We are half way through the winter school holidays and whilst I maybe Dreaming of Summer I still have to entertain a 5 year old for 2 weeks in the middle of winter.
So a trip to the movies with his best buddy was the plan to keep them entertained for a morning and the movie “Monster’s University” was chosen.
Taking kids to the movies
Now we live in the inner city suburbs and this has it’s advantages and disadvantages one of which is paying for parking if you stay anywhere longer than an hour. Adding $10 on top of movie tickets turns a half day trip into a very expensive day for one child. The advantage to living close to the city everything is within walking distance.
The morning of the movie day I packed a day bag with snacks, put our walking shoes on and headed off for a 20 minute walk to the movies.
This has a 3 fold effect.
- We don’t pay for parking
- We get some exercise
- I wear him out a little so that he will stay seated quietly for the following 2 hours. As any parent who has taken energetic young children to the movies this is the tricky bit.
During the walk I remind my son that he will have to sit calmly and quietly throughout the movie.
We arrived at the movies and queued for our tickets. The boys were so excited bouncing about. However with a quiet reminder that they would have to be quiet as we were going into the cinema their entire behaviour altered.
Once in the cinema they take their seats, put their water bottles in the cup holders and have their bags of food at the ready.
The lights dim, the music roars and the picture explodes onto the screen. The boys are eyes transfixed and as they munch through their food their attention barely wanes for the 90 minutes.
However once they lights come back up those 2 energetic soles return. Thank goodness there is a 20 minute walk to wear off some of that pent up energy.