A few days after a North Shore mom became the latest to publicly complain about a movie theatre chain's policy to charge babies admission, she now says she understands the rationale behind it.
On Sunday, Geneviève Jetté, a mother of three and a blogger dealing with parenting issues, took her three kids, including her five-month-old son Léon, to an afternoon showing of My Little Pony at her local Guzzo Cinema in Terrebonne.
Later, she posted a video to her Facebook page to express her displeasure at having to pay $7 for a ticket for the baby.
"I got to the counter to buy a ticket, and I was told I have to pay $7 for Léon, who would be sitting on me throughout the movie with headphones on his ears," Jetté said in her video. "I had no choice to bring him because I had to feed him. I can't believe I just got charged $7."
The policy at Guzzo Cinemas has been around for the past two years. The company's president, Vincenzo Guzzo, says it was put in place in response to multiple emails from moviegoers — as many as 10 to 15 a month — complaining about babies crying in theatres during evening showings of movies that are decidedly not for kids.
"[The policy] is a deterrent," Guzzo says. "We're not looking to make money off children under three years old. We're trying to make adults reflect about the decision of bringing a young child to a movie theatre. I can't forbid admission to my theatre because you're a child."
Last year, an identical complaint from a parent brought about a relaxation of that policy — kids of all ages can attend weekend matinee showings of kid-friendly movies for no cost.
By midweek, the story, and her video, had gone viral, and on Thursday morning, Jetté posted another Facebook video — which was later reposted on the Guzzo Cinemas page — describing a lengthy, and friendly, phone chat she had with Guzzo about his pricing policies.
The two came to an understanding after she explained how she dealt with similar issues with very young children when she gives parenting conferences in her role as a blogger.
"What's interesting is when I told her why we had this policy, her answer was, 'I fully understand you, because I do the same thing at the conferences I give,'" Guzzo said.
They also apparently came to terms on another significant issue — how parents deal with children in public places.
"The real problem isn't the child, the real problem is the behavior of the adult with the child," Guzzo said. "If every child that started crying had a parent that was responsible enough to get up and take his child out of the auditorium, we wouldn't have this issue. The problem is the parents have a sense of entitlement in certain cases."