…us, for buying Riley a ticket for a movie.
Yes, we had hoped that a 2.5 year old could sit through an entire movie. Granted, it was a cool looking movie like WALL-E, but, yeah, DUMB.
Our motives – I suppose – were sweet and well-intentioned. Let’s do a family thing! It’ll be their ‘first’ movie experience. It’s raining. Yet I deliberately switched of the part of my brain that was going WARNING! WARNING! when we were waiting in the lobby and I looked around and saw Riley was the youngest there by far. Come to think of it, Keira might’ve been the youngest. At least she made it all the way through – albeit peppering the movie dialogue with loud statements like, “Where did MUMMY go with RILEY?” “When will she be back?”
That’s right – I had to take my son outside, who lasted in his expensive seat a grand total of 15 min and we went to watch the Thomas the Tank Engine display in the toy store next door.
That’s right folks: my son can’t sit still, but you plonk him in front of a automated train set, going around and around and around in a circle – that’s ALL it does – and he will stand there, transfixed, for half an hour. Go figure.
So we waited. And waited. Finally, they came out. With Keira’s eyes looking somewhat like this:
Poor thing, I think she was overcome with it all. She was quite quiet for the rest of the evening and went to bed early. I suppose it is a draining, over-awing experience for a near 4.5 year old. My first ever movie, {Just cross referencing my diaries to see what it was!}, was when I was about 9. Bit of a difference.
How old were you when you saw your first movie? How old were your kids when you first took them?
Oh, by the way, I heard that WALL-E was really good. What I saw, it looked great. I even got weepy when he watched that damn video and interlaced his metal fingers together to copy the human hand-holding.
Yah. Blech. I know.
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
We’ve had that happen a few times with movies. Can’t remember how old our eldest was when he went to his first movie. It’s hard now though as the youngest isn’t as likely to sit still but the older 2 really want to go. We’re planning on seeing Wall-E while we’re away. I just tend to make sure I have lots of snacks (small lollies like Tic Tacs) and that keeps our youngest amused a little longer. When we went to see Ratatouille (who knows how to spell that) he was 3 I think and spent most of the movie playing with a matchbox car in the aisle. LOL.
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I was a queen of ‘babes in arms’ movies in Auckland. Arrive early, set up a play mat on the floor at the front of the cinema. Add ‘quiet’ toys and snacks and a pleasant movie experience was had for all. It did help that all patrons had kids in tow so the noise was expected.
Both kids sat through Chitty Chitty Bang Bang on Broadway. AJ was 3 1/2 and totally transfixed, I don’t think he moved during the entire show. Milla watched bits and pieces between snacking and sleeping. Thinking back,
between 2 and 3, movies were hard work unless they involved heaps of singing and dancing, but that may be indicative of their early movie days and still their favourite movies of Mary Poppins, Singin in the Rain, Calamity Jane and Chitty.
del’s last blog post..Bliss
I was 4 and it was The Life Of Bonnie and Clyde. Or at least that was what it was about. I had a new dress just like my mother’s and a purse and new shoes. We went to a swank theatre downtown and I was TERRIFIED. I spent the whole movie (after the first scene with guns and blood) under the seat with my hands on my ears. It was 1967/68 and we stayed til the end.
At least you picked a movie that is kid friendly and didn’t scar the little ones.
Marjie
Sometime when I was 8 was my first trip to the movies. I remember going to see Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Back to the Future Part 3 and Look Who’s Talking (I think- not 100% about that last one) at the Bandbox. I don’t remember anything earlier than these.
I was wondering the same thing, my son is 21 months. A friend tried to get me to take him to a movie over the summer but there’s no way he would have sat still for more than a minute so I passed.
We did see a kid about a year old get wheeled into A Dark Knight when we went to see it. The movie started at 9:30 and I was so pissed at the parents for keeping her out that late. She ended up waddling back and forth up the aisle while her parents were oblivious. Grrr.
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He’ll probably be around 15 before you let him go to a cinema again!
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lightening – I would’ve been tempted to let him play in the aisles too except the theatre was PACKED and we were in the middle of the row. grrr!
del – I forgot about those. I’ve only ever been to one when Keira was a baby (‘Wimbledon’ – slim pickings that month!) Maybe its worth another shot!
Marjie – Goodness! What a story! I hope it didn’t scar you too much!
Shelly – you and I went with E & S down in North Haven in summer ’88, I believe….
Casey – Yes! We saw really littlies in DK too! Not that late though. The mind boggles
JLP – At this rate, yes!
Hi-
I actually took my 4 and 5 year old to the movie recently and survived! They did great- left the two year old at home. He does very poorly. Until they old old enough to bribe them with soda, popcorn and red vines- I keep them home!
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Yep, I BTDT
and paid the price with angry teenagers.
I haven’t tried again since.
I think my big girls were about five or six though when we had our first successful family movie outing, that means lily would have been around three.
Actually, we have been since but we went to the drive in, so we were safely in our bus!
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The first movie I took ‘Salina to was “Piglet’s Big Movie” – she was about 3 at the time.
Oh my – she was absolutely beside herself by the end, it had SO MUCH IMPACT on her.
We also had to leave Finding Nemo as it was too scary.
Given the price of movies, much easier to rent a dvd.
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