So, we have had this problem: How to pick a family movie when you have teens and a 6 year old with widely different tastes! There are some movies Michael can't watch and the older two definitely don't want to watch Veggie Tales for movie night. Tera and Daniel have been getting so frustrated, because Michael never wants to watch what they pick and vice versa. They try to pick things they know he will enjoy, but he feels like he has no choice. Then, the battle happens!
We've tried having everyone rotate picking what to watch for movie night. We've tried having a little kid movie and an older kid movie going on simultaneously in two different locations. I think we've found our new solution that makes everyone happy while all watching together!
Here's what we did:
1. First, have each child pick 10-12 movies they would like to watch. I had to steer Michael away from Veggie Tales and other shorter movies. I told him those were "episodes" and he could pick those a different time during the week.
2. Bring everyone's piles together on the table and have each child pick 2 movies from each stack including their own.
3. Put those movies into a list. We use The Hat program. The first six movies we picked from The Hat are our next 6 weeks of movie nights.
4. I divided the other movie choices in half-highlighting some pink and the rest blue. For extra movie choices, each person picks one from a list. We put those three choices in The Hat and pick one. We'll alternate between the pink and blue list.
When we've exhausted this list, we'll start over again with a new list.
What's awesome about this?
- Everyone gets a voice and a choice.
- Teaches the kids to appreciate another person's choice
- Picking a movie is no longer a battle of wills.
- Teaches everyone to compromise
- By the time the list is made, your choices have all melded together into one.