A Trip to the Movies – a Mom’s perspective February 20, 2007

We took a family trip to the movies last night.  We actually went to the real theater, not our usual trip to what is known as the “$1″ theater.  It’s actually cost $1.50 for years now, but since it opened in the early 90’s as $1, the name stuck.  That’s another story. 

We won movie passes at the Jammin in your Jammies event, so we saw a first-run movie for the first time in a long while.  We chose Music and Lyrics, partially because of my love of Hugh Grant and both mine and hubby’s love of Drew Barrymore, that we, of course, associate with E.T. which was THE movie in our day.  Our choice turned out to be an adorable movie!   

As with any trip to the theater, dollar or not, the Mom plays a special role.  This role is: human napkin, crowd control, noise enforcer, bathroom attendant, refill manager, popcorn passer, just to name a few.  I’ve learned over the years to enjoy a movie despite the multi-tasking required on my part.  I was a little tired last night, and perhaps a bit on edge, and so it seemed to irritate me just a bit more.  Or maybe, the proportion of interruptions was higher than usual – who knows?  Instead of letting it really get under my skin, however, I decided to share. 

Here are some of my “movie favorites” from last night, which are, oddly enough, not at all related to the movie:

• Tween daughter wants to sit in the dead center of theater.  We make no less than 52 trips out, so we need to be on the aisle.  I got a “whatever” and an eye roll right off the bat with that directive.
• We forgot to bring our ziploc bags for sharing the free-refill popcorn (economy family idea).  I’m in the middle.  The popcorn passes me no less than 152 times.
• Brady insists on holding the jumbo free-refill drink (again with the economy thing) each time he gets a sip instead of just drinking with it supported in the cup holder.  He gets loud if I protest – not worth the fight.  Problem being, he wants a sip approximately every 1.5 minutes.
• Time for first refill:  I request tween daughter go out to do this.  “Like, right now?  You mean right now?”  No, I meant later, when the movie’s over.  I give up and do it myself. 
• Boys alternate lap/chair/lap/chair approximately ever 15 minutes.  Strange, no one wants to sit on Dad’s lap tonight. Lucky me.  There sits Dad, on the end, by the aisle, not having to pass anything – enjoying himself.  Hmmmm.
• Harper informs me about half way through the movie he’d like to go home now.
• Once Harper figured out we were staying, he got comfortable, taking off his shoes.  He informed me he hadn’t worn socks and his feet were sweaty.  Nice.
• To follow above, Harper demonstrates to me that he can crunch popcorn between his first two toes.  My children are so talented. 
• Keely is downing the Diet Coke.  Apparently she and Brady are in some sort of drink-off competition.  But Brady wears diapers.  Keely, sitting most in the center, makes 3 trips to the bathroom, crawling over all of us each time.
• What?  We didn’t buy candy…the nerve of us!  They almost staged a protest, but must have remembered we were their ride home. 
• Each time any of the above happens, tween Marlee is horrified. Oh my gosh, someone is embarrassing her again.
• Speaking of Marlee…hubby decided that since she didn’t want to go get refills, he wouldn’t pass the popcorn to her.  But he’s not sitting near her, now is he?  Result, Marlee continues to ask me over and over for popcorn while Dad holds out. 
• The boys talked to me over and over in their loud whispers.  Brady was a typical questioning 3 year old:  “who’s that?, what’s he doin’, what’s that, Mommy” etc. 
• And my favorite thing is actually kind of sweet.  Brady was on my lap a few moments before the movie was over.  He leaned back and grabbed my chin, turning it toward him as he does when he wants my full attention (I think it’s a 4th child thing), and said “I wanna go back Disney Worwld – you take me?” 

And yes, I still enjoyed it.  I would even go again, but I am reminded why I love the DVD player.