch, brat-boy lets out a scream in which you would think his life is coming to end! I am finally thinking, "okay, do I ask her or tell her to take her kid out of the theatre?" She finally walks out with brat-boy in hand, 2/3 of the movie is shown by this point.

Now, in a normal theatre, at least in my corner of the planet, she would've been asked to take the kid out by the movie theatre staff well before she did. Kinda makes youwonder what the difference should be between a dollar theatre and a "regular" one. To me, it should be nothing, but this is real life...

In the end, the kid never returned with his mother (to which we can all applaud now!) and I did get to see the last third of the movie with my full attention on screen. However, the lesson, "Take the kid out" will stick with me for a lifetime.

If I ever get married and have kids (which I am hoping for, I think) I will take the kid out if I need to. However, I am left wondering one thing: Should a 2 year old be taken to a 2 and a half hour long movie in a movie theatre? Not in my world during this lifetime....

Don't worry, I return to work on Monday....