Some of my fondest childhood memories are of going to the movies. I love movies. Just love ‘em. I love sitting in the darkened theater. I love the previews, the artery-clogging popcorn with the fake butter (for the record, I do love good popcorn with real butter even more). I love losing myself so completely in a movie. Good or mediocre and sometimes even bad, I love ‘em. I even the bumpy seats and the sugar/fat smell imbedded in the floor and a fabric. That’s how much I love movies. Enough that I – the most no-nonsense writer you’ll ever read — waxes poetic about movies and movie theaters.
I love the movies of my youth. E.T. Raiders. Superman. Empire. You know, the greats. The masterpieces of silver screen.
Before I had kids, we saw, like … every movie that came out. Every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend, we were at the movie theater. We had parties to celebrate the Oscars. We just loved movies that much.
I know there are a lot of moms with lofty goals about raising their kids. They want their kids to excel at sports and play like concert musicians. They teach their kids to play chess and to get into Harvard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great goals. Me? I just want to share great movies with my kids. I want to sit in darkened movie theaters and eat bad popcorn with them. I want to eat jujubes with them.
I want these great childhood memories with them, because they are the great memories of my childhood. Maybe that’s natural. To want to share the things we love and the things we loved as children. It’s why the first chapter book I read to my daughter was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. It’s why I like to play board games with my kids. It’s why my husband loves it when I make the pasta dish just like his mother used to and why he sat up with us at bedtime for every pages of Little House on the Prairie.
We want our kids to love the things we love.
And, okay, I admit it, sometimes this means we watch things that aren’t wholly age appropriate. Yes, I know, there are plenty of movies we could watch together. But, frankly, so much of that ‘kid-friendly’ programing is just … well, total crap from a storytelling point of view. Some of it’s good, but a lot is just crap. It’s bad writing and bad storytelling. It’s like Goldfish for the brain. There’s no nutritional value to it and it’s killing our kids palates. (Yes, Barbie movies, I’m talking to you.) So when it comes to watching movies with my kids, I’d rather watch stuff that’s good even if it’s a little intense.
Sometimes, you just have to ignore MPAA warnings and call it for your kids. With my kids, the rule is, we pause the movie if they want to talk about it and I’ll take anyone into the other room who wants to go. (Well, except my husband.) Of course, it’s not like we’re watching Chinatown or anything. Nothing that’s going to destroy their faith in humanity. Just the good stuff, even with the occasional explosion.
So what’s your family policy on movies? What are your family favorites?
Emily, your post brings back memories! I remember watching all of those movies too! I don’t have a family policy on movies yet, so I’m interested to hear what others think. Baby Galen just doesn’t have the attention span quite yet. Right now we stick to Clifford and Mickey Mouse–stuff like that. She is still too frightened of anything with too much conflict or a villain, so no Disney. And that’s her call, by the way.
Man, I’m so glad we’re past the Clifford stage. Plus, we were never a Barney house! (Woohoo) My kids briefly flirted with Dora, but she bugs the crap out of me, so I banned Dora from the house. Ironically, my daughter thought it was because I was afraid of Swipper.
We thought about it long and hard. We watched everything before our kids did. Then we realised that our 2 year olds were watching (and loving!) Lord of the Rings because the 8 and 10 year olds were…it was all downhill from there! Here’s my post about sharing Bridget Jones’ Diary and The Bodyguard http://familymattersnz.wordpress.com/2012/02/19/the-pitfalls-of-sharing-a-favourite-movie-with-your-children/ and let’s not even get started with Dirty Dancing and Grease! We were disappointed that we couldn’t smuggle our 14 year old son into Dredd recently, but they were ID checking, and even at 6′ tall, he doesn’t pass for 18! I’ve come to the conclusion that kids self-censor – if it’s not interesting, or it’s over their heads, they don’t watch it any more.
I’m with you on the family traditions. They’re lovely things to do. We board game and cook special meals and every year make Christmas cakes and the like, and it’s wonderful. And the children enjoy it.
I totally agree! They do self-censor. My boy has never had a problem with scary things … unless his sister is upset. When he was 2.5, I realized he was watching New Moon with me. He loved it because he thought the werewolves were so cool!
Right now we have one who loves movies (though kid movies) and the other one likes about 20 minutes of movies and then gets bored and goes to find something to play with. We have a pretty sizable collection of Disney movies so we’ve been slowly working our way through that. Since we watch PBS programming, usually about an hour, sometimes two a day, we don’t do movies that often because I try to limit their TV time. I’m looking forward to sharing great movies from my childhood with them, Goonies is probably at the top of my list, but I’ll wait until they’re old enough that they can enjoy it.
I remember seeing The Princess Bride the first time, and it was lost on me. I don’t want to share things too soon so that something like the Goonies is terrifying (b/c of all the skeletons) instead of being just a fun adventure. I think you have to take your own kids’ personalities into account for those sorts of decisions. So for me, regardless of how eager I am to share things (hello, Harry Potter!) I don’t want to spoil that first experiences b/c you never get that back so I want to make sure we do it when the kids are old enough to enjoy it.
We watched Goonies a couple of months ago when the Geek was out of town. The kids loved, loved, loved it … but then later my daughter said she was scared about the skeletons. Not during the movie though, just later. Go figure.
Great post!
xoxo
The Clarences