My PSA for the day
We went to the Opera on Sunday. We saw The Marriage of Figaro, put on by the Bulgarian State Academic Opera. It was good, not the best performance I'd ever seen, but solid. But that's not all we saw. I had bought nosebleed seats, first row of the second balcony, smack dab in the middle, which was great, except poor Bill was wedged in. He could barely fit in the space alloted to him and the way the balcony was situated, he couldn't really angle himself to relieve the pressure on his kneecaps.
Next to Bill, were some parents with their 2 year old son. I was a little skeptical that a child so young would even appreciate all that Italian, especially when he can't read the sur titles, but for the first half he was entranced. What a little angel! He did a great job. All of that changed about 10 minutes into the second half. The boy, I think had just had enough. He went from babbling to full out screaming in about 5 minutes. I'm sure that it didn't help that the dad did not return for the second half, so perhaps he felt like he didn't have to listen to mom, who knows.
So, not only did the kid ruin the best aria of the performance (I was pissed), but at one point Bill turned to me because the mom was changing her son's diaper (as he was making all sorts of noise) right there. The boy was standing and she whipped out a diaper and changed him. I couldn't believe it.
Finally, because I wasn't the only one around us getting angry, I leaned over Bill and told her that her son was really loud. What I really wanted to say was, "Get your ass out of your seat and remove your son. Muzzling him to keep him quiet doesn't work, he's just going to think that's a game. It's incredibly disrespectful to the rest of the people in the theatre to think that it's okay to keep your child there." Of course, that would have been even more disruptive, so I didn't. But I was angry.
I have no idea where the ushers were, it would have been much easier if they had been proactive and asked her to leave, so I wouldn't have had to.
She ended up waiting until the best aria of the performance was over, grabbed her brat and got out of there.
I'm all for exposing your children to culture at a young age, but if they are misbehaving, don't sit there and expect them to quiet down. If they're noisy, you need to leave. It is entirely unreasonable to expect a 2 or 3 year old child to sit through a 2.5 - 3 hour performance, let alone one that is in Italian!!!
Next to Bill, were some parents with their 2 year old son. I was a little skeptical that a child so young would even appreciate all that Italian, especially when he can't read the sur titles, but for the first half he was entranced. What a little angel! He did a great job. All of that changed about 10 minutes into the second half. The boy, I think had just had enough. He went from babbling to full out screaming in about 5 minutes. I'm sure that it didn't help that the dad did not return for the second half, so perhaps he felt like he didn't have to listen to mom, who knows.
So, not only did the kid ruin the best aria of the performance (I was pissed), but at one point Bill turned to me because the mom was changing her son's diaper (as he was making all sorts of noise) right there. The boy was standing and she whipped out a diaper and changed him. I couldn't believe it.
Finally, because I wasn't the only one around us getting angry, I leaned over Bill and told her that her son was really loud. What I really wanted to say was, "Get your ass out of your seat and remove your son. Muzzling him to keep him quiet doesn't work, he's just going to think that's a game. It's incredibly disrespectful to the rest of the people in the theatre to think that it's okay to keep your child there." Of course, that would have been even more disruptive, so I didn't. But I was angry.
I have no idea where the ushers were, it would have been much easier if they had been proactive and asked her to leave, so I wouldn't have had to.
She ended up waiting until the best aria of the performance was over, grabbed her brat and got out of there.
I'm all for exposing your children to culture at a young age, but if they are misbehaving, don't sit there and expect them to quiet down. If they're noisy, you need to leave. It is entirely unreasonable to expect a 2 or 3 year old child to sit through a 2.5 - 3 hour performance, let alone one that is in Italian!!!