Don’t take your little kid to see movies

While we were at the library watching The Black Cauldron recently, a young couple came in with their infant and young son who couldn’t have been older than two. They entered in the middle of the film and the son kept saying, “Mama? Mama?” and sweetly asking her questions and offering her his snack. They seemed like loving parents, but he obviously wasn’t interested in the movie—and there were scenes that were so violent (blood, skeleton bones, witches, death, etc.) I know I wouldn’t have taken my two-year-old. My seven-year-old saw scenes she didn’t like as it was.

I totally get needing activities to get you out of the house when you’re a new parent, but I strongly advise against taking little ones to movies. We took Wood Sprite to a couple when she was asleep, at about age two, and she slept on me while we watched one of the Shrek movies and a couple of other animated films. That was fine—until she woke up during Ratatouille and wanted to go home. So we didn’t take her to movies again until she was much older and ready.

After the film, this little boy had a great time with the library’s puzzles. There are tons of books (of course!), a life-size fire truck that a friend’s son made as his Eagle Scout project, toys, and coloring pages to do, and I’m thinking his parents probably would have given him a better time had they decided to just hang out and let him explore these things. Of course, I know they probably wanted to see a movie or do something themselves, which can be really difficult once you have kids.

Which leads me to my next point—gift the new moms and dads in your family with free sitter time! It’s the best gift you can give them, for sure.

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia