If you have a tween or teen, your week is filled with homework, after school activities, your work schedule and so many other unexpected events. So it does not come as a surprise to me that according to A.C. Nielson, parents spend 3.5 minutes in “meaningful conversation with their children.
Now that my daughter is in middle school, she is able to walk to and from school. This new phenomenon coupled with her somewhat less than reticent nature to talk has led to almost no meaningful conversations being had unless you call the daily inquisition of trying to find out how her day went meaningful.
Even though we have reached this less than ideal situation, I am determined to find opportunities to try to have meaningful conversations with my daughter. One idea that I have resurrected is bringing back our weekend movie night. This was something we used to do when she was younger when she was happy to hang with me.
Tips to Creating a Fun, Family Friendly Movie Night For Meaningful Conversations with Your Tween or Teen
1.Schedule Movie Night Time – This sounds easy but I find that planning early in the week is best to schedule time for the weekend. My daughter always makes plans with her friends or something comes up that I have plans with friends. Once you decide on a date and time, everyone needs to keep to the commitment.
2. Choose the movie together – Obviously you need to choose a movie that is age appropriate. I like to reference commonsensemedia.org as they have various lists for every genre of movie and by age groups. Right now, we are working through their pre-teen movie list.
3. Ban Cell-Phones during the movie (This also applies to you parental units) – Put them in another room so your child can’t see it and definitely turn off the sound. My daughter’s phone pings every time she gets a text which is distracting and we have to stop the movie, while I tell her to turn it off. I am equally guilty as well so it only makes sense I follow the same rule.
4. Review the Movie Selection from On Demand Choices- We have Verizon FiOS TV which makes this simpler than renting or buying a movie. We actually started with the FREE Movie selection that are available on TCM (Look Who’s Talkng, Valley Girl, Adams Rib), FXM (Alvin and the Chipmunks, Grown Ups, Gulliver’s Travels and Les Miserables); HD Net Movies (Hoodwinked Too, Kindergarten Cop, Little Women, West Side Story) and Pop (Can’t Hardly Wait, Anaconda). This is a pretty good list in my opinion and will keep us busy for months. Yes they may be oldies but goodies but I love the idea of sharing movies I have seen. Who doesn’t love Kindergarten Cop and Valley Girl? Remember I have a tween girl.
5. Talk about the movie afterwards – There are so many conversation starters you can follow up after the movie. Did you like it and why? Would you recommend it your friends? Do you know anyone like the characters in the movie? Do you identify with any of the characters? Do like this type of movie?
6. Bring Snacks and Popcorn – How can you have a movie night without snacks? I ask my daughter to go shopping with me so we can choose the snacks together? Yes, it’s a sneaky way to interact and chat.
Definitely visit Verizon FiOS to check out all the options they have for new and existing customers and to learn more about Verizon FiOS On-Demand where you enjoy thousands current and classic movies or rent them or buy your favorites.
Do you have a family movie night? Any tips on movies for tweens or teens you recommend?
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Disclosure: This is a sponsored post as a part of a campaign I’m doing with Verizon FiOS in New York. #FiOSNY
We’d love to try FiOS. This sounds like a great service. We do have family night and it’s one of my favorite family activities.
We love, love, love our family movie nights, and we ban tech too! It’s a great time to connect – we will definitely check out FiOS.
I like the idea of banning cell phones (theirs and ours) during movie night. I’ll definitely check out FiOS.
We love to have date night at home with a good movie! This sounds like a great service for on demand movies.
I love your tips for having a fun family movie night. And Can’t Hardly Wait is a classic teen movie.
We have movie nights weekly and the family really enjoys it. We put different movie genres in a hat and what ever is pulled out, we have to find a movie that fits that theme.
I love the idea of Movie Night. I think it’s so important to make that time to bond with your kids, especially during those very difficult tween and teen years.
I can’t wait for my kids to get older so we can have “adult” movie nights like this. Great tips, especially banning the cell phones for everyone
We have special family time and don’t have our cell phones around. The time together is too precious!
Turning off the cell phones is key, getting to that each week is a struggle but it happens.
I wouldn’t mind trying FiOS. We have Xfinity and I love being able to get a lot of great movies on demand.
Thanks for sharing wonderful tips..Verizon Fios looks interesting.. will definitely check it out.. Friday night is the movie night for us and we ban all techie gadgets too 🙂
3.5 minutes in meaningful conversation? That is just shameful. I like the tip of talking about what you watched.
This has been tough time, talking wise so I need every opening I can get.
What concerns me most is the 3.5 minutes of meaningful conversation. Gadgets and mobile phones are big factor to this. Thanks for your tips, a great help for parents with teens and tweens.
I was so shocked by that stat. It was the word meaninful description that got me.
I wish FIOS was in our area, but it’s not. We cut the cord, so we get on demand movies. I think our favorites for our teen and tween are to show them movies from our childhood like The Goonies. They loved that one.
My daughter loved the Goonies, how can you not, right? Its a classic.
I don’t have Fios but movie nights on demand sounds like fun. I’m sure my kids would love it!
Movie nights are key in our house.
I love these tips!!! Will be using them this weekend and of course having Verizon Fios is KEY!
have fun!!
Too bad we don’t have FIOS on our area. We have cable, or satellite and the satellite never seemed to work at our house so we switched back to cable. A total PITA btw!
I have been so busy I haven’t had a movie night in forever. But OnDemand is clutch. I need to treat myself to one soon.
There are so many choices now even tv shows you havent had to watch.
I love the tip about banning cell phones during the movie! I am guilty of this and I need to unplug more often! Thanks for the reminder 🙂
FIOS seems like such a great idea. Unfortunately I live in one of those very rural areas where it’s not available.
Fios isn’t available in my area yet. However, we do really want it because I could use the speed!
You have got remarkable knowlwdge right here