Have you ever dealt with an unbelievable, selfish mom? Reddit user TiredPandastic had her whole movie night ruined due to this entitled Karen.
“I’m pretty good at ignoring any shenanigans happening in movie theaters, and annoying children and talkative people aside. I haven’t experienced anything particularly outlandish. Until this.
There’s one mall in Athens, which combines a pretty massive shopping complex with a 15-screen movie theater hall and a decent food court. It’s a nice place to hang out. I had work the next day so I figured, I’d do an early screening and get home before it got too late.
The hall wasn’t very crowded, which is always nice. My designated seat was towards the back, picked for my eyesight issues. As the seats filled up, I was still pretty much by myself, and I had some popcorn and a soda so I expected a pretty relaxed evening with a good movie. While the pre-movie ads were running, I checked a sudden text I got from one of my students regarding an upcoming test, before I shut off my phone. I don’t care about fiddling with my phone in the cinema, but I take my students’ requests pretty seriously, so I took a moment to reply.
That’s why I wasn’t paying attention much when SHE showed up.
A mother (whom I would come to identify as a Greek variant of a ‘Karen’), came down the isle with a kid about 12 years old I think. I specifically remember the moment she came into the hall because she had one of those charm bracelets on that make really obnoxious jingling noises when you move your wrist. I caught myself thinking, ‘Oh heck, she’s going to jingle all the way through the film.’
I watched her stop halfway down the aisle with the kid and scan the seats in a weirdly careful way. Then, she brightened up the moment she saw me, a single female siting alone vaguely towards the back. She scurried over and before I know it, she plopped the kid into a seat next to me, shoved a large box of popcorn in his lap and pushed two shopping bags under his seat (I think one of them was from a pretty expensive local brand or Zara, I can’t recall, but man, they were stuffed).
Then she looks me dead in the eye and says, ‘Hello! I have some shopping to do and I can’t drag him around with me. He really wants to see this film! Would you awfully mind keeping an eye on him? You can share popcorn!’
I want to clarify that I’m an introvert who isn’t a fan of confrontation, but I’m not a pushover.
I kind of stared blankly at her because what she was saying made no sense to me at all, but it didn’t matter because she didn’t even WAIT for my answer. She just turned to leave, somehow certain in her mind that my stunned silence meant consent to this zany idea. The poor kid just stared at me with the kind of face that said he’d been through this before, but he wasn’t happy about it. He looked pretty mortified.
I managed to gather my wits and stop her as she left.
Me: ‘Lady, I’m not your babysitter and this cinema isn’t your babysitter either. You can’t just leave him here.’
Entitled Parent: ‘But you’re sitting there by yourself, what’s the harm?’
Me: ‘I came here to watch a movie in peace, not look after your child.’
Entitled Parent: ‘You won’t even need to do anything, just sit there till the movie ends.’
At this point, she repeatedly tries to leave like nothing’s happening.
Me: ‘You’re leaving a minor with a total stranger. I can’t accept responsibility for this. What if I was some kind of disturbed person? Why are you so trusting?’
Entitled Parent: ‘Oh my God, what is your problem? I’m in a real hurry here.’
Me: ‘Ma’am you’re asking a total stranger to look after your child! That’s my problem! How did you even get in here without a ticket?’
Entitled Parent: ‘I do have a ticket; I just have better things to do than watch a kids’ movie.’
Me: ‘This…isn’t even a kid’s movie. How old is your kid?’
Entitled Parent, defensively: ‘I don’t see how that’s any of your business, he’s old enough.’
Me: ‘So if he’s old enough, why are you asking me to look after him?’
Entitled Parent: ‘He still needs supervision.’
Me: ‘Which, again, is not my responsibility!’
By this time, the ad reels are over and the movie is about to start. I see I’m getting nowhere with this certifiable loon and I am very stressed out by now, so I decide to bail. She actually managed to put me off so much that I disregarded the ticket price and the snacks’ price I paid and walked on out of there without seeing the movie and there would be no refund.
She didn’t follow me, but she did call me a ‘fat hag’ as I left the hall. I regret not calling the police. What she was doing may not have been illegal per se but ditching her kid with a random stranger sounds shady as heck. I wish I’d had the presence of mind to do something. I feel so sorry for that poor boy. She looked so eager to just dump him onto someone else for the evening. Not only was it a terrible imposition for me, it was dangerous! She had no way of knowing I was a safe person or not. I could’ve sat with him through the movie, but that woman just rattled me so badly I wanted to vanish.”