One of my good friends (who interestingly enough has two kids with a third on the way) sent me this article from Newsweek because it spoke to her. She has a lot of "uber-mommies" in her mommies group [sidenote: please don't ever make me join one of those] and I know that they sometimes make her feel like a freak because she's not like them. She works full time, is finishing her PhD and is very proud of where her career is going. I'd like to think that when the time comes for me to be a parent, I'll be the same way.
On a slightly related note, I am still shocked at how people are completely oblivious to what is and ISN'T appropriate to do with children these days. For example, BJ (a.k.a. fiancee) and I paid $13 each to see the new Harry Potter film in IMAX 3D (which was QUITE cool by the way). After sitting down in the sold out theater, I noticed a fat woman with an infant who appeared about 4 months old - in a movie that was going to be over 2 and half hours long?!?!?!? Are you kidding me??? There was a lot of murmuring around us as apparently all of the other movie goers were also noticing the impending disruption to their cinematic experience. Of course the baby ended up fussing, and cooing and making baby noises that might be adorable were I not trying to enjoy my movie and popcorn. I suppose I should give her credit for taking the baby out of the theater when after feeding him/her it still continued to cry. Of course somewhere behind us there was apparently another infant that we could hear occasionally wailing in the back. Please shoot me if I EVER think that's it's appropriate for my kid to ruin everyone else's movie!!!
4 comments:
New parent here and I agree totally. I've settled in to the fact that I'll only get to see one or two movies a year in the theater for the next few years (at least). I'm keeping a list of films I want to see so I can remember to look for them on video.
That said...I used to think kids should not be allowed into restaurants. I'd like to amend that now and say that it's okay as long as you maintain control, it's not a fancy place, and you try to not hit peak hours. We've had a few successful trips with Bex so i have an inflated sense of confidence.
See you in a few weeks
Oh don't get me started on the whole "kids at a movie" issue. Some theaters have special showings for families with small kids, and I think that is a wonderful idea! I've been to a couple, and it's fun. I wish more theaters did that.
I dont think that just because the slight disruption might offend someone, that a parent should have to be stuck and home and deprived of a life outside the house. There are far more idiots with cell phones ringing and talking out loud in the theater than parents with crying kids. It's all about common sense, if you're kids gets fussy, be prepared to go outside. Babies cant control what they have going on, adults can.
I have to say that I think the real issue that annoys me is people not taking responsibility. If you take your child (which is your right) to a restaurant, coffee shop, theatre, movie, airplane flight, etc and they start disturbing others, it is your responsibility as a parent to stop that behavior or remove the child so they are not disturbing others. I see entirely too many parents that just ignore the behavior entirely until someone complains. I sometimes wonder if they just don't notice, they don't care, or they don't want to go to the effort of disciplining their children.
As for the Newsweek article. I couldn't agree more. I will stop you from becoming that person. :)
Post a Comment