Is this the right or wrogn way to handle disabled kids?

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emax10000
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30 May 2015, 2:26 pm

So a woman wrote a letter to a man who yelled in the theatre because her mentally challenged son was making a kind of noise he did not like. The vast majority of the comments agree that this would count as an unreasonable accommodation for those suffering from mental defects of any kind. And that this not the right way to address the issues of raising disabled children.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/nicole-sk ... 35234.html

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He did cry for a minute when he couldn't drink from his brother's cup. We removed him immediately. He was giggling in the hall. We brought him back in and he giggled through the movie. I guess that was too much. It would be one thing if we kept Vito in the theater when he was crying. But, we didn't. It would be one thing if you told us to leave when he was crying, but he wasn't. You shouted for us to leave when Vito was laughing and giggling. Like other kids in the theater. But my son just laughed differently.

I'm sorry that bothered you.

No. I lie. I don't care.

To say I'm sorry would be acknowledging there was something wrong with him. There's nothing wrong. He expresses himself differently. My son earned his right to be there. He has fought hard for every one of his skills and his life. He's no different than my 2-year-old who was bouncing off the seats.

But, I guess that's more normal so he's allowed.

When you shouted for me to remove my son, you put me in a tough spot. See, I have a 9-year-old. I suddenly was in a conundrum.

What lesson am I going to teach my 9-year-old? If I ignored you, I would teach my son to let people treat his brother like this. So the movie ended. I don't know how. I stood up, my heart pounded and my body shook. See I didn't know who you were because you shouted at us behind the clout of darkness and curtain of cowards. So I just stood and spoke to the stranger in the dark:



nick007
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30 May 2015, 2:42 pm

I think that guy was being louder than the kid was which is hypocritical & never helps.


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emax10000
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30 May 2015, 2:54 pm

nick007 wrote:
I think that guy was being louder than the kid was which is hypocritical & never helps.

True but a letter like that seems to be an example of the martyr complex that never really helps disabled kids or other parents. And the vast majority of commentators on Huffingtonpost, which actually is a genuinely progressive paper, seem to agree.



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30 May 2015, 6:15 pm

I don't want to be an a**hole but I'm sorry if you're kid is going to scream and cry or excessively laugh and giggle throughout the movie over unrelated things.....like not laughing at bits of the movie but disrupting everyone to laugh at something funny their sibling does for instance don't bring them to the theater.

If I pay near 20 bucks to go see a movie I want to see and hear the movie not a couple little kids fooling around and giggling throughout the movie....let alone a baby or kid screaming and crying. If your kids aren't able to watch a movie without being disruptive probably best not to take them to the movie theater yet. Even if its a disabled kid now I don't think it would be appropriate to start yelling/screaming at someone about their child being disruptive...but I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest they take their child and leave if the child cannot be calm or is too hyperactive to sit and watch a movie without making a bunch of noise and moving around, walking about to switch seats or things like that.

I mean there are times I can remember when me and my siblings where so high energy we would have been far to disruptive to take to the theater....those days the park or something where we could run around was a better fit.


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emax10000
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30 May 2015, 6:32 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:
I don't want to be an a**hole but I'm sorry if you're kid is going to scream and cry or excessively laugh and giggle throughout the movie over unrelated things.....like not laughing at bits of the movie but disrupting everyone to laugh at something funny their sibling does for instance don't bring them to the theater.

If I pay near 20 bucks to go see a movie I want to see and hear the movie not a couple little kids fooling around and giggling throughout the movie....let alone a baby or kid screaming and crying. If your kids aren't able to watch a movie without being disruptive probably best not to take them to the movie theater yet. Even if its a disabled kid now I don't think it would be appropriate to start yelling/screaming at someone about their child being disruptive...but I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest they take their child and leave if the child cannot be calm or is too hyperactive to sit and watch a movie without making a bunch of noise and moving around, walking about to switch seats or things like that.

I mean there are times I can remember when me and my siblings where so high energy we would have been far to disruptive to take to the theater....those days the park or something where we could run around was a better fit.

That is actually what the majority of people who read this were thinking; that is definitely the majority opinion. The exception would be if it was a kids movie that was showing in a designated time for kids, a family showing of sorts. In this case that was possible but we are not given nearly enough information. But outside that exception an overwheling majority feel this way about it.



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30 May 2015, 6:50 pm

emax10000 wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:
I don't want to be an a**hole but I'm sorry if you're kid is going to scream and cry or excessively laugh and giggle throughout the movie over unrelated things.....like not laughing at bits of the movie but disrupting everyone to laugh at something funny their sibling does for instance don't bring them to the theater.

If I pay near 20 bucks to go see a movie I want to see and hear the movie not a couple little kids fooling around and giggling throughout the movie....let alone a baby or kid screaming and crying. If your kids aren't able to watch a movie without being disruptive probably best not to take them to the movie theater yet. Even if its a disabled kid now I don't think it would be appropriate to start yelling/screaming at someone about their child being disruptive...but I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest they take their child and leave if the child cannot be calm or is too hyperactive to sit and watch a movie without making a bunch of noise and moving around, walking about to switch seats or things like that.

I mean there are times I can remember when me and my siblings where so high energy we would have been far to disruptive to take to the theater....those days the park or something where we could run around was a better fit.

That is actually what the majority of people who read this were thinking; that is definitely the majority opinion. The exception would be if it was a kids movie that was showing in a designated time for kids, a family showing of sorts. In this case that was possible but we are not given nearly enough information. But outside that exception an overwheling majority feel this way about it.


If it was a special showing geared towards families and children that would be different...and I'd probably opt not to go to something like that. But yeah if there is something specifically geared towards children and their families there should certainly be more tolerance for their giggling, laughing, crying and potential screaming if one gets very upset...but yeah at a regular showing I expect people and families to be quiet so I can pay attention to the movie. I also know things aren't always planned sometimes someones kid might get upset over something unexpected or a parent may not be able to make them behave 100% right all the time so I understand stuff happens...but then the parent should be willing to do what they can for the situation. Like if your kid is really upset and cannot be calmed yeah its sad but the middle of the theater is not the place to calm them....at that point its time to leave, not take them out of the theater for a minute and then back in while still trying to calm them/cheer them up and expect everyone to just be ok with that disruption.


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31 May 2015, 9:13 am

I just assumed the guy in the theater was an ass until I read the comments and got a different perspective.

Some parents of special needs kids feel entitled so they think everyone has to put up with their kid when they are disruptive or do inappropriate things. My mom still took responsibility about me. It's not just SN parents that do it, parents of normal kids do this too so they bring them to places that are inappropriate and then complain about "as*holes" who complained or gave them looks because of how their kids were acting. I have no problem with parents bringing their kids to higher rated movies or to nice restaurants just as long as they are behaved because it depends on the child but if you have a kid that can't sit still, can't keep quiet, etc. then you shouldn't bring them there. My parents took us to a fancy restaurant when I was six for Mother's Day and we were perfect because mom had trained my brothers and me how to act in a restaurant by taking us to McDonalds and throwing away our food every time we broke a rule and it took her three tries to break us.

It may have been a Disney movie but the movies that are out now are for higher audience than for small children according to the comments. i don't go to movies anymore (too pricey) so I don't keep up with them. It's the Redbox for me.

But I wasn't there so I can't say if the parent was the as*hole or the guy in the theater.


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31 May 2015, 9:16 am

Sweetleaf wrote:
emax10000 wrote:
Sweetleaf wrote:
I don't want to be an a**hole but I'm sorry if you're kid is going to scream and cry or excessively laugh and giggle throughout the movie over unrelated things.....like not laughing at bits of the movie but disrupting everyone to laugh at something funny their sibling does for instance don't bring them to the theater.

If I pay near 20 bucks to go see a movie I want to see and hear the movie not a couple little kids fooling around and giggling throughout the movie....let alone a baby or kid screaming and crying. If your kids aren't able to watch a movie without being disruptive probably best not to take them to the movie theater yet. Even if its a disabled kid now I don't think it would be appropriate to start yelling/screaming at someone about their child being disruptive...but I don't think it would be unreasonable to suggest they take their child and leave if the child cannot be calm or is too hyperactive to sit and watch a movie without making a bunch of noise and moving around, walking about to switch seats or things like that.

I mean there are times I can remember when me and my siblings where so high energy we would have been far to disruptive to take to the theater....those days the park or something where we could run around was a better fit.

That is actually what the majority of people who read this were thinking; that is definitely the majority opinion. The exception would be if it was a kids movie that was showing in a designated time for kids, a family showing of sorts. In this case that was possible but we are not given nearly enough information. But outside that exception an overwheling majority feel this way about it.


If it was a special showing geared towards families and children that would be different...and I'd probably opt not to go to something like that. But yeah if there is something specifically geared towards children and their families there should certainly be more tolerance for their giggling, laughing, crying and potential screaming if one gets very upset...but yeah at a regular showing I expect people and families to be quiet so I can pay attention to the movie. I also know things aren't always planned sometimes someones kid might get upset over something unexpected or a parent may not be able to make them behave 100% right all the time so I understand stuff happens...but then the parent should be willing to do what they can for the situation. Like if your kid is really upset and cannot be calmed yeah its sad but the middle of the theater is not the place to calm them....at that point its time to leave, not take them out of the theater for a minute and then back in while still trying to calm them/cheer them up and expect everyone to just be ok with that disruption.



My mom told me this story several times throughout my life, she and my dad took me to see Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because they thought I would enjoy it because of the song Heigh Ho but when they got to the part where the hunter took out the knife, I got scared and started crying so we left. Sure it was a Disney movie and they took me out to the lobby when I started crying and I wouldn't calm down so we left.


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31 May 2015, 9:24 am

There's such a thing as theatre etiquette. If you are a disruption to the performance (cancer surviving baby or not) you should leave. The blogger seems to think that doing this somehow invalidates her son's worth, but I disagree. It's simply a matter of politeness.



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31 May 2015, 9:37 am

If a child is laughing in a way that distracts you from the movie, you can get up and change seats. If the child's laughing is so loud and continuous that it disturbs people who are not even sitting near him, then he should be taken out of the theater. Whether he is disabled or not doesn't really factor into this.



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31 May 2015, 1:14 pm

I don't like any disruption in the cinema, whether it's little kids, disabled kids, or chattering teenagers. Little kids just don't sit still. I remember when me and my boyfriend went to see a movie, a few people came in with a load of kids between them, and half the people (I don't know if they were parents or any other members of the family) sat in one row and the other half sat in the row behind, even though there was more than enough seats for them all to sit together. So throughout the whole movie these kids kept on switching rows because they couldn't make their mind up who they wanted to sit with, and we had to keep standing up to let them by, and the parents didn't even make them be seated in one seat and stay there for the whole movie. I get easily distracted and agitated anyway, so I found it hard to concentrate on the movie. I could tell my boyfriend was getting annoyed with them too, but everybody including us are afraid to say anything to parents of little kids these days because we're the ones that would be ''making a scene'', because their defense would be ''they're just children, they can't help it''. No, that is not an excuse.

I suppose disabled children are a little harder to chastise or be taught how to sit still and behave, even kids with ADHD and things like that. But I suppose people won't stand for any disruption in a cinema, whether the child is disabled or not. With a disabled child or adult, I don't get so annoyed even if they are being disruptive, but the majority of children need to be taught and disciplined. When I was a kid, I was made to sit or stand quietly, and it worked, even though I was a restless child. These days a lot of parents just let their kids do what they want.


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31 May 2015, 3:00 pm

androbot01 wrote:
There's such a thing as theatre etiquette. If you are a disruption to the performance (cancer surviving baby or not) you should leave. The blogger seems to think that doing this somehow invalidates her son's worth, but I disagree. It's simply a matter of politeness.


[sarcasm]

Since when did POLITENESS become a concern in society?

[/sarcasm]

:lol:



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31 May 2015, 8:47 pm

I think it's hard to say without hearing her child. I think people with special needs should have the same rights as other people; I don't think they should be allowed to break rules though, especially not at the expense of others.

Her child may have been of an equal volume as other kids, but had a weird laugh. Having a weird laugh is not against the rules. In this case, she was right.

But if her child was louder than others, then that is against the rules. And she was wrong.

I can't possibly decide without hearing what her child was doing. I do know however, that I would never in a million years take my kids to a regular screening at a cinema because they would be way too loud. While I have compassion for why my kids would be loud, I don't think that reason gives them the right to break the rules in the cinema. We just watch movies where there those rules are not there.


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