  If your city is lucky enough to have urlLink an Angelika Film Center , then you already know the magic that is drinking through films on the big screen. Love that martini run when the plot sags. But urlLink the Angelika offers great treats besides the alcoholic kind, like Cheap Date Night on Monday nights and the Crybaby Matinee every Friday and Saturday at 11:45 a.m. I just availed myself of the latter for the first time. I saw urlLink Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with Eleanor, my neighbor Serena, and her 17-month-old Charlie.
The Crybaby Matinee offers regular feature movies and art films (no kiddie themes) to people otherwise tied to kids during the day. They leave the lights on real low, park a changing table under the screen, and welcome that certain younger set of movie attendees that might offer normal audiences worse interruptions and annoyances than the ubiquitous cell phone ring. I've often explained to people curious about my parenting methods that I fully hold with the philosophy that says our society expects kids to behave to unrealistic circumstances for varied age levels.
This somewhat more pliant brand of childraising instead lets kids make the world their palate and accepts their behavior and ability to cope with social situations as they come. The only caveat I have to this theory is that I don't exist in a world full of people who think this way. Instead, I exist in the world people who think this way complain about. People who populate my world tell stories about it for months if my baby cries through dinner once. These people want to see orderly children quietly minding, fitting perfectly into their social situations, or else being carried quickly to the bathroom in case of noise, smell, or fluid.
While I dare to change their muddy minds by breastfeeding to toddlerhood in public, I otherwise conform to their needs by structuring my children. Once a friend who just heard my spiel on my parenting methods asked me if I meant that, were the world more accepting of permissive parenting, I would drop all my structured parenting tactics. It was an amazing question to ask, and it caused me to walk around for a few days pondering a social environment that actually accepted children just as they come.
I bring this long memory up, because that's exactly what the Crybaby Matinee was like today. There were some dads present, but the overwhelming majority were moms. People who brought their babies in strollers or joggers parked them in the wheelchair seating at the bottom of the big stadium seating area. Some moms sat on the stairs as their little toddlers tumbled up and down. Every now and then someone would go use the changing table.
When Charlie climbed over the back of his chair to explore the row behind him, no one looked disapprovingly or shushed him. I, not expecting anything of this nature, had timed Ellie's nap for the movie and she nursed and slept through it all. Some other babies, like Ellie, nursed and some, like Charlie, entertained themselves with toys brought or the lights lining the stairs. Only because it was my first time, I found myself distracted by wonder at this net of people who still had interest in dark, artsy, R rated (gasp) films, despite their newfound parenthood. After a few more visits, I'm sure I could become adept at ignoring the low level activity and pay attention to the movie.
Serena said this was her first visit to the theater since Charlie was born, and this represents the significant opportunity Angelika offers, an advance in our social progress that I would not have thought significant until I had kids. Our society excels at sternly expelling moms from fun interactions, unless they have the money and detachment necessary for creating an unhealthy attachment to the baby sitter. Kids are the ultimate buzz-kill, the no-no at any party, in a public location or a private home. Moms like me, who are lucky enough to have a spouse that enacts a self-imposed social sabbatical, find themselves dependent on Blockbuster and Must See TV for their jollies. The unlucky ones are left alone b/c most men, even in our modern age, will happily claim a guys' night when the absence of social interaction gets too heavy. My point is, events like the Crybaby Matinee at Angelika, and even tonight's ballet at the outdoor Hermann Park, represent progress. We're slowly letting kids, and therefor mothers, back into the fun side of society. I'm inspired to dream of a someday where everyone really does accept kids into movies and restaurants (not just the family friendly AppleBees or Tony Roma's, either. I mean the good restaurants). When the kids have a hard time--they act out or fall out of their chair or even break the noise-smell-fluid barrier--everyone lends a hand because it's hard on the parents and kids alike, and no one thinks the kids or parents are just inconsiderate. A girl can dream, can't she? Tonight we're off to the aforementioned outdoor ballet performance where I can drink my wine (from a plastic container) and the kids can twirl and arabesque in the grass when the dancers inspire them. We should just call today dream day. 
