Movies for Mommies

When I was five months pregnant with my first child, my boss gave me some advice: "See as many movies as you can now because after you have that baby, you'll never get to go."

And, of course, as I have done with most of the unsolicited advice I've received through the years, I ignored it. Even though going to the movies had long been one of my favorite pastimes, I figured, why cram it now when there were cribs to assemble, "heirloom" baby furniture to paint, nurseries to wallpaper, and baby gifts to register for? Besides, isn't that what babysitters and grandparents are for?

Well, four years and two children later, I'd been to exactly four movies in the theater—three of them animated and seen to amuse my son, but primarily to satisfy my craving for dark theaters and movie popcorn. Who knew babysitters were so expensive and that grandparents don't want to hang out at your house all night while you go out for dinner and a movie? Apparently, my boss did.

So imagine my delight when I got wind of a program offered by the Loews theater chain: One morning a week (in most cases, a Tuesday), "Reel Moms" gives parents a chance to see a movie—with their babies. While normally toting a baby into the show gets you as many disgusted eye rolls as bringing a baby on a plane, here I was promised only smiles—because everyone else in the theater is there with her baby too.

I had to check into this.

Why all the questionable choices?

The Reel Moms website noted that doors open early to encourage socializing among the moms, that freebies and prizes were given out, and that nursing was encouraged. All for the price of one matinee movie ticket. Brilliant. Sign me and my baby girl up!

So I clicked on my city, saw several theaters to choose from, selected the one nearest me—and immediately ran into my first glitch: The Skeleton Key was that week's selection. While "only" rated PG-13, it was still a horror movie with plenty of disturbing images. Now, I love scary movies and someday hope my kids will enjoy them with me—because their dad certainly doesn't—but I thought 14 months was a little young to introduce my daughter to the world of horror flicks.

But I still loved the concept, so I kept checking back every week. I was less than impressed with the movie selections—based on content, not quality. Among the fare offered to moms and babies were The Great Raid (an R-rated war movie) and The 40-Year-Old Virgin (an R-rated, foul-mouthed comedy).

Then along came Elizabethtown, which particularly tripped me up—I really wanted to see it, but when I saw it was PG-13 for language, I just couldn't bring myself to do it. My daughter's now starting to talk. It's bad enough she's already starting to repeat her brother's favorite term of endearment "pee-pee head" and that her first word was—I kid you not—SpongeBob. So I don't need her picking up any "sentence enhancers," as SpongeBob would say.

Besides, why was this program encouraging moms to take babies to movies deemed unsuitable for children under 13—not to mention some that are restricted to adults?

I decided to ask the people at Loews about it.

'Geared toward an adult audience'

When I talked to someone at the Loews corporate offices, their answers didn't surprise me: selections are based more on marketing than appropriateness.

"We do our best to program films that we believe will appeal to our primarily female audience, and we're sensitive to films that may be too long, loud, or scary," said Louise Deitcher, marketing consultant for Loews Cineplex Entertainment. "Having said this, our Reel Moms enjoy films of all genres, and we do our best to limit admittance to newborns and infants—and not to toddlers who have increased cognition."

(Okay. So I was stretching the one-year age limit a bit with my 14-month-old. But really, 11-month-olds can absorb and repeat too!)

"The films we show are geared toward an adult audience for their enjoyment, and they are aware that they may be exposing their infants to adult-oriented content," she said. "The decision on whether or not to attend is ultimately the [parent's]."

Still weird, but fair enough. So I exercised my parental discretion for several weeks, and when I finally found a movie I'd take my daughter to, I encountered another glitch—my son, and the fact that I couldn't arrange for a sitter for him. I realized that this program is really ideal for the first-time mom or the mom with other, school-aged kids. If you have to hire a sitter, you might as well go with a friend or your spouse. But I pressed on. This idea was still too good to pass up.

Finally, a good movie intersected with an available Grandma, and I took my baby girl to see Dreamer. It was worth the wait. We had a great time. We snuggled. We ate popcorn. We drank Sprite. While we didn't make it early for social hour (I haven't seen the early side of anything since I showed up late for my induction appointment with my son), we got there in time to be greeted by enthusiastic staff, to grab a free magazine and a dollar off coupon for the Mr. Clean Magic Sponge, and to get entered in the door-prize drawing, which incidentally, I won. Two free movie tickets. Cool.

The movie was a good pick too. Dreamer may be a little too sweet for my taste, but the story was nice and the horses thrilled my daughter. By the end we were both crying—my daughter because I wouldn't let her crawl on the floor, and me because, well, I've never seen a horse or daughter-daddy movie that didn't make me cry.

Plus, I was sad to leave. It was nice to once again be apart of the world of suspended disbelief and to share it with my daughter. It was nice to be among other moms and dads who felt the same thing.

Reel Moms is a great idea and a good time. Because of its loose standards, the program requires some vigilance, but if you're sick of everyone talking about movies you won't see until you can Netflix them, pick a good one and go snuggle up and enjoy the show.

Caryn Rivadeneira is Managing Editor of Women's and Family Resources at Christianity Today International. She's the former managing editor of Christian Parenting Today.

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