Going to the movies is supposed to be an escape, but it only works if everyone in the room respects the space.

In this story, a deaf moviegoer who wears cochlear implants settled in for a regular screening with only a few other people in the theater.

Nearby, a teenager with a learning difficulty kept excessively clapping, and the noise drowned out the film he was trying desperately to hear.

After half an hour, he politely asked the boy to quiet things down, then asked again ten minutes later.

When nothing changed, he stormed out, only to be accused of being the villain.

Keep reading for the full story.

AITA for asking the special needs to be quiet in the cinema then storming out

I went to the cinema today to watch Whalefall, and there were few people in the screening, including me.

The moviegoer provides some context.

I am deaf and wear cochlear implants, and when it comes to background noises or a new sound, I can’t separate sounds, and they overlap each other, and whatever I’m trying to hear gets drowned out.)

There was a small group nearby, and there was a kid (must be 14 or 15, I think) who has a learning difficulty.

I sat down and watched the film.

But soon one of the kids started to be incredibly disruptive.

The kid kept making clapping noises.

After half an hour of the film, I turned and politely asked the carer or parent if he could quieten down because I’m trying to hear the film.

This didn’t stick at all.

Ten minutes passed, and he still did it, so I politely asked them once more. Another 10 minutes, and my temper was growing. I had to leave before things got ugly, so I just got up from my seat and stormed out.

While I was walking out, I said, “Thanks, guys,” and the carer shouted out to me, “He’s got a learning difficulty.”

Now the frustrated moviegoer has a dilemma.

Now, I understand he can’t help it, and there are screenings for people with learning difficulties and stuff, but this was a normal screening.

In my opinion, why would you take a child who makes noises to a place where silence is expected and act like the victim when asked to be quiet?

AITA?

No one wants to have to storm out of a movie they paid their hard-earned money for.

What did Reddit make of all this?

There’s good parenting, and then there’s this.

Two things can be true at once.

This user provides a fitting analogy.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a daughter who feels hoodwinked after finding out the sick father she’s been supporting has plenty of money of his own.

Perhaps a theater employee could have helped make it right.

The man in this story had a perfectly reasonable goal, which was to follow the plot of a film in a mostly empty theater.

His implants can’t sort overlapping sounds, so clapping nearby turned the soundtrack into mush.

He asked kindly twice, and the response he got was silence until he was already heading for the door.

Some movie nights end before the credits ever arrive.