Off to the Movies?
My girls have never been to a movie theater.
Take a minute to process that.
Lately I have been wondering if we are really so odd as everyone we know takes their kids to see movies in a theater. The latest movie our friends and acquaintances have been raving about is Up. But there have been others.
Usually when I say that my kids have never been to a theater it translates that my kids have never seen a movie. Not true. We have a very nice home theater system (250″ screen, projector, surround sound) and they love to watch movies. Current favorites: My Fair Lady, The Apple Dumpling Gang, Aladdin and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. They’ve been to a drive in once- kids under 11 are free and you can take in your own food (BIG money saver!). And our community hosts “Movies Under the Stars” about 5 times during the summer.
My standby for not taking them to a theater in the past was that I really didn’t think they would sit and watch the movie. Since they sat through a stage show a couple months ago I think that excuse is void.
But, really, I don’t see the need to take them to a theater. It takes no time at all for movies to be released on DVD. And since we don’t have a television, (correction: we have televisions; they just have no signal since we dropped the cable and didn’t bother getting a converter box. Go ahead and process that one…) we don’t see commercials. In short, we “don’t know what we’re missing”.
I kind of like it that way. I know it can’t last; soon the girls will be in school and peer pressure will begin to rear its’ ugly head. Until then, I think we’ll remain clueless.
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I don’t think you’re odd. I’ve taken K to the theater only once. We saw Wall-E last summer. He was REALLY overwhelmed and covered his ears &/or eyes for most of it. He loves that movie on our little 19″ TV with the DVD though!
We have some free movies in the summer too, both at local theaters (daytime) & at some parks in the evening. Might try the theater for a freebie on a rainy summer day. It’s just so freaking expensive otherwise. Used to go to the movies lots in my single days, but now I just think about other things that $ could be used for!
I haven’t taken my kids to the theatre either.. and don’t really want to.. there are much better things to do than sit in a stuffy cinema hoping the kids will sit through it.. more than likely they won’t! besides as you said, it’s far better when it comes out on DVD, and then watch it in the comfort of our home!
I don’t think it’s odd, so many families do it that way. Our kids only go to the movies for special things, or when Boo freaks about HSM 3 coming out. lol
My kids don’t watch TV, and if they have peer pressure at school I haven’t heard about it.
It’s not odd… I think we have taken the kids to the movies 5 times. They are almost 9 and 6. When we go, they know that we will all share a popcorn, and that they will share a soda. We wait until the movie comes to our local theater, where tickets are $5 for adults and $4 for kids. (two to three weeks after the release).
and now with things the way they are – we will probably go just on special occasions – birthdays, or something big.
I don’t like theaters; overpriced, rude people, too loud, and so on. So much nicer to relax at home, watch whenever I want and if I don’t like it, I turn it off and send it back to NetFlix, all for less than one movie would cost. I do have Dish Network, but only the local channels and I rarely watch those.