My 8-year-old DS got left in a movie theatre game room for two hours. I'm allowed to be upset.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did she also give out unpaid for cake pops? I love when threads come together!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can't get over asking kids to pay their own way at a birthday party "because of the number of kids". So invite fewer kids! Wow. My DS had a movie party last year for his 7th and we covered both the movie and the pizza afterwards at the pizza joint across the street from the theater.
This is seriously a who incident. I am very lax and I live in a very small extremely safe town (not DC metro). My kids have a lot of freedom but in this situation I would be absolutely livid.

I don't know if this is a troll thread, but I can say that as a kid (around 12) I went to a party like this; the host parent paid for pizza, but when the birthday kid wanted to play a multiplayer arcade game, the host parent asked us all if we had cash to pay for it, and we didn't so she begrudgingly paid, but asked our parents for the $5/each when our parents got picked us up at the arcade. I remember my parents saying it was tacky, but I guess people do it.

I have way more problems with leaving the kid in the lobby alone, even if asking kids the pay for a party you've invited them to is more like an outing, and you should just call it that. "No host" birthday party would have made it clear.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the movie place didn't call the cops since an 8 year old was left alone for hours in a strange lobby wathvimg trailers

This. Is it even legal for a child that age to be unattended? Think of all the stories in the area lately, the kids in Silver spring walking home, the toddlers left in the car while the parents went wine tasting, etc. I cannot believe this happened. Holy MF shit.

In Montgomery County, the rule for leaving a kid alone during daylight hours when they have a way to get hold of an adult, is 8. So, if this was in MoCo, this is legal.

I would not have left someone else's child in a game room for 2 hours, and I think these hosts are terrible, but I did send my kid at 8 to the game room for 20 minutes while I dealt with tickets and popcorn. I would not have considered letting my 6 year old walk down Georgia Ave. without an adult, or leaving my toddlers in the car while I went to a wine tasting.

[Anonymous]

How smart is OP for leaving her kid at bday party for 7 hours? Did you find this odd at all or did you know in advance and take advantage of this? Are these friends of yours? I might leave your DD on the side of the road after 7 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm surprised the movie place didn't call the cops since an 8 year old was left alone for hours in a strange lobby wathvimg trailers

This. Is it even legal for a child that age to be unattended? Think of all the stories in the area lately, the kids in Silver spring walking home, the toddlers left in the car while the parents went wine tasting, etc. I cannot believe this happened. Holy MF shit.

Yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How smart is OP for leaving her kid at bday party for 7 hours? Did you find this odd at all or did you know in advance and take advantage of this? Are these friends of yours? I might leave your DD on the side of the road after 7 hours.

I knew the party hours were from 11am to 6pm. It was originally suppose to be a sleepover from Saturday night to Sunday but due to Valentines it didn't work out.

This isn't the first time DS or my older kids have gone to an all day party.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How smart is OP for leaving her kid at bday party for 7 hours? Did you find this odd at all or did you know in advance and take advantage of this? Are these friends of yours? I might leave your DD on the side of the road after 7 hours.

I knew the party hours were from 11am to 6pm. It was originally suppose to be a sleepover from Saturday night to Sunday but due to Valentines it didn't work out.

This isn't the first time DS or my older kids have gone to an all day party.

Ignore the d-bag posters. While 7 hours is a little on the long side, at least for my tastes hosting a gaggle of 8 year olds, its not that long considering the movie will eat up 2+ hours itself.

[Anonymous]

The scenario doesn't make sense, because in all the movie theaters I have been in in DMV (AMC and Regal ones) require a ticket to even entire past the ticket counter, so in order to access the game room you must have passed the ticket taker and have a ticket. So how can the son spend all that time in the game room without a ticket if he can't even get to it without a ticket, like a chicken and the egg?????

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The scenario doesn't make sense, because in all the movie theaters I have been in in DMV (AMC and Regal ones) require a ticket to even entire past the ticket counter, so in order to access the game room you must have passed the ticket taker and have a ticket. So how can the son spend all that time in the game room without a ticket if he can't even get to it without a ticket, like a chicken and the egg?????

Neither of the two cinemas near my home require a ticket to enter the lobby. The games room is in an alcove off of the lobby. You don't need a ticket to enter the building, just the hallway to the movie theatre.

[Anonymous]

This logic is one of my favorite things about DCUM. Someone posts some crazy story, that could be true but includes some pretty unbelievable stuff, and then people call troll, not because of the major unbelievable thing in the story (which in this case would be that the host left the 8 year old in the game room during the movie) but because some nitpicky detail doesn't match their limited personal experience.

People have long birthday parties all the time. My kid has been at plenty of parties where they met at someone's house, played for a while, went to the movies, and came back to the house for pizza and playing.

Movie theaters have game rooms off the lobby all the times.

These things are not the unbelievable parts of the story!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How smart is OP for leaving her kid at bday party for 7 hours? Did you find this odd at all or did you know in advance and take advantage of this? Are these friends of yours? I might leave your DD on the side of the road after 7 hours.

I knew the party hours were from 11am to 6pm. It was originally suppose to be a sleepover from Saturday night to Sunday but due to Valentines it didn't work out.

This isn't the first time DS or my older kids have gone to an all day party.

Were your older kids at the party too?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The scenario doesn't make sense, because in all the movie theaters I have been in in DMV (AMC and Regal ones) require a ticket to even entire past the ticket counter, so in order to access the game room you must have passed the ticket taker and have a ticket. So how can the son spend all that time in the game room without a ticket if he can't even get to it without a ticket, like a chicken and the egg?????

This.

Plus I am with the PP who said leaving their 8 yr old at a party for 7 hours is ridiculous. Couple that with the fact that it was not really a party at all. It was just some parents chaperoning at the movies.
All the parents involved sound pretty irresponsible and likely too young to know better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would be furious at the other parent. And what a strange party, to not pay for the guests.

THIS!!!
My kid would have been in tears...
Not my usual course of action, but I think I would have cursed her out!

I honestly might even go so far as to send class parents an email warning them, just in case they ever thought about planning a play date. I know that might sound crazy to do but as a class parent who it could have happened to, I would appreciate the warning.

+ 1000.

That parent is a hazard to other children. No one should EVER trust her. I would send this email to other parents. Else, post this link to the email of other parents.

[Anonymous]

I'm dying to know... How did they word the invitation?

[Anonymous]

Supremely tacky, and bad judgement on the mom's part.

As for the lack of supervision... well, obviously it's legal.
I might even (possibly) be alright with it for my own kid depending on the scenario. However, I would not be alright with another parent determining that it was alright for my kid without me having advance warning. I also would not make that choice for someone else's kid. I definitely wouldn't make that kind of a choice and leave a child out of a group activity they had been invited along for, no matter what.

That other parent showed astonishingly bad judgement.