10/14/2013

The Way of the Geek.

I wasn't born a geek.

Although I spent plenty of time as a kid watching Star Trek reruns with my brother and I did manage to read some C.S. Lewis and Ursula K. LeGuin at a pretty young age, I didn't grow up as part of a geeky family.

As a matter of fact, I can pinpoint the exact moment that the geek bug bit.  It was June 1989 and I was 15.  Batman was in the theater, and I went to see it with some friends.  Then I saw it again.  And once more.  And I was hooked.  And that was when a geek, and honest to goodness geek, was born.

Fast forward nearly 20 years, and I was married to a fellow geek and contemplating starting our geek family.  We were unsure of a lot of things about how we wanted to raise our soon-to-be-kids but we agreed completely and wholeheartedly on something, and that was the fact that our children would grow up knowing about the ways of the Force, they would know the Vulcan salute before they could tie their shoes, they would be able to compare and contrast the Marvel universe with the DC universe, and they would hold a particular disdain for Muggles everywhere.



We fail at parenting ALL. THE. TIME, but this geek thing?  We've got this like nobody's business. We  started out with superheroes, and we've progressed steadily from there.



Last summer Zachary and I read some Harry Potter books, but now the fun is really beginning, Because now the boys are old enough to really enjoy and really GET live action movies.

Let me back up a minute.  Not long after Cooper was born, I was working long hours at the bookstore and R was working long hours at his job, and I felt disjointed and disconnected from my family.  I knew that I needed to set some things up for us to ensure what little time we had together was positive and meaningful, but my energy level was at an all time low, so I instituted a weekly family movie night.   After all, turning on a movie and popping some popcorn took very little effort but but it was still something we could all do together.  By the time I quit work, the boys were looking forward to it every week - "Mama, is it Sunday yet? Yay! Movie night!!!"  so we kept it going.  For the longest time we stuck with cartoons, but recently, well recently things have gotten GOOD and geeky up in this house.

For the past several months, we have been introducing the boys to what I like to call "Geeky Movies From Days Past."  We started with E.T.When we realized they were totally into it, we moved on to some of the other greats, like The NeverEnding Story and then The Princess Bride.

And I was totally, utterly, completely thrilled at how much they loved them all.  And I was totally, utterly, completely thrilled at how happy in made me to share these with the boys for the first time.

Last week, we watched Star Warsand it was all I had ever hoped it would be, watching it together with my boys for the very first time.

When it was over, both the boys sat there, completely still, watching the credits roll, then Zachary jumped up and yelled "THAT. WAS. AWESOME!!!"  and Cooper yelled "BEST MOVIE EVER!" and even though I question my ability to parent these children all the time, right then I knew I was doing something right.

We've got Willowcoming up soon, as well as Gremlins.But help a geeky sister out.  What fabulous movies are we missing? 



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11 comments:

  1. That's so great. I'm thinking old timey live action Disney. Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Escape to Witch Mountain. The Nutty Professor. Although those may be charmingly weird more than geeky.

    I'm also thinking Labyrinth and Dark Crystal.

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    1. YES! All of those sound great! I had completely forgotten about Escape To Witch Mountain. How could I forget such a thing?!?!?!

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  2. My kids loved watching the Short Circuit movies...I didn't think they would, they walked around for a solid week repeating lines from the movies.

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    1. I think my kids would LOVE Short Circuit! Robots are right up their alley.

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  3. Ummmm... I watched Seven Brides for Seven Brothers about 8 million times as a child. This isn't what you are going for, but I had to share.

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    1. Oh my gosh me too! I loved that movie. It's one I think I should re-watch, just to see if it lives up to my expectations now.

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    2. My friend and I watched it last year... Just to see... I still had every song and every line of dialogue memorized and it warmed my heart to be watching it. Nostalgia is some good shit!

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  4. It's a "love it or hate it" thing, but my youngest and I could sit for hours watching episodes of Dr. Who.

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    1. I've thought of that! I think my boys might still be a couple years off from really getting it, but when the time is right, they will definitely be watching!

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  5. Oooh, you've hit all our favorites. Save The Dark Crystal for later, when they're ready for Muppet horror stories. My 12-year-old and I watched Poltergeist yesterday. We both loved it.

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    1. Poltergeist! Yeah! In a few years, I think they will really dig the scary stuff. Actually, they'd probably dig it now, but I'm not ready to deal with the aftermath ;)

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