Real life, with a dash of Doctor Who

I went to the movies with some friends tonight. The movie was terrible, but pales in comparison to the awfulness of the show the woman in front of us put on.

I was chatting with Kevin when a woman walked into the theater carrying an infant seat. As she got closer I noticed that the baby in the seat couldn't have been older than a week and was likely just 3 or 4 days old.

Firstly, I don't think taking infants to movies is appropriate. That's why I never did it when Dominic was a baby. Secondly, this wasn't even a kid's movie. This was Eclipse. I know the baby won't understand what's going on, but it's a loud, violent movie. I'd be afraid of a baby being upset by the noise.

On the other hand, I've been a new mom and I remember when Dominic was a week old. I sat on my couch crying because I felt like my life was over. That I'd never go to another party or restaurant or movie again. Transitioning to motherhood is difficult even under the best of circumstances and I wasn't about to judge another woman trying to cope with that change as best she could. I figured as long as the baby was quiet I would mind my own business and if the baby wasn't quiet I'd cross that bridge when I came to it.

The woman set the infant seat down across one seat and got all of her belongings settled.

Then she left.

I mean, she put the baby down and just walked out of the theater. As I watched her leave, I kept thinking, "No, she must just be going to say hi to someone she knows. No, maybe she dropped something. She'll be right back. She'd never leave her newborn in a theater with a bunch of complete strangers." But she did. She just left the baby there. I just sat there with my mouth hanging open, staring at the exit.

Kevin said, "That is the most ignorant thing I have ever seen."

The man sitting closest to the infant seat said, "Uh... did she just leave her baby here?"

She did. She just left it there. I was completely flabbergasted. My mind was well and truly boggled. I sat there gaping at the baby, at the man next to her, at Kevin and my other friends, at the people behind us also expressing shock at the situation.

"No," I said. "There have to be cameras. This is Candid Camera. I know it." I started looking around for cameras. I didn't see any.

Denise checked to see if the baby was real (yep).

The man sitting next to the baby said, "You saw me. I didn't touch that baby."

I pulled out my phone and checked the time. "She has five minutes. If she's not back, I'm getting help."

I could hear many people behind us whispering "baby".

A woman a couple rows behind us leaned over and tapped Kevin on the shoulder. "Did she really just leave her baby?"

I kept checking the time. Exactly five minutes later, the mother walked back in. She sat herself down in front of me, pulled out a bottle of pop she brought from home, woke up the baby, and settled down for the show.

For a newborn, it had really good theater manners. It didn't talk or text during the show. It made a few little newborn noises, but no crying. So, I mean, there's that at least.

But nobody asked me to sign a waiver to be on a hidden camera show, so I'm fairly certain it was real. And that's depressing.