'AITA for telling a woman to have her kids get off their phone at the movies? They got kicked out.'
"AITA for telling a woman to have her and her kids get off their phone at the movies resulting them either getting kicked out or leaving?"
I saw a movie last night and during the movie, was distracted by a family two rows in front of me. mom, a teen son and teen daughter and maybe a 7-year-old daughter. The first issue was the son was constantly moving seats throughout the movie. At one point he was sitting in front of his family.
The mom was on her phone most of the movie, at several points filming the movie. The mom and son were taking turns using their phones and then passing one of the phones to the 7-year-old who was playing games.
It was super distracting so I went up and whispered to the mom to get off their phones. She said, “She’s playing a game. She’s not doing anything wrong.” I said “it’s a movie theater. Ya’ll aren’t supposed to be on your phones.” The mom said “You can ask nicer.”
I said “Or you can be a better example to your kids and actually parent them properly,“ and walked away. A couple minutes later, I was about to get up to go talk to an employee cuz they were still on their phones but, the mom got up and was gone for a few more minutes before the kids got up and left.
The teen daughter said “Hope you're happy. You should be ashamed of yourself, talking a to a grown woman like that as a grown man.”
The son called me a punk AH b**h, took my collector popcorn bucket from the movie from next to me and started to run away. When I got up to go after him, dropped it and ran off. AITA? The whole interaction was just really weird.
Here's what people had to say to OP:
ganymede42 wrote:
NTA. Rude movie-goers are the worst. My husband and I had a rare date night years ago and saw A Quiet Place. A lady in front of us had not a newborn baby or anything but a whole toddler in her lap, like at least 18 months old. Completely ruined the movie 😭.
SpicyPornWonTonn wrote:
Dude, WTF? NTA. You should have reported their ass. If they want to behave like that during a movie, DO IT AT YOUR DAMN HOUSE FFS! Go get an employee all day long, every damn day. You paid a butt ton to see the movie. You deserve the experience. I hate it when parents let their kids run feral at movies.
Rootsman64 wrote:
NTA. In addition to others who commented here backing you up, it is also illegal to record movies in the cinemas. That alone could have gotten her at the least detained by law enforcement. She and her brats don't realize you did them a favor by not going straight to the theater staff in the first place.
OP responded:
Oh yeah I know it’s illegal. I’m old enough to remember when the had the anti-pirating psa before movies. No idea why they got rid of that.
Valinhall wrote:
My 4-year-old can sit and watch a movie in the movie theater without hopping around and needing a phone. What in the goddamn world am I reading lol. I’d say the only thing would have been to not interact with the people and just go straight to an employee about the issue. Can’t interact with people nowadays about things that they may take offense over.
OP responded:
I definitely agree that people nowadays take offense over stuff. I really hate interactions like this but, often times the staff will only do something if they see it themselves or are too busy to come in and tell the person. So I figured to try and tell them first before going to get someone.
Infamous-Purple-3131 wrote:
NTA. Phones give off light. I use my ipad before the coming attractions and movie start. Then I turn it off. At my theater, at that point, it is announced that devices need to be turned off. You wouldn't have to "talk to a grown woman like that" if she knew how to behave in a theater.
I go to the movies fairly often, and behavior of patrons is actually better than it was years ago. I think it is because the theater management is pretty clear that that stuff isn't allowed.
Smurfiette wrote:
NTA. And this is why I don’t go out to watch movies anymore. I just watch movies at home where my screen mag not be floor to ceiling huge but still big enough for me. I like watching movies in peace without other people’s noises and distracting motions.
stolenfires wrote:
NTA. Sounds like they were obnoxious enough that someone else complained to an usher and they blamed you. As a movie lover, people like that ruin the whole film experience. I'm not paying $20-25 a ticket to have my immersion ruined by someone who doesn't realize how to behave in public. Thanks for protecting the experience for others.
KellyAnn3106 wrote:
I don't go to the movies or the theatre anymore because people have forgotten how to behave. I went to the Lion King last year. It's a stunning stage show, full of visuals and the woman next to me was constantly playing with her phone and had brought a full meal. After some harsh words, she finally put the phone down for a while but she definitely wasn't the only one.
People kept walking in and out during the show. Some of the attire was beyond inappropriate. I'm old enough to remember when we dressed up for the theatre and they confiscated all pagers so they wouldn't be disruptive. (An usher would quietly fetch you if it went off).
No_Mention3516 wrote:
NTA.
But you just met entire family of AHs.
onmywheels wrote:
Husband and I recently went to see Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die and literally while one of the characters is talking about how in the future he is from, artificial intelligence and addiction to technology have completely ruined society, the group of teens next to us are staring at their phones, aimlessly scrolling through TikToks. It was maddening.