New Mom Takes Baby Somewhere She's Convinced 'Will Divide Opinions'

A first-time mom has revealed how she ended up taking her baby to do something she's convinced is "likely to divide opinions."

Ella Williamson, a 31-year-old mom to a 5-month-old baby boy, took to her TikTok channel, ellashomelife, to share footage of the special day out they enjoyed together which she is keen to stress was "not breaking any rules."

Williamson told Newsweek she started making videos for TikTok "for fun and memories and to connect with other moms going through similar experiences." She's certainly achieved that with this latest video, which has been viewed over 200,000 times, although it appears to have chronicled an experience most of her fellow moms were unaware they too could be enjoying with their tots: a trip to the movies.

There are some places a significant proportion of the wider public believes are simply not suitable for young children. In 2023, a Newsweek poll of 1,500 U.S. adults revealed 59 percent were in favor of introducing "child-free zones" on planes and trains.

To their way of thinking, children can prove an unwanted distraction to those passengers preferring to travel without them. Williamson believes a similar school of thought exists around going to the cinema with a baby.

"I feel like the people that would be against this are also the people who think babies shouldn't be on planes," she wrote. This story a man shared about his experience of a crying baby in a movie theater certainly backs that up.

However, she decided to brush off these concerns having checked her local cinema chain Vue's website and discovered she was allowed to take her baby to the cinema for free, provided it wasn't a movie with an adult certificate.

Despite fearing judgement, Williamson felt confident that their trip to the cinema would go off without a hitch. "I knew he would sleep if I fed him when we arrived and that's what he did," she said. "I think people getting mad in the comments forget that you have the ability to leave if they do get upset, it's not that deep."

Though there were a handful of dissenting voices though, for the most part the response to her video was a positive one. In fact, some fellow moms said they were now planning on doing the same thing.

"honestly slay you , I cannot wait to do this with my little bean ! These first memories are so special," one wrote, with another commenting: "Omgggg I didn't realize this!! Love taking L to the baby cinema so this is fab!!"

One of the dissenting voices noted: "I have a toddler who is almost 2 and I will only take her to toddler/baby screenings just because I would feel really self conscious if she starting crying. It wouldn't be fair on the other patrons."

However, Williamson hopes her video has inspired new moms "to do something a bit more interesting on their maternity leave days."

"There is no rule book for 'how to spend your maternity leave' and if you're like me and soft play isn't really your thing then there is a whole lot of other stuff to spend your days doing," she said.

She did offer some advice for anyone wanting to follow her lead though. "Pick an aisle seat in case you have to pop out. Feed the baby in there and try and make it tie up with nap time and you'll both have a great trip out," she said.

Williamson has already got her next baby cinema trip planned too, with a visit to go and see the new Bridget Jones film.