When my son William was three-months-old I found outings a nightmare.
Shopping with a pram was no fun, meals out were always eaten cold and I certainly never dreamed of going to the cinema with him.
But that all changed when a friend of mine suggested we go to Bringing in Baby at the Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle. It was a revelation.
We would meet on a Wednesday in the cinema’s Tyneside Bar, have a cuppa and a catch up, and then go in and watch the film, with our babies!
It was always a popular event and mums would be breast/bottle feeding whilst the film was on, babies would have their naps in carrycots on the floor and nobody minded you pacing the floor with a screaming baby. The lights would never be fully dimmed and the sound never on full blast creating the perfect atmosphere for mums and their little ones. At the time I found myself going to the pictures more often than before I had William, and during those first few months of post pregnancy it brought some normality back in to my life.
Bringing in Baby is on every Wednesday at 11am with a different screening every week. Some weeks the film is on a Sunday as well so the whole family can go. The listings for the whole season can be found at www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/whatson.
Tickets are priced at £6 (babies get in free) and facilities include bottle warming, buggy parking, baby change facilities on each floor and special BIB coffee and cake offer in the Tyneside Bar before and after the screening.
For all of those mums not in the Newcastle area Durham’s Gala cinema runs a similar screening. Cinebabies is on a Thursday, also at 11am priced at £4.50 (free entry for babies) with complimentary tea and scone.
Unfortunately William is now at an age when he has regular meals and nap times and it’s not possible to placate him for an hour and half but I would urge any new mum who needs a civilised morning to give it a go.