I Need This Hat

We have:

• 3 DVD players
• Racks of DVDs
• FIOS
• Netflix

And still can’t find anything on to watch. Or more to the point. We can all find something that we want to watch alone…

• The Kid wants to watch Adventure Time.
• The Tween-now-Teen wants to watch The Office on a continuous loop.
• The Teen wants to watch a Star Trek marathon.
• The Dad would be quite happy watching Star Trek, but doesn’t think The Office is funny at all.
• The Mom would watch Adventure Time even though she doesn’t quite understand it and would gladly watch The Office, but finds Star Trek to be dead dull. If Mom had her drothers she’d watch Dr. Phil or Hoarders or Intervention.

So there you have it, we’re a family of TV watchers who can’t agree on a movie or a show that we all want to watch together. So much for family time!

Last night was a case study. It was late so we shooed the Kid off to bed. Don’t feel too sorry for him as he had spent the day glued to a screen playing games or watching TV. The Tween-now-Teen wanted to stay up so we started watching The Office. The Teen woke up from her pain killer induced slumber post-wisdom teeth surgery. She was awake and wanted to chill on the couch before bed. I could see Dad’s hand reach for the remote control. I needed to take action…quick…

No! Not Star Trek! Please not another episode! I said all of this in my head. Quick…think! Let’s find something on Netflix! Easier said than done…

My husband passed documentaries and movies that I was raring to watch. I love a good documentary. We haven’t seen Babies or Titanica or many others. But, Dad was bound and determined to find a movie for the four of us to watch. The rating system is tricky. Movies rated PG in the 80s would be rated PG-13 today. Movies rated R in the 80s are so riddled with language and explicit nudity or sex that we can’t watch them with our older kids. We have to watch these classic movies from the 80s FIRST before showing them to the kids. The Karate Kid passed muster, the rest of the 80s movies…not so much.

I said “Let’s watch Peggy Sue Got Married”? From what I can remember this movie is very tame. But to Dad tame = boring. We saw this for one of our many date nights in 1986 through 1990. O.K. let’s find another movie.

He scrolled by Paper Moon 4 times. Each time I said “Let’s watch it!” he moved to another row of movie titles. Finally, he gave in. Clicked the Play button and we were off on an adventure. I had never seen Paper Moon. I’m a reality show junkie so of course I watched the Ryan and Tatum reality show. I’m not sure the show ended well. Most of the episodes dealt with how the two had never dealt with any of their issues from the 70s…from around the time both starred in this movie. Tatum had a rocky childhood and Ryan didn’t seem like the best dad. But, I digress…

TV on. Movie about to play. And very quickly both girls say…”What! Is this movie in black and white?” “Why are we watching it?” I calm them down with a quick “Watch on and you’ll see.” All four of us watched. I probably was the most interested. The girls laughed. The movie was grim so my husband the English teacher told the girls about the Depression. We had a few Grapes of Wrath references.

And by the way, I want Ryan O’Neal’s hat AND the cloche hat worn by Tatum O’Neal. What is your favorite movie from your youth that you watch with your kids?

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