When is it harmless to start taking a child to the cinemas?
This question asks "What age can you expect a child to happily sit through a movie at the theatre"? The answers may not necessarily indicate at what age all the overwhelming sound and light stop being harmful for the kids.
AAP recommends For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. I'd think this applies just as much (if not more) to theater screens and surround sound. But I haven't been able to find reliable source indicating this. I have found a lot of anecdotal evidence indicating for what kind of movies, and at what age kids can sit through the movie or enjoy it. But that is no indication of whether or not it is harmful to them.
So, When is it harmless to start taking a child to the cinemas? Both to their health and behaviour. When can we expose them to this level of sensory overloading?
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Check with the theater. Many have child friendly matinees that are less loud and less intense. Some have specialty showings of cartoons for a nominal fee. But mostly the answer is going to be child dependent. Each child is different and understanding your child and their needs is going to be your best guide. Can your child sit through a 30 minute video at home or do they lose interest after 10 minutes? 15?
In my experience, think it's more "at what age can you actually sit down and enjoy a movie with your kids?", because until they are sufficiently cultured they will have no context to understand and have sustainable interest in the movie, and will kick up a fuss until you leave. My kids were about 3 before they were ready to sit through an entire movie, no matter how "child friendly" it pretended to be. Ironically, both children first sat fully through movies that were aimed more at adults than children.
Even though my opinion of the AAP is less than positive, and I disagree with many of the specific stances, I agree wholeheartedly with their statement "Problems begin when media use displaces physical activity, hands-on exploration and face-to-face social interaction in the real world".
As long as the screen time does not displace those other activities, your kids will be fine.
Well the AAP guideline is daily. If you see a movie that is longer than an hour the AAP isn't going to care & you can ask your pediatrician. A single exposure to anything is highly unlikely to prove harm. If your child were watched say by grandparents & they let the child watch 4hrs or television that day, the child isn't going to show long term damage. The screen time is a repeated exposure issue, not the occasional exposure you mean here.
As far as sound, you have to ask at the theater. Generally speaking the decibels they are blasting are in excess of recommended, often for any age. If that concerns you there are wonderful headphones that an be worn even by babies, so you can still attend noisy events, like open air concerts & such. I bought them for my oldest so we could attend very loud indoor sports that other relatives played & we want to go see.
As far as when a child will enjoy it, that is child dependent. For mine that has been (so far) anywhere from 3 to 5 years old. I have a 3yr old now & I know she is not ready to sit for longer than maybe 30 mins but we haven't tried it. She is just a busy one & likes to go, so I can't imagine her sitting through a movie. I also have one that is extremely calm & he was in love with seeing movies at 3, so he went about once a month or something at that age.
I am pretty sure it didn't harm him as he taught himself to read by 3.5 years. I can't imagine it would have been sooner if we skipped the movies.
Just from my own experience, it's going to vary a lot from kid to kid and if you think they can sit for that long, in that environment.
I come from a large family, lots of kids around. There are some 5 and 6 year olds in the family I wouldn't trust to bring, but my 2.5 year old I would.
Try doing a movie night at home, with as similar lighting and seating as you can get. Maybe that will help give a good idea if they can sit for a whole movie?
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