Summer vacations call for some family time and what better way to bond than over movies; some old and some new. With the two-month long holidays looming ahead of them, young parents find that a movie session every other week is a great way to keep their child engaged. Many parents use the opportunity to keep their young ones happy while also sharing anecdotes and involuntarily imparting important life lessons. While animated films like Madagascar, Ice Age and Toy Story are undoubted hits, family comedies and classics like Home Alone, My Fair Lady, Sound of Music and Mary Poppins are often pulled out of their DVD jackets too.
For Subha Rao, a freelance writer and mother of a 13-year-old boy, there are four movies that she loves revisiting with her son every now and then. “There are a few films that we never tire watching together. Finding Nemo is one of them; even today my son will cry at the same scene as he did when he was 2. The thing is there’s so much more to the film than just entertainment — it teaches children the importance of listening to their parents while it shows parents why they should not hold back their children. The other film we enjoy watching is The Lion King ; no other movie imparts life lessons like this one does. Something as complex as the Circle of Life is explained so simply. Winnie the Pooh and Babe are also good films that we enjoy watching,” she says, adding, “We do enjoy Madagascar and other such films but they are more for fun, while our four favourites speak to children in ways no other films do.”
While parents love watching new films with their children, some like to revisit their own childhoods with classics from their time. Anjum Babukhan, director Education at Glendale Academy, for instance, loves to treat her children to films that she grew up watching herself. “Films like Karate Kid, Home Alone and Cheaper By The Dozen are some that I’ve enjoyed watching with my boys. They’ve provided us a great platform to share anecdotes from my childhood. Now that the boys are a little older they like watching their own favourites, but we are waiting for my nieces to arrive this summer so we can all watch Sound of Music together,” says Anjum, who was herself brought up on a staple diet of old Hindi films by her parents.
“Since we lived in the US it was my parents’ way of familiarising us with the Indian way of dressing and artistes. Even today when I hear a Mukesh song I can’t help but remember my school vacations.”
Life lessons apart, young parents also like to turn movie time into important family bonding sessions for their children. “It might be vacation time for my daughter, but it isn’t for my husband and me. So while we do try and keep my daughter busy with summer camp we also try and spend some time with her each evening playing a round of carom board or other board games. Weekends are when we watch a film together and it is invariably a classic like My Fair Lady or Mary Poppins . Sure there is the occasional Toy Story and The Incredibles , but my daughter enjoys watching Julie Andrews just as much as she enjoys watching animated characters on screen. She also loves hearing stories of how my cousins and I would watch one film every week before bed time during summer holidays,” says Reshma Mathur, a banking professional.
Subha also adds that the downside of initiating children into watching the films is to have to buy the related merchandise as well. “We got bulldozed into buying all the Winnie The Pooh character toys for our son. There was a stage when they took up most of the bed leaving little space for my husband and me at bedtime. But then again films like Finding Nemo have also been such a hit that we’ve bought over five DVDs over the years after wearing out the previous one,” she laughs.
