Dear Parents,

Please stop bringing your kids to rock concerts. Or at the very least, stop dragging them (or letting them drag you) down onto to the floor or into the pit.

At best, it’s irritating. At worst, it’s dangerous.

I get it. You want to be the “cool” parent. Maybe you also really love the band. Or maybe you were just tired of your kid begging you to go, so you relented and bought tickets. That’s great. By all means, go to the concert, but don’t buy floor tickets and make your child every one else’s problem.

At any concert I’ve ever been to that I had floor tickets for, the children & parents I’ve encountered have been the worst part of my concert going experience. At a concert I went to last spring, this couple had their child, who couldn’t have been more than four years old, with them, and at one point the kid laid down on the floor. A four year old kid was lying on the floor at a rock concert amidst people dancing and singing and just generally having a good time. That is both unsafe and unsanitary; not to mention the fact that it shouldn’t become my responsibility to make sure that I’m not accidently stepping on your child, who you’ve let lay on the ground at a rock concert.

At a concert this past week, a small child and the group of people with her shoved up to the front row from somewhere towards the back right before the headliner came on. Like hell was I going to give up the spot I’d been standing in for two hours to see a band that I’d been saving up for months to see, just because some little kid and her entire posse decided that they needed to be right front and center. “She’s short! She can’t see from the back!” If you wanted to be in front, you should have gotten here early like the rest of us. Being a parent with a short child doesn’t give you free reign to shove through the crowd. It’s rude and disrespectful and completely unnecessary. If your child is that short, buy a seat where they could actually have a clear view of the stage instead of bobbing around people’s knees on the floor.

Now, I’m not trying to tell you how to raise your kid. I’m clearly not a parent, nor do I ever intend to be. I’m just asking that you have a little bit of consideration for everyone else around you and your child in that type of environment. I don’t save up money to see bands I love only to have to be thrust into a position of responsibility to make sure I’m not physically harming or hurting the feelings of your child because you as the parent insisted on getting floor tickets.

Signed,