Well we just got back from a lovely time at the movies followed by lunch at Hogs Breath, a favourite for all our family! Unfortunately I wont be able to eat for the next 2 days as my weight watchers weigh in on Tuesday night wont be kind to my yummy greasy lunch!
It’s taken a long time to get to this point at the movies with Beth. Sometimes she has fears that, if you don’t realise really early on what the problem is, escalate to huge proportions and the snowball effect means that you have no bloody idea what the problem was in the first place. For example she still wont watch Sesame Street. This is probably her biggest one and took ages to figure out as she seemed to love the show. She does have hyper sensitive hearing and after a while we realised that the sound of an elephant trumpeting was actually painful to her. Through various therapies and probably with age she seems to have grown out of this thank goodness, but the fear is nevertheless still there.
So there we were not being allowed to watch Sesame Street anymore, then it was the whole of ABC kids. I finally figured out that she was worried that Sesame Street had Oscar the Grouch and Oscar the Grouch has a pet elephant that makes loud noises. Now that means that if we happen to watch ABC Kids and an ad comes on for Sesame Street it might just have Oscar the Grouch on it and if so then it might just have his pet elephant on it which might just make a noise, therefore I must avoid ABC Kids at all costs! The mute button did a lot to alleviate this, now she still runs out in the ads (and how many of them are there on a channel where shows might only be 5 minutes!) As we have 2 other kids it really wasn’t fair to never watch it so we always turn it over when Sesame Street is on which seems to be a good compromise. There are a few others, Curious George, In a Night Garden, The Wiggles, but I just can’t be fagged figuring out what the problem is with them when it really doesn’t matter in the long run. The others will grow out of them before long!
Anyway, for some reason the movies have been an issue for Beth since she was about 4. I thought it was probably the previews as we can’t predict what is going to be on so I came up with a plan. Earlier last year I said to my husband that we were going to go as a family to the movies and explained to Beth that Daddy, Bill and Bridie  hadn’t been to the movies before and didn’t know where they were, let alone where to sit. Poor Paul, he cops the whole Daddy’s not very bright thing when it comes in handy but hey, whatever gets you through the night! The main thing is that it works! So off we go with Beth trying every strategy in the book to get out of it. “I called the movies and they said that the movie wasn’t on, it’s full, no kids allowed” anything really to get out of going. Thing was though that I knew that once she was in there she’d be ok with it.
So there we were in the foyer of the theatre with Paul buying the tickets, asking if I was sure we wanted to go through with it as Beth’s having the full blown screaming tantrum in the middle of the floor, fingers in ears, flailing around with everybody staring at the awful mother who was forcing her kid to go to the movies! I walked up with Beth, Paul and kids following, trying to get her to hear that we’ll just get them to the door and then we’d go to get ourselves a nice donut. That’s when Bridie did us a huge favour and decided that she wouldn’t go in without mum. Off goes Paul with Bill and there’s Beth and I sitting out there with Bridie and I slap my forehead and say – oh no, I don’t know where Daddy’s sitting and Bridie’s going to miss the movie, we’ll just show her where they are and then we’ll be off. Well, fingers in ears and making her noises to drown out the movie in we went, eyes wide and luck be with us the movie had started. Her fingers slid out of her ears and she could barely make it to her seat watching mesmerised, chomping on popcorn the whole way (which is always all over the place by the time we leave!)
That was a year and a half ago. I made a point each school holidays to find a movie that we could all watch, we had a bit of a turn in the next holidays and a bit of an objection the one after, but now she loves going to the movies and picks the ones she wants to see. In fact we went to see Coraline a few weeks ago because Beth wanted to see it in 3D and the others didn’t want to see it, it was lovely just the 2 of us, I felt almost normal!
I do need to add though that I thought we’d have a relapse at the last family one. We went to see Night at the Museum 2 and who would be the last person/thing you think you’d see in a movie like that – Oscar the Grouch! Beth freaked big time, thank goodness he was only on it for a minute. I did think that would put her back right to the beginning but luckily it was ok!
Anyway, Up was a terrific movie to watch, a bit sad for us oldies (or me anyway!) but that washed right over the littlies. Bloody expensive though this 3D thing though definately the way to go. I suppose though that  it pays for the cleaning after our family has left the building!
