Sunday morning, after checking the state of our finances online I decided that perhaps it really wasn’t such a good idea for us to go down to Auckland.

Because Auckland always means extra food and extra petrol, not to mention the temptation of shopping in malls and cost of coffees and lunches in those mall’s foodhalls.

Instead we stayed home and decided to go to town yesterday, catch a movie, have a cheap lunch and (for me) a quick trip to the library while the Other Harf and Miss 11.1 ran some errands.

First stop? Library.

I spotted them as soon as I walked in: three kids, aged @6, 4 and 3 years old. Tearing up and town the aisles, up the stairs and thud, thud, thud down the stairs (Whangarei Library has a large, steep flight of suspended stairs right in the centre of the building), then repeat. Repeat, repeat, repeat, accompanied by lots of yelling and screaming.

As I wandered around, choosing my books, occasionally dodging flying, hollering children, I began to mutter under my breath. Language that I won’t repeat here, but suffice to say I got a very sharp look from an elderly lady in the Fiction “G” section.

I checked my books, casting my eye around for the real culprit: the parent(s) who just didn’t give a damn. The parent(s) who let their kids do this and therefore had no respect or consideration for others, others that in most cases were elderly. And this is what bugs me, and I know it may be considered old fashioned, but a library is and should be QUIET. Books are for reading, contemplating. They are NOT an obstacle course!

I met up with my husband and daughter and had a small rant about useless parents. Then it was off to the movies – a movie that is not a small child’s movie. It’s plainly aimed at 8-12 year olds. There’s no cuddly talking animals, primary-coloured animation or cheesy tunes.

We’re just seated when behind us two women and five kids arrive. The kids are all young, under 5, and one of the mums has a small baby.

For the next 140 minutes, the baby grizzles. Not long after the movie starts a boy of about three starts getting out of his seat, pulling on and hanging over the back of Miss 11.1′s seat. A little girl of around the same age kicks my seat, then hangs off the back of it. I ask the mothers to get them to stop. One ignores me. The other apologises but it keeps happening. The little boy starts whining loudly, when are we going home and it’s too dark in here turn on the lights! The three years olds start running up and down the aisle. The little boy starts rolling down the aisle. Then its back to hanging off and over seats, rocking on them. One mothers chastises the boy occasionally (“Tom, you must stop hanging over the seat like that. It isn’t nice”) but neither do anything to stop them doing it.

By the end of the movie I am furious. What were these two women thinking? That they were in their own homes? That there weren’t at least 100 other people in the same room, who had paid good money to see this movie, without interruption? That this was a good movie to take your three year old to see?

I ranted all the way back to the car. Poor OH, his ears must of been aching by the time we got there!

So, want I want to know is…am I just being a grumpy old woman about these two scenarios?