According to a recent study by the A.C. Nielson company, the average family spends less than 40 minutes in meaningful conversation every week. I know life can sometimes be very hectic, between work, household chores {aka Mom's work} and school, we all need a minute to unwind and what better way, than with a family movie night! With these easy tips, you too can have a stress-free, fun evening with your kids. {I make no promises, if you have teenagers, because we all know teenagers are crazy and subject to ruin a perfectly good evening, at any given time, for no apparent reason} Tip 1: Location, Location, Location Location is everything! You need to find a place that will accommodate all members of the family, comfortably. Throw some big pillows in the living room floor, make a palette with some old sleeping bags, veg out on the couch, anything goes as long as it's comfy and everyone can see. There's nothing worse on family movie night, than the one whiny jerk that's all like... "What just happened, I can't see?" or "What'd he say?", so make sure before pressing "Play", that everyone has an adequate vantage point. Tip 2: Movie Selection This might be the number one thing that will make or break family movie night. There is a very fine balance when it comes to picking out the perfect movie. You have to factor in several things... the age of the kids watching the movie... You wouldn't want to watch "The Smurfs" with a room full of teenagers or "Black Snake Moan" with your pre-schoolers. My advice, get everyone together a few days before the planned movie night, ask everyone to write down their 3 or 5 favorite, {Mom-approved} picks, add each title to a hat, let your favorite child draw out the movie... listen to the other kids gripe for 10 minutes, because their movie wasn't chosen, tell them to "Shut up, it's family movie night and you're gonna like it!", finish what you were doing, no big deal... See, I told you it was easy! Our family movie night pick last week was "Donkey Kong Country" from Phase 4 Films & Kaboom Ent. Your favorite old school video game hero is now available on DVD! This fun movie is appropriate for all ages and has everything you loved about the game... action, adventure and most importantly, that big furry ape, Donkey Kong {and Diddy too}. It's 90 minutes long, perfect length for the little ones and their short attention span. This film is not rated, but I can tell you, there is no foul language and only comic type mischief, no blood and guts or guns. Even the 15 year old watched it, without griping... much. Tip 3: Choose A Theme You can turn family movie night into a mini-party by choosing a theme that corresponds with your movie choice. For our "Donkey King" movie night, we went old school and rocked some killer 80's inspired Madonna gloves, some neon wayfarers and jelly bracelets. While we were waiting for Dad to get home so the movie could start, I told the kids about all my totally rad adventures back then, in "the olden days". I told them all about "Pretty in Pink", "16 Candles" and Molly Ringwald, Madonna, Rocky Horror Picture Show, Prince, Sebastian Bach, Brett Michaels and Simon leBon, and a few of my other "boyfriends". It was great to walk down memory lane with them, until I realized they tuned me out twenty minutes prior and I was "walking" by myself. Whatever, teenagers suck and the 80's kicked ass! Tip 4: The Right Snacks You really can't mess this up. Snacks are easy! You grab a few bags of microwave popcorn, toss 'em in the microwave, throw it in a bowl... Viola'...Popcorn. You're also gonna need something sweet, so I usually go to Walgreens, grab a few boxes of their movie candies... cookie dough bites, gummy worms, snocaps, etc. and then let the kids fight about who gets what. You're gonna need something to wash it down, so make a pitcher of Kool-Aid or Tea and call it even. Yeah, I know candy isn't good for you, but it's Family Movie Night, you can let them slide, just this once. You don't want their fond memories of Family Movie Night to be marred by the fact that they had to eat broccoli and carrot sticks, do you?! They already have enough crap to guilt you about, down the road, don't give them extra ammo... or feed them after midnight. {That was a "Gremlins" reference, for those of you born in this century, also a great choice for Family Movie Night} Tip 5: Turn Off All Cellular Devices! Simple enough! Turn everything off and leave it off. It's only an hour or two, people, you can stand to be without technology for that short amount of time. In the famous words of Rob Schneider from "The Waterboy"... "You Can Do It!" DISCLAIMER: I was provided with a copy of Donkey Kong Country, by Kaboom Ent. and some cool party swag to facilitate this post. All opinions are my own.
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