A cry room or crying room is a space designed for people to take babies or small children for privacy or to reduce the disturbance of others. Started in the 1950s, they are usually found in churches, theatres, and cinemas.
In some venues, they are called "infant care rooms".
Cry rooms are often designed with
soundproofing
Soundproofing is any means of impeding sound propagation. There are several basic approaches to reducing sound: increasing the distance between source and receiver, decoupling, using noise barriers to reflect or absorb the energy of the sound ...
properties to dampen the sounds made within. Many are equipped with a speaker system to allow the occupants to continue to listen to the main presentation, be it a church service or performance in a theatre.
Some churches have cry rooms for when a child becomes "out of control, disruptive enough to distract people, or makes it hard for others to hear or contemplate".
Cry rooms are used in theatres and cinemas to allow a child to be taken out of the main auditorium while still allowing the accompanying adult to watch the performance.
There are hardly any cry rooms anymore, particularly in cinemas, which is mainly due to the rise of multiplex theaters beginning in the 1970s.
See also
*
Infant crying
References
Church architecture
Infancy
Rooms
{{room-stub