Support your local theater. We took in “Shakespeare on the Beach” by the Twin Beach Players community theater group last weekend. The acting wasn’t bad for a local troupe. The sound wasn’t great but there are some pretty nasty challenges when you’re trying to run a sound system on a windy day at the beach so you kind of have to excuse that. All in all, not bad times.

The only downside was a little incident in the audience. A couple young moms had brought some very small children that were being very disruptive. One of them kept kicking the chair in front of him. They didn’t seem to care because, well, they were their kids. However it looked like a one of the older moms might have had a teenager or someone in the play and didn’t appreciate that her kid’s performance was being disrupted. She calmly walked over and said a few words to the little boy. I felt it was very appropriate and was glad someone had told him to settle down.

But yeah, you know that’s not over. The young mom seemed upset but didn’t seem to want to pursue it. Until, her friend, or sister, or whatever, started to talk into her ear as she did for the remainder of the show shooting angry glances at unsuspecting older mom. At the end, the young mom and her associate walked over and said a few words to older mom. You could tell, it wasn’t very complimentary. Older mom took it like a trooper, then shrugged her shoulders after they walked away. Older mom then went over and started hugging and laughing with her friends and family that had been in the play.

I have to really say that, even if you are on the beach, if you have a kid that can’t sit still, you need to take them somewhere else. Don’t be that person that sits in the theater with the screaming kid and absolutely ruins the movie for everyone else. Get the DVD and bide your time until your child is a little older. Don’t worry, it will come, and you’ll be just fine then. Just spend the time alone with your kid. That time passes all too fast and you’ll find you’ll appreciate that much more than any movie or play…and I’ll get to watch my show in peace