Oh no she didn't ....

Last weekend we took our son to his first ever Panto - Jack and the Beanstalk. At first he was frightened by the noise and wanted to go home but he soon go into it. Whilst still sitting on his daddy's knee he was doing what enquiring 4 year olds do - asking questions. Who's that man? Why is he wearing a dress? what are they doing now? As he was on his dad's knee he wasn't particularly loud and neither were his dad's answers - not when you consider that every 3rd or 4th seat in the theatre was taken up by an excited child.

Suddenly the woman in front of my son's, currently empty, seat turned round and said loudly 'could you be quiet? it is very distracting you know!' - when we'd recovered from the shock it hit me how bizarre her request was! She had 2 children with her - probably between 8 and 10 - who were quiet at the time of this request but got noisier as the performance went on with one repeatedly standing up in his seat so those of us behind couldn't see.

But pantos are for children aren't they? There were points where nothing could be heard on stage because of the excited chatter from children all around but that's part of the experience isn't it?

My son did eventually return to his seat and was enthralled by the performance. I did have to say LOUDLY when he was jumping in his seat to the music, 'Calm down, you might kick THAT LADY in the head so please sit still'. She didn't turn around again - though I'm sure he kicked the back of her seat a couple of times - and she stayed out of sight during the interval and rushed out at the end.

In the end I came to the following conclusions:

1. she'd never been to a panto before - possible though her sons, parents and husband seemed to know the form and shouted in all the right places.
2. she'd been badly misinformed and thought she was attending a highbrow performance that required absolute silence from the audience.
3. or, my current favorite, she had previously been a victim of the 'why?' stage and couldn't bear it - for that I give her sympathy but she needs to work on her tolerance as he'd only been going for 5 minutes - I usually last at least an hour before I snap and utter those immortal words: 'because I say so!'

Kids make noise, period - mine even talks in his sleep - as long as they are not using foul or abusive language or creating a nuisance they should be allowed to ask questions and experience the world. Yes he got a bit weepy and frightened at the start but witches are scary when you are 4 and think everything is real. Hopefully the woman in question will invest in better seats next year - perhaps a private box - so she doesn't have to deal with us riff-raff spoiling the performance ;-)