Jun 30 2008
A visit to the theater
Every Tuesday at 10 a.m. a local theater runs "Billion Dollar Babies," a mom and tot movie showing. Nathan, Lucie, and I attended a showing of "Ice Age: The Meltdown" with my moms club. All our kids had the day off from school, so there was a big crowd of kids ranging from infants to middle schoolers.
Usually I take my kids to regular G/PG rated movie showings and to IMAX at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. They're usually well behaved, and quietly stay in their seats, eating popcorn, and watching the flick. So I had not taken advantage of special mom and kid showings before. I'm glad I did because it was wonderfully family friendly and easy to do with both kids. There's nothing like being surrounded by families, too. I knew they didn't think l was a crazed, maniac mom when I kept yelling at the kids to stop messing with the video games in the lobby and get a move on. The other moms were all doing it, too!
Being the first showing of the day meant the theater was fairly clean. Also, they kept the sound turned down to a normal level, which I'd appreciate even if I didn't have my kids with me. The lights were kept on a little, which came in handy when Lucie dropped her "buddies" (her stuffed animals) and I had to retrieve them -- several times -- off the floor. Instead of blindly reaching around and touching goodness knows what, I could see what I was trying to pick up.
I had thought keeping the lights on was going to bother me. However, I really liked that I could see my kids as they moved to the front row, and then got up 15 minutes later to sit in the back row with the older kids. Instead of chasing them down, I calmly sat there enjoying the movie and eating all of my friend's popcorn while I kept an eye on them.
Like at any movie outing, some of the moms spent a small fortune on popcorn and candy. I planned ahead and stopped off at the grocery store for a box of fruit snacks, which quickly disappeared. I still bought a $4 soda, which I shared with the kids. Not a smart idea, because Nathan got up three times to go to the bathroom. For once this wasn't an issue since everyone else's kids were doing that, too. I let Nathan go to the bathroom by himself since one of my friends was usually out there with one of their preschoolers. Nothing like feeling safe in a theater filled with families and helpful staff members.
Knowing that this is stress relieving haven for me, my family, and several of our friends, I'm planning on going back during school vacations. Hollywood, are you listening?