One of the most-anticipated joys of parenthood is sharing some long-treasured activity with the child and seeing them enjoy it, too. Unless you count "sleeping" as such a shared activity (joyous though it is) this joy is delayed (and with some babies, even sleeping is delayed far too long).
All that is a rather pompous introduction to say, we showed the ducklings a movie this weekend. Understand, we don't have anywhere to put a TV and have thus never obtained any movies for children. (Let's not go into any children's movies we may have obtained for ourselves.) If there's something we really want to see, we sit at the computer and watch it on DVD while they are in bed.
This weekend, though, they woke up from naps, still sleepy and cuddly, while we were watching something we thought they would enjoy, so we hoped their brains had developed enough not to be damaged and let them watch with us. No, it was not a heartwarming family film. There were no animals, talking or otherwise. Nor any talking vegetables.
It was The Great Escape. Fortunately they woke up right as the prisoners were trying to escape across Germany. Mokorcycle falling down! Train! More mokorcycles! Boat! Train again! Bicycle! Mokorcycle! This is the kind of movie toddlers would make if they could direct movies.
D2 is already a Steve McQueen fan.
Of course, we had to stop before anyone got shot. That would be a little too much falling down to explain. Still, it gave us a taste of family movie nights to come. How old do they have to be to watch The Princess Bride?
5 comments:
Ah, you've hit upon a lifelong dilemma for me: how old must one's adored and precocious children be before one introduces them to marvels and wonders that meant so much to oneself? On the one hand, I want them to grow up reading The Hobbit, like me, so that it is effortlessly woven into their world. On the other hand, I want them to wait until they're old enough, like Michael, so they can truly appreciate the dramatic suspense and not know what's coming.
Darren's looking forward to Daddy-Son Star Wars nights, but we hesitate for two reasons: A. A&S are hypersensitive and probably wouldn't make it through the opening sequences; B. If Stuart did make it all the way through, do we really want to live and breathe Star Wars for the next year? Weighty concerns.
Princess Bride is indeed a milestone. We're going to wait until they're old enough to appreciate it. And also not freak out at the shrieking eels.
-- SJ
Sound of Music, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and Mary Poppins...Gigi was calling her "Mia" (Maria) and later "Mia Poppins" (she recognized her voice) at about 18 months. Those are still some of her favorites.
LOL about the mokorcycles.
I introduced my kids to The Princess Bride when the youngest was 5. She was simply thrilled with the movie.
The 7 year old boy thought it was very horrible for the most part!
But I've been reading to them from books like the Narnia Chronicles, Roald Dhal, Enid Blyton, and Kipling for a long time. They really do understand so very much!
Love your blog btw! The Play dough had me laughing with tears!
[I followed a link from Mama Squirrel]
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