The One Direction Movie "Experience"

I took my kids to see this movie today...

We love going to the movies but we don't go that often because it gets really expensive for all of us. We also don't go to concerts for this same reason.  Can you imagine what it would run me for tickets to a 1D concert if I took all 3 of my kids?  At the very least it would be around $400.  So I try and take them to what I would consider the next best thing, and that is a movie like this.  The tickets still weren't cheap as far as movies go, $15 each for a matinee (even the child ticket) so a $60 afternoon for 1 hour and 45 minutes of fun with the kids but hey, they are big fans of the group, I love One Direction too and I think it's worth the money to spoil them every once in a while.  They are all A-B students, they help around the house, they do chores, I like to do something like this for them every so often.  It was a big deal to them so, we got the tickets and looked forward to going all week.  

We got to the theater an hour early because we like to sit on the very front row where the bar is so we can put our feet up.  This is our spot so we felt like it was worth the wait.  Generally I would wait for the hype to die down for something like this.  That's what we did with the last 1D movie and it was great.  Hardly anyone in the theater, no going early to wait in line for an hour, but this is a limited engagement thing, 2 showings today, 2 showings tomorrow and that's it.  You don't see it now you wait for the movie to come out in December on Blu-ray.

My 13yo picked her outfit out in advance.  This is what she wore being the major fangirl that she is:

Black Skinny Jeans for Louis

A Batman Shirt for Liam

A bandanna (in her hair as a head band) for Harry

Shamrock earrings for Niall (from Ireland)

Her glasses that look a lot like Zayn's 

Here is a picture of the 9yo waiting in line (she got tired and sat down) but as you can see, we had the shirt, the earrings (not so visible) and her One Direction necklace.  She also "wore boots for Harry because he likes boots and he's my favorite!"  She was pretty excited!  

Obviously, this was not just "going to the movies" for my girls.  I was totally prepared to review the movie for the blog because I like to do that from time to time.  That is what you would have been reading right now if we had made it longer than 15 minutes into it.  

I understand that not everyone is the same.  I understand that teenagers have all the hormones and everything else going on that makes them excited for something like this.  I live with a 17yo, 13yo and a 9yo that thinks she's been a teenager since she was 5.  I get it, I really do.  What I don't understand is why at a MOVIE, not a concert, you would find it necessary to scream so loud that the people around you (me) would feel like they have a knife in their ear and it is still ringing hours later. When asked NICELY if you could please be quiet because we all paid to see the movie too and we would like to hear it, you would still continue to talk loudly to your friends and scream every time your favorite guy was up on the screen.  Seriously can someone please explain where these girls' manners were?  I shushed several times.  I said "please" several times and the concert portion hadn't even started yet.  This was a Q&A with the guys!  Do they not want to hear what they have to say?

So, I kinda let it go for a few minutes since it didn't seem to work anyway, figuring that maybe they will settle in when it gets going and then, the first song starts.  This is a concert movie but really....we aren't AT a concert.  There aren't huge speakers that are carrying the sound through a huge stadium. We are at a movie theater.  If you scream, you can't hear. It wasn't even through the first song and my son said "Mom, if you want to go I'm all for it."  I asked the 9yo, "Can you hear?  Do you want to stay or go?"  she wanted to go.  I thought for sure the 13yo would be the one that kept us there but I asked her if she wanted to stay or go and she said "I want to go."  I left the kids to go talk to a manager about getting a refund (which they didn't give me any problem with) and then returned to the theater to get the kids.  At this point I pretty much had steam coming out of my ears with the rude bunch behind us so as we left I made sure to say "Thank you so much for ruining our day today!"  I'm sure they will tell all of their friends about the terrible lady that sat in front of them complaining about how much noise they were making.  The sad thing is, their friends will probably make me out to be the bad guy in all this too.  

As we were getting our tickets refunded, the manager said to me "It's One Direction and they are teenagers, what did you really expect?"  I immediately said "I'm standing here with my teenagers and would expect that they would act like my kids do and sit and watch a movie!"  This got me thinking though, are my expectations unrealistic?  Is it too much to ask of someone to be considerate enough to just sit and watch the movie?  Have we come to expect this behavior and my kids are now the exception and not the rule?

It's true that I was there with my kids and these teens were not with a parental figure, but I wonder if that would have mattered.  My kids told me the minute I walked out to see about the refund, they completely stopped and said "Where is she going?"  Made them a little nervous I guess eh? Honestly, if I would have thought it through I may have asked to have them removed from the theater instead of me getting a refund.  Then their day would have been ruined instead of mine.  

So we left.  Both of my girls had tears before we made it to the car.  I told them we could have stayed and these were the replies I got:  "I didn't want to stay."  "I wanted to see the movie and those girls just ruined it!"  "I couldn't even hear it!  Why bother staying?"  It wasn't just the cranky lady in front then.  

When we got home my 13yo cried for an hour.  Maybe a bit of a long cry over a movie, but she is 13 and her emotions were running high with the let down.  One Direction is her favorite band and she had to clean her room to earn the movie ticket.  I don't hand my kids everything on a silver platter.  I expect that they earn things.  I know, say it isn't so.    

I assured them we will buy it when it comes out on Blu-ray.  We can have a viewing party and they can invite friends.  I can try and make it up to them but in the long run I have to ask myself what the deal is with society and these teenagers thinking that this kind of behavior is acceptable and furthermore that I should have expected this kind of thing to happen!?!? I guarantee that my children would NEVER act like that whether I was with them or not.  I would NEVER "expect" behavior like this.  

So I wonder if someone can help me out here...  

Are my expectations too high?  

Are my kids sadly becoming the exception to the rule on behavior? 

Is this something that I just need to get over and accept that this is now what is to be expected? 

If you made to the end of this long ranting blog post I should take you to the movies!  I would love your comments on this topic so let me know what you're thinking too.