The Best Kind of Family Movie Nights & Binge-worthy TV Series for Families
The most fun we've had in MONTHS!
Have you ever tried to plan the perfect family fun activity and had it fall flat almost immediately? Me too, so many times. So recently, when I found myself enjoying some big family fun night after night, I knew I had to share it with you. If your current mama-style is leaving the TV in the dust, this one probably isn't for you, but if you've got a TV and it still works (and none of your kids is in a season of needing it to stay off indefinitely - been there!), this might just be your cup of tea. I sure hope so!
A few weeks ago, my 12-year-old asked a question that led to the most fun we've had as a family in months. One night, after looking like he was deep in thought for a few minutes, he asked,
"So, when do you think we'll be old enough to watch Stranger Things?"
It made me think. Plenty of my friends had let their teens and tweens watch the series when it first came out, and there were also plenty who said they'd never be okay with it. I knew it wasn't right for my kids a few years ago, and I'd been putting them off on the topic because frankly, the show terrified me. I love sci-fi, so it was a good kind of terrified, mind you, (not the Scream or Taken kind); I just didn't know if it might cause a few nightmares, and I wasn't willing to go there.
But since he was asking so sweetly and since I'd seen a lot of growing up happening in our house over the past 6 months, I thought about it for a while and finally said, "How about now? But if it's too scary, we abandon it, okay?" (To tell you the truth, there's a chance I would've answered differently if we weren't on week 3,492 of shelter-in-place during a pandemic, but here we are. Can you relate?)
The result was all of us piling up together on the couch every night for a couple of weeks, eating popcorn, staying up way too late, making jokes, and having something new, fun, and interesting to talk about indefinitely - a HUGE togetherness win.
It's honestly been the most fun we've had since our whole world changed back in March. We have new inside jokes together. We look at each other and crack up every time we see an Eggo waffle or something from the 80's. And we even listen to 80's music together now too. And here's the cool part - we didn't stop at Stranger Things. When the series ended and we'd watched as many interviews and Season 4 teasers as we could, I thought we'd all find our own corners in the evenings again, but I was wrong.
One night while cooking dinner, I turned on Netflix to find some cooking inspiration (Lord knows I need it), and voila - we stumbled upon our newest obsession - The Great British Baking Show. We aren't watching it on the couch with popcorn yet, but we're having so much fun making jokes and practicing our Queen's English accents every evening while getting ready for dinner. It's becoming another unexpected togetherness win for us. (What is it about that show anyway?)
I have to tell you, though, we're not normally TV people.
I go a little bonkers when there's background noise, so my family knows that keeping mama happy means only turning on the big black box for something specific. We also try to be really intentional about shutting down all of our devices and unplugging in nature together way more than we plug in. It just makes us feel so much more alive. But I've always been a fan of family movie nights, and now, I'm starting to see the value of binge-worthy TV series too.
That doesn't mean I'm giving up my crunchy mama style though.
A few years ago, I met a mama online who was doing all kinds of cool television and tech-related stuff with her teenagers, and I immediately thought, "Ugh, I bet my kids wish they had a cool mama like that." But I just couldn't do it - I couldn't make myself like Fortnite or Minecraft enough to design a fun activity around them, and I couldn't begin to imagine what it would take to organize a movie club or dress up as our favorite film characters. So I had to let it go. Now, years later, my family is having a blast with something TV-related, and I didn't even plan it.
I'm learning that even a book-loving, nature-addicted mama (who always will be) can have big togetherness fun with her family in other ways too.
Whether your house is full of little girls and every single family movie night is Frozen or Frozen 2 right now or you've got a son or daughter super into documentaries or your husband has somehow convinced the children that The Andy Griffith Show is the best TV show on the planet and you're watching it night after night for months, I'm convinced that family movie nights and binge-worthy TV series can be a huge family togetherness boost.
{DISCLAIMER: I'm not recommending any particular show for any family (especially not shows with a scare factor and loads of mature language like Stranger Things) - only you know what feels right for your family. What I am recommending is piling up on the couch together as a family every now and then to share a good movie or a series every family member enjoys for a quick togetherness win.}
This weekend, I hope you find a cool, rainy night or two to sink into the couch with your favorite people and a big bowl of popcorn and get into a new movie or The Great British Baking Show together with more smiles, laughs, and inside jokes than you ever thought your family could have. We're having a chilly spring here in Maine, so you'll find us doing the same.
Do you have favorite movies or shows for some good family fun?
Leave a comment below or shoot me a message here and let me know - hearing from you always make me smile!
UPDATE: Here are a few screen things we've loved since I published this piece.
Car SOS (National Geographic, Disney+)
One Strange Rock (Will Smith, Disney+)
Welcome to Earth (Will Smith, Disney+)
Uncharted (Gordon Ramsay, Disney+)
The Great British Baking Show (Netflix)
Mitchells vs. the Machines (Netflix)
The Social Dilemma (Netflix)