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I was out with my children at an outdoor theatre today (the company runs outdoor plays through summer around the UK and passes through my town with a children's play once each year) and ended up stuck behind two really, really annoying little brats.
The basic layout of the audience was that if you had a rug to sit on, you were placed within 10 metres of the stage and if you had a chair, you sat behind that area so you didn't block anyone's view. The rug area was about 2/3 families and 1/3 children placed there by their parents (who brought chairs for themselves and promptly left their kids alone). Unfortunately, just in front of us, were two boys of about 8 who spent about half the play being really, really bratty.
Before the play starts - competition to see who can shoot their juice box further at the other one, or people sat nearby, and grass fight. They bumped into my older daughter, got warned off, and proceeded to run into someone else instead. Very quickly I explain that they're not mine (from the death glare the mum was giving me) and she tells them off too. Then they're mostly quiet until the interval.
The dad of one of them sits by them for the interval and raffle, where they win a huge cuddly toy (and I explain to my older daughter what "tanj" means and when to use it). They spend most of the second half fighting over the toy once the dad's gone - throwing grass at each other, waving the toy in the air and hitting each other with sticks. Once they get bored of this idea, they start having a stick fight while standing up and getting in the way of everyone behind them.
Finally they stop, throwing a large stick at a small girl sat next to them to mark their truce, and chucking a handful of grass at me. Once the play ends, I follow them back to their parents (as I told them I would) and explain how obnoxiously their kids have behaved - hitting other children, fighting loudly and being disruptive. One of the mums shrugs and ignores it, the other one says that she'll speak with them. I walk off, although I did see another two people coming to speak to them too (parents of the other children who got hit).
I have a strong suspicion nothing will be said to them as the parents didn't seem at all surprised by this and didn't seem to take it seriously. They also sat literally on the back row of the audience, as far away from their kids as possible. Despite being really annoyed by the kids, I ended up feeling rather more sorry for them due to the quality of parenting they seem to be getting.
The basic layout of the audience was that if you had a rug to sit on, you were placed within 10 metres of the stage and if you had a chair, you sat behind that area so you didn't block anyone's view. The rug area was about 2/3 families and 1/3 children placed there by their parents (who brought chairs for themselves and promptly left their kids alone). Unfortunately, just in front of us, were two boys of about 8 who spent about half the play being really, really bratty.
Before the play starts - competition to see who can shoot their juice box further at the other one, or people sat nearby, and grass fight. They bumped into my older daughter, got warned off, and proceeded to run into someone else instead. Very quickly I explain that they're not mine (from the death glare the mum was giving me) and she tells them off too. Then they're mostly quiet until the interval.
The dad of one of them sits by them for the interval and raffle, where they win a huge cuddly toy (and I explain to my older daughter what "tanj" means and when to use it). They spend most of the second half fighting over the toy once the dad's gone - throwing grass at each other, waving the toy in the air and hitting each other with sticks. Once they get bored of this idea, they start having a stick fight while standing up and getting in the way of everyone behind them.
Finally they stop, throwing a large stick at a small girl sat next to them to mark their truce, and chucking a handful of grass at me. Once the play ends, I follow them back to their parents (as I told them I would) and explain how obnoxiously their kids have behaved - hitting other children, fighting loudly and being disruptive. One of the mums shrugs and ignores it, the other one says that she'll speak with them. I walk off, although I did see another two people coming to speak to them too (parents of the other children who got hit).
I have a strong suspicion nothing will be said to them as the parents didn't seem at all surprised by this and didn't seem to take it seriously. They also sat literally on the back row of the audience, as far away from their kids as possible. Despite being really annoyed by the kids, I ended up feeling rather more sorry for them due to the quality of parenting they seem to be getting.
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