I wish I had found some camouflage maternity pants…
I realize things have been pretty slow here since Oscar season, but not without good reason. I only have a couple of weeks (or less!) left before my bundle of joy bursts out of me Alien style and into the world. My husband and I have been preparing for months in many ways. Sure, most everyone gets a crib, some cute tiny clothes and a stockpile of diapers, dreaming of pushing a stroller and witnessing a child’s first everything. But I’ve been taking it a bit further.
Slowly, I have gathered a decent blu-ray and dvd collection. And the latest additions have all been treasured Disney and Pixar films. From sweet classics like Bambi and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh to modern greats like Finding Nemo and Brave, I hope to share these with my child, when the time comes. Until then, they will still make good entertainment for me and background noise for baby that I can feel good about. In fact, I hope to put Fantasia on within the baby’s first few days.
A staple in any childhood film collection.
I know one day, as junior becomes more technologically advanced, certain movies will have to be kept out of reach. The Quentin Tarantio collection my husband and I have gathered won’t come out with little eyes and ears in range. Just imagine the damage done in just a few minutes of Reservoir Dogs, Jaws or Saving Private Ryan. We’ll get to those when the time comes, some in a decade or so, but no earlier.
I’m already wondering when to first take my child to a public screening setting. Taking a baby to a movie theater never seemed right to me, so I know I’ll be out of the loop on new releases for a while. My husband and I have already discussed how I’ll be going out on my own for most of next years Oscar nominated movies. However, I am hoping our town continues to screen family classics in the park this summer. Free, outdoors, informal and with other small children possibly being more disruptive than ours, what a paradise!
Bruce is a nice step as we work our way up to Jaws.
Of course there are some things I don’t want to rush into, got to make sure we put the horse before the cart. This kid needs to learn to swim before seeing Jaws, it may not work the other way around. We’ll try to read at least a few Harry Potter books before getting into the movies, as well as The Hobbit. And I want to make sure this kid can name a few dinosaurs before jumping into Jurassic Park.
Perhaps I’m getting ahead of myself, but it’s all so exciting! Am I the only one who is putting more thought in their child’s film future rather than what onsie to bring them home in? What film experiences have other parents enjoyed or are looking forward to with their little ones?
You’re going to put Fantasia on within your child’s first few days? Are you sure the harpee’s bosoms won’t screw your kid up?
Haha, no more than all the trauma of being born! Besides, he/she won’t be able to see the tv from across the room yet (yay weird facts about newborns!). :)
Well, you’re bolder than most moms. I didn’t watch Fantasia until I was thirteen and my mom skipped past the Bald Mountain segment.
Plan well, share the classics, imbue a love of black and white as well as color films. Take them to see junk, they will love it but learn years later that it was junk. Don’t be too afraid of traumatizing them, use some common sense (the Tarantino cupboard should be locked) but if they see Jaws or Jurassic Park at age five ( yes, I did that) they will have nightmares, but they will also know how a movie can effect you emotionally. Congratulations, you will give birth to a future film fan and the world will be better as a result.
Such wonderful advice, thank you so much!
Definitely agree with introducing them to classic black and white film before bias can set in. Our 8 year old doesn’t mind at all watching black and white films now because we shared films like “Miracle on 34th Street” with her. A few months ago she started watching “Citizen Kane” on TCM and didn’t want me to turn it off when it was time for her to get ready for bed.
Key films from my childhood include the Neverending Story (my son is named Bastian from that), The Last Starfighter (all good boys enjoy this one) and Short Circuit. Nothing wrong with classic older films, especially while the kidlets are young and impressionable.
But my daughter, bless her socks, loves Barbie so the endless reruns of the various Barbie movies have become ubiquitous in our house. Mind numbing and tedious, there’s no escape. But generally, you can’t go wrong with Disney, Pixar or even Dreamworks animated stuff.
And I loved your Aliens reference, Alyson. Made me chuckle. ;)
The medical establishment suggests not letting kids watch any tv until they are 2 years old, and we followed that as best we could with our firstborn. (He was in the room when sports were on sometimes, and that was about it. I get where you’re coming from with Fantasia being more of a soundtrack thing in the background and not something where the baby is watching the screen, and that’s cool, too.) But shortly after he turned 2 we took a trip out west to Nana’s, and to keep him occupied we bought Pixar’s Cars on dvd, and he loved it, which was a good thing because he never adjusted to the time zone difference and kept waking up at 4-something a.m. We took turns escorting him to the living room and putting the movie on for him and dozing on the couch beside him, and when the movie ended it would be 6-something a.m. and a much more civilized time to start the day.
Took him to his first movie theater matinee when he was 3, almost 4. Every kid is different but that’s approximately when most of them are ready to sit still and stay relatively quiet for 90 minutes. I do have some friends who went to the movies with their baby when the baby was practically a newborn, because they sleep most of the time at that age anyway and can just snooze in their little carseat bucket at mom and dad’s feet during the film. Seemed too risky to me, if the kid had a meltdown I’d have to leave midway through the movie, but different strokes and all that.
My son is 5 and a half now and he loves Finding Nemo and all the Toy Story movies and How to Train Your Dragon, but still gets a little freaked out by scary bad guys and intense action sequences. So he has yet to see Star Wars, and I’m not sure when he will get his first viewing (though I am 100% sure it will happen at some point). With the extra time provided by deferring to my son’s sensitivities, I’ve had the opportunity to give deep consideration to what order to introduce him to the Star Wars films. Originals, then prequels? Prequels, then originals? The internet-popularized “machete style”? Yes, clearly I have given this way more thought than I ever gave to what brand of diaper ointment to buy.
– Sunny D