BURPERS & WIMPERERS

If Lou Cohan thinks infants and toddlers can ruin a movie, he should see (and hear!) what they can do to live theater (Calendar Letters, Jan. 4).

I don’t dislike or blame the children, but I have had many an evening ruined by the “Yuppie Parent.”

The yuppie parent, so enthralled at having produced this new tax deduction, actually seems to assume that I’m as taken with their little puppet as they are. I’m not.

I resent spending $28 to listen to whines, gurgles, crys, burps and whimpers. I resent the plodding of little feet as they pound up and down the aisle in Act III. I resent listening to the yuppie mother hum the child to sleep.

I do not go to the theater to be faced with the realities of everyday life. I can always visit a day-care center when I feel the need to watch a baby spit up. It’s not a question of minding my own business--I can’t mind my own business (which is actually hearing the actors speak their lines).

It’s happening too often to be a case of babysitter cancellations. It’s just no consideration for the rights of others. And restaurants! Forget smoking/no smoking. Let’s have children/no children sections in dinner houses.

CATHLEEN MILLER

Corona del Mar