I believe it is very important and positive to expose children to a variety of experiences, but I agree that it is the responsibility of parents to regularly take the emotional/behavioural "pulse" of their children when they choose to bring thyem along to these types of events.

When my middle son wasw 6, he accompanied us to a production of "the Merchant of Venice" at the new Globe; he enjoyed the riddle of the caskets, and the Commedia Dell'Arte stuff between acts, and we made sure he was fed, watered, and had something quiet with which to amuse himself if he got bored or tired. The idea of leaving a child unattended at a concert, play, etc is just bizarre and incomprehensible, for safety as well as social reasons!

My children went to the Warwick Folk Festival with us last year, and by varying the activities throughout the day, we were able to see that we all mostly had a fabulous time. They even made it through the Waterson:Carthy concert, which got out around midnight, without incident. The youngest put his head in my lap & slept awhile, but not longer after, hearing "A Dark Light" on the CD player, he said, "hey, we saw these guys"!

And *that's* cool!

D