21st Century

It was not too long ago that we were fully entrenched in the 20th century. I don't mean it as the 20th century was not long ago what I mean is our simple house was stuck there. We didn't have fancy flat screen TVs - we had tube ones. It wasn't until 2011 that we moved into the HDTV and smartphone world. Another modern day advancement we thought we should get was Netflix. We had it when it first came out and, gasp, you had to wait for little discs to be mailed to your house (we just recently got a DVD/Blu Ray player after not having one for at least 5 years.) The iteration we have now allows movies and TV shows to be streamed thus completely quenching the desire for instant gratification to which we have all grown accustomed. And that is where this story is going.

Our Netflix membership, although discussed for some time, was only purchased because we wanted to watch a movie right then and there with the children. Set up was a snap and we decided on Up. We sat down with some pizza and settled in to watch the movie. You need to understand that our kids are not big TV watchers. Outside of sports and a few shows watched on the weekend they do not get parked in front of any kind of screen so they are relatively unused to the watching movies. They have certainly not gained the knowledge that any movie they are going to watch will have a happy ending. So it was about 25 minutes from the end of the movie that the older 2 kids (New Kid had already been stowed for the night) stood up and announced they weren't watching any more. The Boy said he was uncomfortable because "they were trying to kill the old man," and "needed to go read," and Pickle was very concerned for the well being of the two protagonists. Both were convinced that this was not going to end well for the bird, the dog, and the two humans.

I was floored and speechless so Christi stepped in and suggested we all adjourn to get PJs on and then return to finish. So after a quick break for PJs and teeth brushing they returned to finish watching both curled up as close to Mom as they could get. In the end they laughed and enjoyed the movie and have asked to watch it again proclaiming it to be their favorite movie.

I look back on it now and think it was adorable and really highlights the innocence of youth. It gave me a little glimpse of their world through their eyes and I think I am better for it.