This day is a big one in our house:  movie day.  We don’t have TV or cable–just Netflix and Amazon Prime.  The kids have access to screens for schoolwork, but they have almost no time for screens otherwise.  Part of this is health-related, but part of it is just lifestyle.  When my kids are in front of a screen, it is purposeful.

Movies are a wonderful treat.  What shall we watch?  Let me tell you how THIS decision-making often goes down…

BigGuy is almost 5 full years older than Girly.  So what often happens is that Girly will spew out a list of movies–rapid fire–at BigGuy and BigGuy responds with equal speed to veto.  Then, BigGuy will offer up a few movies he wants to watch that are of zero interest to Girly.

Unfortunately, this usually ends with Girly caving to something that BigGuy wants just to be able to watch SOMEthing.

And then mom steps in.  Nobody wants mom to step in.

Because Mom will almost ALWAYS dictate “The Aristocats“–the family standby.  I love this movie.  For one, it’s rated G and that’s always a hard find.  But I love how they demonstrate how siblings can not get along sometimes, get along other times and stick together always.  I love the patient mother cat who upholds a set of standards that “just are”–which is how my own grandmother led the grandchildren.  I love the perseverance of almost all of the characters involved in each of their own story lines.  I love the mixture of socioeconomic classes and the model set that there is nothing to fear by people who are different–including a strong attitude of gratitude for help.  I want them to see that people (in this story, an adult) who look like they’re a good person could be capable of bad things. The different scenery of another country, the humorous moments that temper the strained ones and the music that has permeated our household well beyond the movie are all things that make this one our family’s standard go-to.

Tonight, I actually have a small group of women coming to my house as part of a monthly gathering to connect, so Husbeau and the kids will be watching their movie upstairs together.  I need to remember that I need to have them decide on a movie BEFORE they ascend up to my room. It’s going to be a nice treat for sure.

Had I planned it right, I could have taken them to see “A Christmas Story” on the big screen locally.  I could have even moved the little papers around in our garland to make it fall on a day that it was showing.  #fail  Maybe next year (they do this every year in a beautiful old theater in the next town over).

What are your favorite family movies?

Why do you love them?