A 3-year-old at Casino Royale!?

[Ranger REG]

That reminds me.

I went to London once and their theaters perplexed me. In the UK, you can drink a beer in the theater. You can buy beer at the theater and then take your beer in with you to watch the movie. Then when you're IN the theater, everybody tries to get the seats in the back.
All the seats which in the US are considered "good" are totally empty.

Word of advice: If you take the seat in the front, don't plant your feet on the floor. And wear a hooded poncho.

FWIW, at least the restroom is much cleaner than the theater room.

 

[Ranger REG]

The optimal seat in any movie theater is five rows from the front and dead center. And I will brook no argument! Well, except for maybe at Big Newport. There you could live being a couple of rows further back than that.

Most US cinemas have some amount of slant to the theater. Some are elevated such that each row is above the row in front of it (though that's much more rare), but most have just a gentle slope. Either way, it doesn't matter. Frontish and center is where it's at.

Oh... But if it's an elevated theater, you want the front center seat above the middle walkway (because there's almost always a walkway between the lower half of seats and the upper half).

If the theater has stadium seating, I prefer the center seat that is third or fourth row from the top. That allows me to look down and over the other patrons' head. That also keep me awake, as opposed to being reclined into the seat in an air-conditioned room. *Snores*

 

[Jesus_marley]

Myself, I prefer the 4th or 5th row from the front and dead centre. I find that at that spot the screen fills my entire forward facing vision (leaving my peripheral vision free for allowing me to see and duck incoming milk duds). I don't have to scan across to see the entire screen. it is almost like a full immersion VR experience. any farther back and it just seems like I am watching a big television.

 

[delericho]

What do you consider the "good" seats to be?

Six rows from the front, dead centre.

It doesn't matter so much with elevated seating, though.

 

[Joker]

If the theater has a proper speaker setup then dead center*. That's the "sweet-spot."


*Of the theater, not necessarily the seats. Sometimes you have a large space in front of the front seats.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I have really enjoyed reading this thread this morning. It has been very enlightening to see both sides argued so well. I am not sure I can add anything new, but I am going to put in my 2 cents anyway. I think that most of simplicity's arguments state my general view. I am not going to let societal norms, or governmental guidelines dictate how I raise my kids (I have a 2 year old and another due any day now).
I haven't taken my 2 year old to the movies, because she is not ready for it. Why? Because I say she's not ready. When I feel she is ready, I will take her to what I deem to be appropriate for her, not what Joe Random thinks is appropriate. If she misbehaves, I will (and do in other venues) correct her. If it becomes a repeated/ongoing problem, we will leave.
Don't get me wrong, I think taking a toddler to ANY 'R' rated movie is inappropriate (heck I don't even watch the news when my toddler is in the room). But as I stated I refuse to let others dictate how I raise my kids and will therefore not try and dictate to others.

I think the following summarizes my outlook fairly well.

I think the point I'm trying to make is that it is the attitude of the parents that determines the behavior of the children-- you have to make the choice to raise your spawn to be respectful and polite, and you have to make that choice every day, over and over again... that some parents are not willing, or able to commit to that sort of involvement is unfortunate, but not necessarily new...

And that is exactly what my wife and I attempt to do. My daughter refers to adults as Mr. or Ms. (as in Mr. Bob or Ms Katie), she says 'please', 'thank you' , 'I would like that please' instead of 'I need that' or 'gimme that'. Granted, sometimes she forgets (she's 2) and we remind her with a 'is that how we ask' or 'use your manners please'. She knows that if she acts up innappropriately she will get a warning and then if it continues a spank on the bottom (in public or no).
That being said, we let her run around and play all she wants in the appropriate venues. However, I don't think that the kid only theater or family oriented restaurant is the answer. As parents how are we to teach our children to act properly in a theater if the only theater they are allowed in has kids running around screaming? Or the only restaurant is a Chucky Cheese style? The answer is, we can't. We need to take them to other, more adult type venues to be able to teach them how to act in those venues.

So to those opposed to children in these places I say, if the parents are correcting the children and not ignoring any problems/outbursts, please cut us and the the kids some slack.

Edit: Sorry for the long winded post, it's been a long night...

 

[DonTadow]

I have really enjoyed reading this thread this morning. It has been very enlightening to see both sides argued so well. I am not sure I can add anything new, but I am going to put in my 2 cents anyway. I think that most of simplicity's arguments state my general view. I am not going to let societal norms, or governmental guidelines dictate how I raise my kids (I have a 2 year old and another due any day now).
I haven't taken my 2 year old to the movies, because she is not ready for it. Why? Because I say she's not ready. When I feel she is ready, I will take her to what I deem to be appropriate for her, not what Joe Random thinks is appropriate. If she misbehaves, I will (and do in other venues) correct her. If it becomes a repeated/ongoing problem, we will leave.
Don't get me wrong, I think taking a toddler to ANY 'R' rated movie is inappropriate (heck I don't even watch the news when my toddler is in the room). But as I stated I refuse to let others dictate how I raise my kids and will therefore not try and dictate to others.

I think the following summarizes my outlook fairly well.

And that is exactly what my wife and I attempt to do. My daughter refers to adults as Mr. or Ms. (as in Mr. Bob or Ms Katie), she says 'please', 'thank you' , 'I would like that please' instead of 'I need that' or 'gimme that'. Granted, sometimes she forgets (she's 2) and we remind her with a 'is that how we ask' or 'use your manners please'. She knows that if she acts up innappropriately she will get a warning and then if it continues a spank on the bottom (in public or no).
That being said, we let her run around and play all she wants in the appropriate venues. However, I don't think that the kid only theater or family oriented restaurant is the answer. As parents how are we to teach our children to act properly in a theater if the only theater they are allowed in has kids running around screaming? Or the only restaurant is a Chucky Cheese style? The answer is, we can't. We need to take them to other, more adult type venues to be able to teach them how to act in those venues.

So to those opposed to children in these places I say, if the parents are correcting the children and not ignoring any problems/outbursts, please cut us and the the kids some slack.

Edit: Sorry for the long winded post, it's been a long night...

It just seems that these arguments are fairly selfish. The kid isn't getting anything out of it. Most of these restaurants don't have kids menus and the movies that are r rated either have plots far outside the reach of the kid or put violent and sexual images in the kids head.

The public in the restaurant or theater aren't getting anything but a waste of their enjoyment from their dollar. It seems the only one who benefits are the people whom can say that they control their kids; fight the power. This is very close to the lady who got kicked off a plane recently after the flight attendant asked her to conceal her nursing. I don't think that restaurants and movie theaters should make rules for this, I think humans should be naturally courteous of one another.

 

[Sidekick]

Meh I'm not too bothered by kids in cinemas - provided its an appropriate film/time.

If I go to a film between the hours of 6 and 9 then there are going to be youngere people in it of course.

Its the incessent screaming that gets me (but thankfully that rarely happens).

I don't think that parents and their kids should be barred from the cinema but I do think that ratings shoudl be enforceble. If its an R young kids (heck possibly even those under 15) shouldn't be allowed in. Nice and simple.

Back home in little ole NZ and R16 is precisely that. An R16, If you can't prove that your 16 then they won't let you in.

I'd also like to say that Casino Royale is hardly kid-friendly film.

but it did kick some serious a55. Daniel Craig was a very good bond in my opinion.

These ramblings brought to you by the letters D, B and the number 0.

 

[Elf Witch]

Gee, so you tried to take your kid out to the theater, and it didn't work. And that makes you morally superior how? I, at least, haven't even done it yet. Of course if your kid is causing a ruckus and disturbing the other patrons you get out of Dodge. I'm not saying be stupid about it.

I suspect, however, that the mythical parent who lets his children set fire to the theater/restaurant while they blissfully sit doesn't exist.

I was *waiting* for the restaurant example to come up, as that is yet another place children are apparently not welcome in the "societal norm". I have no sympathy whatsoever for people who whine about children in restaurants. Sorry.

I don't hink I am morally superior I just can't tolerate lazy parents. If you bring a child into this world then you have to expected that your life changes and that for awhile you have to give up some freedoms. If you have a child that can sit quietly through a movie at an early age then by all means bring that child to the movies as long as the content of the movie is not something that your child can't handle. The same goes with nice resturants my aunt used to take me to places like that when I was a child because I was quiet child who get sit still and did not get bored. My brothers on the other hand had a much higher energy level and so no way. The same with my son he could get bored to easily.

It is not fair to a child to put them into situations that they are not ready to handle.

I have seen kids running around resturants and nearly causing the wait staff to trip over them, I have seen kids yelling and throwing tantrums while mommy and daddy sit there ignoring them and all the hostile glares. When your kids misbehaves get off your butt and do something.

And it is rude to bring a child that can't sit still to a resturant that is not meant for kids. Why should my 75.00 dinner be ruined because you can't leave the child at home with a sitter. There are times when as an adult I really don't wish to be around screaming kids and I think other adults feel the same way. Some of them are parents who paid for a sitter to get away and be adults for the evening.

Like I said before I don't mind kids at family style resturants but I draw the line at resturants meant for adults.

 

[Chimera]

The problem really isn't the kid, it's the stupid parent.

I sincerely believe that parents of small children, especially the mothers, are the most self-absorbed, arrogant and unaware people on the planet. Their entire world revolves around their children and everyone else must be forced to bow down before their progeny and tolerate anything they or their parents want to do.

I was crouching down on the floor of a drug store, looking over the books on the lower rack of the magazine/book aisle. A woman coralled her two small children around me to yell at them. One on either side of me, the woman bending over me, YELLING at them, right in my ear. I stood up slowly enough so that she wouldn't get struck in the face by my head (as she would have if I'd shot upright), then turned to face her. She was mortified and rightly so. My opinion of her is unprintable.

Unfortunately, that sort of thing has happened more than once.

Can't tell you how many times I;ve been lectured or yelled at by mothers of small children, because they either couldn't control their children, or were completely unwilling to do so.

For my job, I stood in a lobby of a major public building with over $200,000 in cash and coins for nearly 10 minutes, because a woman thought it ever so much fun to take her handicapped child for a ride up and down the elevator, while refusing to allow anyone else on. I finally forced my way on, only to have her attempt to shove her child's wheelchair THROUGH my two-wheeler loaded with oh, about 200 pounds of coins, when she wanted to get off before me at the next stop.