Would you take a six-year-old to a Buzzcocks concert?

[politicat]

9. We didn't because the kids seriously dance and we wanted to model healthy hydration.

They were never allowed much soda anyway. Iirc, the normal munchkin beverages were Oj/Cran/whatever juice spritzers with a garnish (clubbie Shirley Temples with limited sugar) and water. Given that our venues maxed at about 1000 occupancy, the lines weren't too bad. I actually wouldn't take a kid to a stadium show (Wiggles, boy bands or Disney factory) because those environments are so much harder to manage.

Half the reason my group of friends started taking our kidlets to concerts was because we had all seen teenagers get seriously screwed up in the early 90s rave culture. Our local consensus was that the kids who got hurt worst had never learned to play responsibly because they weren't supposed to be there at all. Their parents already forbade clubbing, so since they would get in trouble for raving, they might as well get wasted, too. We wanted to model responsible club behavior early, often and with a safety net so that when the inevitable teenage storms started, the kidlets would have protocols already firmly established. (Also, babysitters are really much harder to find these days and the kids like the music, too.) Nobody learns without practice.

We also had long conversations about drink safety, personal bubbles, and what not to do (often with object lessons).