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I am still amazed that people expect their 1-2 year olds to sit through an almost 2 hour movie. Does anyone do anything to educate their customers that the small kids may not sit through the movie and that will be wasting their time and money?

3 seems to be the magic age from my experience.

why, you must be playing Cars 2 this weekend!

I don't know how to say something without sounding like a jerk. 3 is about right, but for whatever reason, some parents just don't get it.

Time to bring back the "cry rooms"?

So a mother of the year candidate was in tonight. 1-2 year old watching Harry Potter. 40 mins into the movie, she is with the crying child at the door to the auditorium holding the door open. I asked her to move to the lobby with the crying child and she went off on me.

HOWDY -
Coincidentally ( researching 'D-Box'), I found 'DIAPER DAYS' at the following theater in my old haunts in Santa Clara Valley where I grew up, at the Pruneyard Shopping Center, Campbell CA... YOU CAN LINK, OR HERE'S THE TEXT, TOO ... this is why I want to do a special place just for the younger generation!

(& THEY EVIDENTALLY DO HAVE A ROPED OFF "D-BOX" SEATING FOR "HARRY POTTER" FOR $18!)

www.cameracinemas.com/diaper.shtml

Diaper Days and Date Nights


Diaper Days screens the first and third Wednesdays of each month at 1:30pm (note the new later starting time) at Camera 7 Pruneyard. Tickets are only $7 ($9.75 for special RealD 3D films), with kids 4 and under admitted free. Upcoming Diaper Days movies include:
August 3rd (1:30pm, Camera 7) -- TBA
August 17th (1:30pm, Camera 7) -- TBA

Why should the daytime crowd have all the fun? In addition to Diaper Days, we also host Diaper Date Night which, beginning in January, screens twice a month -- the first Tuesday at Camera 7 Pruneyard, and the fourth Tuesday at Los Gatos Cinema. Diaper Date Nights are a great workaround for parents with busy daytime schedules. Tickets are only $7 ($9.75 for special RealD 3D films), with kids 4 and under admitted free (Diaper Day/Date Nights screenings only). Upcoming Diaper Date Nights include:
July 26th (8:00pm, Los Gatos) -- Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (in 2D)
August 2nd (7:00pm-ish, Camera 7) -- TBA
August 23rd (8:00pm-ish, Los Gatos) -- TBA

Our Diaper Days and Date Nights movie screenings are a great way to get out of the house with your little one(s) and meet up with other parents and their cultured babies in a kid-friendly environment.

Baby Bjorns, infant carriers and slings are welcome and encouraged. Due to space limitations and fire hazards, strollers are not permitted in the auditorium. However we offer designated stroller parking in the lobby. We also offer changing tables in both the Men's and Women's restrooms and baby safe lighting and sound levels in the theater.

Get news and vote for upcoming Diaper Days/Date Nights movies by going to our DIAPER DAYS YAHOO GROUP. If you are not already a member of this group, you can sign up below:

I agree with Leeler -- I don't know what I would say without offending the parent of a potential "cryer".

You could try tacking something on to any "No talking during film" policy you might have posted somewhere by adding that it is the parent's responsibility to ensure children follow this policy as well.

You could also try adopting a policy where no children under "x" years old are allowed to see PG13 and/or R rated movies past, say, 9:00PM. This will help guide people who would be annoyed by disturbing children/babies to attend movies in the later time slot and have a more enjoyable experience sans tantrums.

An area in the lobby delegated for bored/fussy/upset children might be a good idea for some...maybe not as fancy as a cry room (unless you have the space) but a space with books, toys, coloring books, etc. It MIGHT steer parents to come to the lobby to settle down their kids.

This is one of those things that luckily (at least in my experience) doesn't happen often, as most people exercise common sense with their kids. If that tasteless type of mom wants to see Harry Potter, she's going to do what she wants, her screaming baby in tow. I have heard piercing crying in the theater and counted the MINUTES until the parent came out with baby into the lobby. Would a "play area" matter to these people? Not likely.

My two cents on "Diaper Days" --

We tried something like this with the documentary "Babies". A lot of parents expressed that they wanted to see it, especially those with little ones, but it wasn't really a "kid movie", so we tried to accommodate them. We kept lights at half for the special "Baby/Tot screening", delegated a space for strollers, and offered some baby/toddler friendly snacks.

The majority of people who came did NOT realize (despite advertisement in all places, including on the theater door before the show) that this was a special screening. A few of the elderly were annoyed at the few kiddies that did come with their parents. They were sure to SHHHH at the kids at every opportunity.

For us, for that show, it was a terrible experience. If we stuck with it and built up the "Diaper Days" program as a regular "thing", we might have had more success with it down the road.

But would it help with situations like the single mother who wants to see Harry Potter with her litter of disorderly, out of control toddlers? Probably not. She's not going to go to "Diaper Days".