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Watching “Avengers:Endgame” without Bathroom Break: Tips for Parents

We did it! Props to my 7-year-old son for surviving the Avengers: Endgame.

We’ve watched almost all of the Avengers movies in the big screen, and there was never a time when he didn’t have to go to the loo, interestingly just when things get so exciting. With this final Avengers movie, we didn’t want to miss a thing. We had questions from the Avengers Infinity War that needed answers. And all the comments in social media like “a fitting ending”, “masterful”, “epic”, “sooooo good”, “a great combination of action, emotion, and humor” only fuel an already brewing anticipation. We planned to watch it in a much later day but the spoiler alerts in social media the day it opened were too much to handle. So we decided to watched it the following day.

All these excitement on one hand, and the fact that we would surely miss out on some important scenes because of bathroom break on the other, led us to make changes in our viewing practices. Usually, we have popcorn and some colas while watching, which my children look forward to. However the combination of low temperature inside the cinema, and icy cold colas scream bathroom break for them.

Well some changes are inevitable. Read on and find out. You might also want to watch our experience in Hatyai Cineplex in Central Festival Thailand where we watched The Avengers: Endgame.

 

Here are the changes we made in our viewing practices. It worked for us. It might help you too.

  1. Satiate their taste buds before the movie. We took the late afternoon show slot, and came two hours early in the mall. We had a proper meal and some ice cream after. Reason for this is that, my son has the appetite of a goldfish. We could then simply tell him off by saying “We just ate ” when he starts asking for something to eat again.
  2. Ask them to go to the bathroom a few minutes before the movie starts. A Piedmont urologist recommended emptying your bladder every 3 hours whether you have the urge to go or not. If your child pees five minutes before the movie, s/he will most likely be able to watch the entire movie without going to the bathroom to pee.
  3. Popcorn and drinks after the movie. We explained that for this particular movie we won’t be having popcorn and drinks. Of course it didn’t go uncontested. There were a lot of “whys”. We explained the whys, and we made a deal. They could have popcorn and drinks after the movie. I’m happy and proud that my children could understand reasons and are capable of delayed-gratification. In fact, they passed with flying colors the high-delay children challenge we previously did with them. 
  4. If possible sit at the utmost back row near the aisle or better yet at the aisle. There will be idle moments in the movie and your child will start fidgeting, standing, and/or moving around like a Kangaroo out in the wild for the first time (a bit of an exaggeration here, or maybe not). This is normal and when it happens at least nobody from behind gets disturbed. And also your child could have the entire aisle to himself/herself to do their thing.

So there you go folks! We recently did these, and we successfully watched the full 3-hour the “Avengers: Endgame” uninterrupted with our two children with us. My son got into the movie so much that he became so emotional. But for sure my son wasn’t the only one who cried.

I hope these tips would help parents out there or at least give you some ideas. For us though, we’d reserve these practices for movies that really matters.  

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