NY Times Article on Ups & Downs of Taking Children to B'way Shows — Page 2

I would assume that a child needing a lap seat would be small enough that their head should fall well below their parent's shoulders when seated... no?

As one of those people for whom Broadway is local theatre and always has been, I started going at around 4, and loved it, and I can remember a lot. My parents did dtart me on TheatreWorks however when I was around 3. I was well behaved then too, but it allowed for some form of 'training'.

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margo: you are a god(dess), and a godsend to this site, so i post with some trepidation here, but for the first time in my surfing of bww.com i have to disagree with you utterly. vehemently, even.

like you, my parents started me young as a theater-goer. however, (and i bet also like you), my parents made sure that i understood what was expected of me in the situation, and acted swiftly if i even verged on becoming an annoyance to the people around me.

in my experience, parents today are CLUELESS compared to a generation ago. (im still young, and a pretty progressive thinker, so i promise this is not a grandpa simson back-in-my-day tirade) forget not knowing how to discipline their children, parents are so innured to their offspring's bad behavior that they're not even aware of it when it's occurring. sadly, this is the exception and not the rule.

theaters, movies, restaurants ... they all want to be their kids' buddies, not their parents.

i think your faith in modern parenting skills is woefully misplaced, and theater management has an obligation to the *adults* who've forked out 110 bucks a seat to set and enforce some groundrules.

honestly, im sick of having my theater experiences comrpomised by rude PARENTS (because, really, it's not a little tyke's fault if no one's ever taught them better).

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parents spend the money because they have it and they need to keep up with the joneses.

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I don't understand why parents would be willing to risk paying $110 just to find out their child isn't interested in sitting for 2+ hours. Even if you manage a discount ticket, $60 bucks is still too much to pay to find out the show it too long and that your kid isn't interested in sitting thru it.

$110 to you is different than $110 to a family living in Manhattan. Don't assume everyone has the same income.

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Updated On: 12/8/06 at 01:18 AM

"They can confiscate your camera if you dare take a picture of the curtain,"

They may do that, but legally speaking they can't. It's called theft. The worst case scenario they can do is call the police and have the police confiscate the camera.

While I agree with Margo that parents ultimately should make the decision based upon their knowledge of their child's behavior - let's not forget that many parents take their kids to the theater (money not being an issue) simply because they can't or won't get a babysitter and they really are not concerned who their child's bad behavior will affect. To these parents - SHAME ON YOU.

The audience was dreadful when I saw Chitty. I despised every person, adult and child, within a 20-foot radius by the end of that show.

That being said, my parents also took me to a lot of stuff when I was a kid, and I'm thankful that they did. They still laugh at bringing me to a Sarah Brightman concert when I was about 10, during which I slept through the entire "Cats" portion of the show. But at least I wasn't disturbing anyone.

That picture of the 21-month-old twins being taken to Mary Poppins just makes me laugh. They aren't even 2 yet! I'd be willing to bet the paycheck I just got that their parents paid $110 each (or more) for them to have a nice long nap. I saw Mary Poppins when it was in previews and noticed a little boy of about 3 doing just that. He was asleep in his father's arms when his family took their seats, and he stayed that way for the entire show. I'm sure a babysitter for the evening would have been cheaper than his ticket.

I think whatever2 hit the nail on the head here: "parents spend the money because they have it and they need to keep up with the joneses."

There are a lot of very wealthy people in NYC to whom a $250 theatre ticket is a drop in the bucket. They spend the money so they can say that their entitled little angels have seen every Disney show on Broadway before the age of 3. And from Disney's side of it, they are making big $ by marketing their shows as "family entertainment." If families are told they can't bring their 2-year-old, they might not come at all, and Disney loses those ticket sales.

I only hope that the diaper set doesn't start encroching on "adult" shows, and parents who feel they must bring the baby to the theater stick to Disney shows.

Some children are actually EXTREMELY capable of sitting through a show at age 3. If you know your child, you've taken him/her to several community productions and it's a joy, why not move on and give them the best?

Oh I completely agree. It all depends on the individual child, and it is up to the parents to know what their child is capable of. But to FrontRowCenter's point, too often parents just don't realize or care that their child's bad behavior is affecting other people.

Thankfully it's never happened to me at a Broadway show, but several times I've been in movies where a child is allowed to talk or cry throughout the movie until someone in the audience finally yells at the parent to take the kid out. With young children it's often impossible to know how they will react to a situation until they are in it, but if they react badly it's the parents' responsibility to just cut their losses and leave.

That picture of the 21-month-old twins being taken to Mary Poppins just makes me laugh. They aren't even 2 yet!

Oh- so those twins were apparently in Look Book in New York Magazine back when they were 9 months old, and this has got to be the best. 'interview'. ever. with their mother- I can't decided which quote is my fav, it's either:

"For example, I’m a vegetarian, but I’ll wear leather because it could be killed for meat. Therefore, I’m being an environmentalist." or

"I constantly see kids dressed casual, and I just feel that if I teach my kids to be casual, then fashion will die. And I’m not going to let that happen on my watch!"

I would have thought I was reading The Onion if I didn't know this was a real publication- totally worth the read.




article- "If I teach my kids to be casual, then fashion will die."

Updated On: 12/8/06 at 12:47 PM

Anakela, I'm not sure whether to thank you for the laugh or curse you for alerting me to such stupidity in this world.

Even better quote:

"And I love fur, but I buy mine at the flea market and only if it’s 50 years old, because 50 years ago we were not familiar with the way they kill animals."

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