Being with your children at the movies for the first time can be a very special occasion – or it can be a disaster. Follow these steps so that everyone has a good experience.
Before you had children, a trip to the movies was perhaps the most normal thing. If you liked the actors or the director and he also had a flashy poster, that was enough to go see the movie. It was very easy, but if you have small children, you have to think twice, especially when it comes time for the first trip to the cinema. Here are some tips that can help you on your first adventure with your children in the cinema.
- Decide if your kids are really ready. What is the right age to take your child to the movies? The answer is that it all depends on your child. Many children see their first movie in the cinema at 3 or 4 years old, but there are parents who prefer to wait a little longer, especially if the children are sensitive to loud noises or are afraid of the dark. It’s also good to know that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 18 months of age be exposed to screens only for video chat and at short intervals.
- Select the appropriate movie. Obviously, the idea is to go see a children’s film, and most cartoon films meet that requirement. But it’s also good to look for movies that are slow and not very long. These films are not always in commercial theaters, but you can see them in specialized cinemas, theaters, churches, or schools where they show movies to older children on giant screens. Here are some options for sensitive children.
- Avoid commercials and promotions for other movies. Most commercial theaters show a series of advertising messages before each movie. Children under the age of 8 cannot tell the difference between the commercials and the movie itself. In addition, promos for upcoming movies are often louder and full of fast-paced images, which can be a bit of a scary experience for first-time moviegoers.
- Plan well. Most kids are in their best moods earlier in the day, so taking them in the morning can be a great idea. Also, at these times there are usually a lot of kids who won’t mind if your kids are talking the whole movie. Make sure the kids have eaten, and decide before you get to the theater if you’ll buy them popcorn and candy so you don’t have to negotiate when they’re about to watch the movie. (If you buy popcorn, bring or buy water because it can make them very thirsty.)
- Enjoy the experience and let yourself go. You will not be the first or the last mother or father to run out of the theater with a scared, crying or overwhelmed child by a movie. Yes, you might feel like you’ve wasted money on tickets if you can’t make it to the movies with your kids, but you better not force your kid to sit through the whole movie if he’s not ready to do so yet. The other option is to have a short break in the halls and many times that is enough to get your child ready to head back to the movie theater.
Which session is more secure?
The key is that we go to the movies at a time when there are few people. How to know? In reality, it is difficult to know in view of the situation in which we find ourselves. As a general rule, the “golf” session, the last of the night, is the one with the least public. But at the moment many of the cinemas do not have this session enabled due to the lack of public, so the choice of a time slot is more complicated.
To get rid of doubts, the most recommended thing is that we buy the tickets online and that we wait as long as possible before each session. This will allow us to see if there are many tickets sold and thus we will have the opportunity to calculate the volume of risk to which we are exposed.
What to do before sitting in the room?
Let’s say that we have already entered the cinema and we have moved through the rows until we reach our seats. Should we do something as a preventive measure? Of course. What we must do is disinfect the seat first before proceeding to sit down. The cleaning crew at the theater may have already done this, but we don’t lose anything by doing it too, making it easy. We can use disinfection spray on the seat and armrests and finish cleaning with wipes impregnated with alcohol that allow us to finish and leave the seat practically as new.
What should we do if we want to go bathroom
We put ourselves in the situation of being in the movie theater and having, in the middle of the movie, the need to go to the bathroom. As we said before, it is recommended that you go to the bathroom before leaving the house, this way you will reduce the chances of having an urge while you are in the room. It would also help if the movie you’re going to see isn’t extremely long, which is a problem considering that Tenet, the movie that everyone wants to see, is 150 minutes long.
But what if there is no other solution than to go to the bathroom? In that case, it is recommended that you be very careful, so careful as to imagine that everything you touch could be infected. For example, if you touch the cup, the chain, the door, the handle, or any other similar element, we will have to do everything possible to clean ourselves in a convenient way.
