Movie Nights With The Kids

I'm writing my December newsletter for my personal blog at BusyMomma.com and it just hit me how I made it through a lot of days and nights when the kids were younger.

I love movies. I mean love. If it wasn't for hubby putting the stop to me buying, I'd be in the 1000's. As it is, we have a few hundred. But only movies that I literally watch over again. I find it funny when he says he wants to see some older movie and I just tell him to check the “library”. We own that lol

Movie history lesson

Before DVD's there were these silly things called VHS tapes. You watched them and then had to rewind them. It was crazy.

Unfortunately, my kids were young in the VHS age. If it was a sick day, do you know how long it takes to rewind one of those damn things? It was horrible!

I love Disney but I had almost all of our Disney on VHS. We had someone in our lives lose his wife and his kids were young. I gave them a giant box of all our Disney movies. I don't regret it. I hope it brought them some peace to watch together like it did us.

It's well past time to catch up. I need to buy those beloved favorites on Blu-ray. What are the beloved favorites my kids grew up on?

The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – My son didn't watch this for as many years as my daughter did. Sadly, he doesn't remember all the songs and words. When I recently started quoting it during a commercial it kind of blew his mind. Boy, I watched and listened to this movie, 3 times a day for months if not years. lol

Toy Story 1-3 Box Set [Blu-ray] – Toy Story came out the year our oldest was born. The sequel came out when the youngest was a year old. The kids literally grew up with Toy Story. We love the movie. Our son (youngest) grew up loving Buzz and his nickname to this day at almost 16, is still Buzz. If I put this movie on right now I could probably get both kids to sit and watch.

Shrek: is the other absolute must have movie we did. I don't own this one on dvd or blu-ray and I need to fix that. The great thing about Shrek is it went across so many generations. We took it to two sets of grandparents and watched it with the kids. All three generations loved it. Now, our good friends 7 year old has been in love with it for years. See, all the more reason why I need more Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks movies at my house. I have more generation of movie addicts to prepare.

When the kids were little hubby was a volunteer. They were 4 1/2 & 2 when he started. That was when he started his EMT classes. Between working 40+ hours, commuting 10+ hours, and class time he wasn't home. It only got “worse” when class was over and he went on calls.

I say worse as in time spent at home vs. away from home. We don't begrudge him a single minute of the time he wasn't home. At the time it was rough, but the kids seriously do not hold it against him. They have no comprehension of how much time he was away. That means I did my job well and I'm not afraid to celebrate that.

Slumber Parties

The kids and I had a lot of slumber parties. It's something I hadn't thought of for quite a while because time just flies. But looking back, getting rid of our hide-a-bed was hard for me and I knew it was because of all the memories I had with that thing. The kids and I pulled it out almost every weekend.

If hubby was home on a weekend and not passing out from being so tired, he had no idea what was going on. That bed got pulled out, every day there wasn't school. lol If there was a day off at school then the kids knew that bed was coming out and we were watching movies. They got to choose what movie and you bet they knew who chose the last one.

They also loved to have their friends come over. I know it's because I let them stay up later than other parents, but who cares? They didn't miss any sleep, it was adjusted when it happened. lol I can't tell you how many nights I was in my room complaining about sleepovers when I had a living room of giggling, no sleeping kids. At the time I was miserable, now it's funny because of how few times it really was.

I also let them eat popcorn in the living room and I can't tell you how many times I'd hear from kids that they never got to do that. Really? Why? Furniture is meant to be lived on. I just don't comprehend stuff like that.

Weird Traditions

One thing about tradition is you don't get to start over. When you start something, you need to follow through. While many people would have called me a push-over at the time, now I know for sure they can suck it. That time went by so fast I barely remember it.

Kids grow up quickly and that's a given. BUT when we are the sole parent for so many extra nights, we tend to second guess ourselves. We end up with too many people that aren't living the live and want to pass their judgement.

I'm here to tell you…pull the hide-a-bed out and pop the popcorn EVERY…SINGLE…NIGHT possible. It's quick when they stop wanting to hang out so much. The time you “spoiled” them is short. It's not spoiling if you enjoyed the time as well in my opinion (IMO).

I worked part-time, I went to school, our lives were chaos. The steady in that life was the fact that our hide-a-bed was going to be pulled out and the kids would choose a movie for me to watch. Our furniture is new, only 2 years old, but next furniture will have a hide-a-bed instead of recliners. I don't want to buy furniture for a while and I'm also hoping my oldest won't give me grandbabies for 10 years.

Generally I fell asleep when the movie was on. If you've ever slept on a hide-a-bed before you know there's no moving without waking you up. It was the perfect solution. If I fell asleep first, I also woke up first when they tried to get up lol Total win for me.

Now that I realize how much fun I had without knowing it, our furniture will be changed out before I'm a grand Momma. I'm hoping for 10 years from now at a minimum but I'm still going to be full aware of how much fun that hide-a-bed was before it even happens. It's the best money we never spent.