Sunday, July 8, 2007

A Child's Imagination

I had an overnight babysitting job last night. So to pass the time and keep the kids off each other backs, I decided we were going to have a movie night. Turns out that it was a great idea! We went and got ice cream, came back and put our PJ's on, made hot chocolate and popcorn and just watched a movie until bed time. It was relaxing for me not to have to work too hard. I even went to blockbuster ahead of time and rented two movies that I thought they might like to watch. Turned out that those movies were big hits too! The first one we watched was "Indian In The Cupboard", which was one of my favorites growing up. And the second one was "Because Of Winn-Dixie". Both were very good movies!

Indian In The Cupboard was one of my favorite movies growing up. Sure, the graphics aren't all that great, but what can you do? It was a good family movie for kids because it was entertaining to watch, but then left the kids feeling like they have an imagination too. It always made me want to go play afterwards like I had a real Indian living inside of a cupboard. I even made a fake cupboard out of a shoe box. And after watching it last night, I got to relive that memory again with these kids, as they wanted to pretend and play the same things I once did. Because Of Winn-Dixie was another great movie! I had never seen it before this morning, but after I saw it I couldn't help but wonder why they didn't make more movies like this. Kids enjoy it, adults enjoy it, and it was just a great movie that teaches kids some things that go on in the real world.

As I was watching these movies, I couldn't help but go back to my original thinking of how much this world has changed. Sure, they still make great kids movies, but it has changed. Now of days movies and TV leave little for the imagination. And it is a lot more harder for parents to find movies that they know will be good for their children to watch. Instead of movies that may be questionable, or may have questionable material in them for kids. Even Disney/Pixar movies, they are great for kids, but they also have some adult content in them that kids do not understand. Which is great, and fun for the whole family. But sometimes hard to explain to kids why they added that into the movie. At least it is that way with the little boy I babysit. I hope they don't stop making those movies though, because some of them are my favorite movies. But of course it will change, I just wonder what the movies will look like in another 10 years.

I loved the movies I watched yesterday and today, and I wish more families watched these movies instead. These are the types of movies you want kids watching anyway, movies that will give them inspiration to go have an imagination of their own, instead of sitting there filling their head with junk. I just hope they continue to make movies like these, so my kids will have something inspiring to watch!

That is all for today. I have been writing about kids so much lately because that is what consumes me all the time. I have hardly had time for a regular life the past couple weeks, therefore, causing me to always write about kids. But that's ok, because I like kids, and it's interesting to watch and see how their childhood is similar and different from the childhood I had.

3 comments:

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Anonymous said...

great blog, Dani. I remember having movie nights with you and Jake when your folks were gone.

I'm sure you are that little boy's favorite baby sitter.