How would you handle it if you were at a kids' movie and the kids in the seats behind you were very disruptive?

I would inform the usher. Then ask for a refund if not solved.

The usher is the susher.

I would remember it is a kid movie and tough it out.
Maybe dad has visitation and this was it.
Maybe mommy just had another baby and this was getting her some rest.
Maybe they were homeless and this was a place they could cool off.
Maybe they were just kids and dad was understanding enough to know kids don’t enjoy movies in the same way adults do, usually.
I think if she wanted quiet to enjoy a kid movie, she should wait for the DVD.

I would have gone to the manager and asked for a refund and saw it another time.

Ask the Dad to tell his kids to stop. If that doesn’t work, talk to the usher or manager. If that doesn’t work, get a refund.

I would turn around, and politely ask them to please stop kicking the seat. It sounds like she didn’t do that, she waited and did nothing for an hour. Giving the evil eye doesn’t tell these kids what is annoying her. Kids don’t usually understand that putting their feet on the seat is felt through the seat. I doubt they were kicking the seat to annoy her, they were kicking it, because they were putting their feet up and being rambunctious.

Once I said something, if they don’t stop, then I’d give one more chance directing my comment to the dad, and if that didn’t stop the bad behavior, then eventually go to an employee at the theater to get my money back or free tickets to another show if getting to the theater wasn’t difficult for me. Or, ask to have the children spoken to, or thrown out.

I really think it’s extremely likely they would have stopped if she had articulated what the problem was. Plus, they would have to kick my chair quite a bit for me to be bothered.

The singing wouldn’t bother me if they were singing along.

You really can’t win in a packed theater with a bunch of kids, particularly if it’s a kid’s movie. Once you’ve assessed the situation, you should demand your money back and wait for school to open in a couple of weeks. Catch the movie at 10 A M on a school day in an all but empty theater. I do it all the time.

@stanleybmanly: My other thought was she could go late as possible, maybe a 10 o’clock show or whatever is pretty late, and hopefully there wouldn’t be many kids there. Also it’s less likely to be sold out, so she would have more seat choices at that time.

I’ve been in theaters full of children and I’ve never had a problem. Usually, children behave. She just was in front of a kid that didn’t sit still. That happened to me once on a plane, and I said something right away, and it didn’t happen again.

Yeah, on FB, some people were asking why she waited so long before she said something. If I found it very annoying, I wouldn’t have been able to wait an hour and a half before I said something.

Ex-usher/Manager here. I have dealt with this a few times. If the theater is full we would generally try to move the obnoxious kids to the front row. Hand out passes for anyone in the front willing to give up their seat and move to where the bad people were. Or we could bring in some folding chairs and stick the annoying ones in the back by the exit. Or offer passes for the annoying people just come back later when it isn’t so busy.

Nobody gave a shit about passes. We had rolls of them in the safe and we were supposed to write down why we gave them out. We never did. The majority of the passes we used were traded for food at the food court across the street. We had a pretty sweet deal with Pizza Hut. Their Sunday night manager was down with delivering a few pizzas if we gave them 8–10 passes.

We would even give you passes if you came out in the middle and said you had a emergency and need to leave. Or you can just say the movie is bad. Or at the end of the movie come out and say to told one of the concessionists the theater was cold or to hot or to loud or to quite and nobody did anything about it.

But back to the original question. Let somebody know and they should take care of it. I enjoyed kicking people out. Take that high school bullies, I finally have power over you.

Fun story-time. For a while on Saturday mornings we had pharmaceutical reps come in and rent out the entire building. So in one theater there were reps shilling pills and handing out stationary to doctors. A few theaters down we had hundreds of unattended kids hopped up on all the sour patch kids and soda they can eat trying to watch a movie. Lord of the flies shit right there. It was bonkers enough we didn’t even try to keep the kids safe.

Waiting an hour is passive aggressive. That behavior always feels to me like the person wants to be annoyed, or wants to be able to complain about something. She probably already thinks kids are annoying, and now she thinks she proved it.

I’m with @Patty Melt. I get annoyed spemding good money to hear people cut up and act like neanderthals with cell phones on.

And its a kid movie, what do you expect? Ruining the kids fun time is bratty imo.

Good point @JLeslie. Someone asked her on the thread if she had kids and she said no. I know before I had kids, I found them annoying. I still find misbehaving kids annoying, but I am more tolerant than I used to be prior to having a kid.

In a movie, I find a lot of things annoying, like rustling candy wrappers, etc.

Drag them out into the street and curb-stomp the lot of them.
At least, that is how it is in my phantasies, where dispensing personal justice is not frowned upon.

@jca2 What I don’t understand is how people don’t remember being kids. I don’t have kids, but I remember what I did as a kid. I remember my mom having to tell me not to put my shoes on furniture, and not to kick the back of a chair. I got the message after one or two times, but it wasn’t intuitive for me to not do it. When I did those things I wasn’t trying to hurt or annoy someone else, I was just being selfish and thoughtless. My mom was always obsessively concerned about being mindful of other people around us.

What city did this event happen? I’m just curious.

I wouldn’t go to a kid’s movie if I didn’t want to be annoyed by a kid!!! There’s a good chance that the kids are going to outnumber the adults 4–1. Actually, I never enjoyed going to see a movie at a theater because there was always somebody disrupting the movie…adults can be as bad as kids.

I stopped going to a movie theater almost 30 years ago, With the invention of technology to allow me to watch movies at home, I chose to do so. That way I can hit pause when I need to visit the bathroom so I don’t miss anything, I don’t need to take out a loan to get a tub of popcorn, I don’t have anyoone talking while I’m enjoying my movie, I can laugh when the mood strikes me & cry if I choose to without anyone staring at me (except the cat). There are very few movies that I can’t wait for the DVD to come out. For the few that I ust can’t wait, I use Redbox where they come out early!!!

I think this woman made a bad choice & didn’t think it through. She didn’t “have to” choose a sold out viewing. She could have chosen a viewing earlier in the day where there would have been fewer kids. She could have complained to the dad earlier IF it really bothered her that bad. She also could have said something to the offending kid. She could have complained to employees of the theater. For me, The Lion King is not a “have to see today” type movie!!! While waiting in line to get her ticket, surely she could see how many ankle biters were going to be there to annoy her.

@JLeslie: Bethel CT. It’s not far from Danbury CT.

I would have asked the dad to ask the kids to stop kicking my chair. If that didn’t work, I would go to the manager. Kids need to be taught how to behave in all situations. Movies cost too much to be disrupted by rowdy kids.

Don’t go when movies are first released, fuck the atmosphere of watching in a packed theatre, it’s way overrated & shit like this happens.

My daughter & I go in the second week, that way you get the vip seats, peace & fucking quiet & even get to kick back & rest your feet on the seats in front…bliss.

Honestly, with my history with kids, I’d probably turn around, and in my “I mean business” teacher voice I would have said, “STOP kicking the back of my seat.”
I guess then what I get from the jackass parent who let them behave like that in the first place.

Or, like everyone else said, relocate or leave.