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Wednesday, September 19, 2012

On (mostly) ignoring kids with a smile


Lindsay and I went to see The Avengers at the dollar theater yesterday, courtesy of Lindsay's mom who is awesome and took off work to do some babysitting for us. It was a fun flick.

Once the movie started, though, I discovered I had a kicker sitting in the seat behind me. When my seat first started vibrating, I glanced behind me just to make sure the kicker was less than four feet tall. Satisfied, I turned back around, and enjoyed the rest of the movie. The reverberations against the back of my seat really enhanced the action scenes. They made it like a full-on sensory experience, you know?

I thought about it afterwards, and found myself actually a little surprised that I didn't mind the kicking that much. I mean, we were on a date. A cheap one, but it was a DATE, and we'd gone out of our way to get our little hanger-on off our hands.

But the kicking wasn't that hard, although pretty constant. And the kid wasn't making any noise or whining or anything. He might have been a little young to be watching the film, but frankly I felt a little nostalgic for my daughter as I sat there jiggling to the beat of this six-year-old's rhythm. You know, like the way your toddler will kick her leg while sitting in your lap while you watch The Backyardigans.

The mom told her kid several times to stop what he was doing, but aside from that early check-in, I didn't tun around again. Don't worry, mom who I don't know. I'm a parent, too. Being able to watch a movie with just a little rhythmic back massage is better than I usually get, so don't sweat it. Kids are gonna be kids. I can deal with that. I'd much rather have a kid who's mostly well-behaved than some adult who won't get off their phone. And though we're not supposed to ignore our own kids, I didn't feel bad at all mostly ignoring yours. With a slight smile on my face.