Daddy Movie Date

My kids have a summer tradition. Each summer we travel to our local Chik restaurant and pick up a schedule of the free summer kids movies at the local theater. This is an annual event and we know summer is coming when we see that schedule on the restaurant counter. My girls look through the numerous movies and plan with their dad which ones they want to see. I then have to inform them which ones we can't go to because we have plans that week. The girls love to go to the movies with their dad and I am thrilled that he takes them. They normally go to one or two together and then at least once in the summer he will take them on a daddy/daughter date separately. They love it and most of the time he will take them out to lunch after the movie. Very cool for them. This year the movies were great pics and dad let the girls pick their daddy/daughter movie out. MA has her date coming up and the movie she picked HOTEL FOR DOGS. Has anyone seen this movie? It is cute and there are lots of dogs, but for a child that is adopted it is truly insane. Millions of questions stir for my child and you ask why let her watch it? She is completely obsessed with this movie. It is one of two that she currently watches over and over again. She saw this movie last year with her cousins and so dad bought it for her as a gift. Producers of this movie and STUART LITTLE really do not consider the consequences of their cutesy little movies. They don't get that children that are adopted might watch them. In both movies the parents are killed and that is how the child/children become an orphan. That leaves you open with a lot of questions. In Stuart the adoptive family does not find out that the birth parents died until late in the movie, so mid movie they give their adopted child to total strangers whom they believe is the child(mouse)'s mother. Okay, can you help a mother of an adopted child out here? What were you thinking when you produced that scene? An adoptive mother just gives her child to total strangers without fighting for her child or even checking to see who these people are? Mouse or not if a chic came to my door wanting MA back it would be over my dead body. In no uncertain terms I have tried to explain this to my child each and every time she watches this movie. I let her know that this is a made up movie and real moms would never, ever do that. She thinks it is because he is a mouse. If he had been a boy they would have never done that. I normally agree with her and then give her more evidence that this would never happen in real life. I think she takes it all with a grain of salt because she watches the movie at least once a week. I do like the fact that it gives us the opportunity to discuss adoption and why we adopted her and how glad we are we did. I also discuss the other movie with her, but mainly we talk about why we don't lie, cheat, or steal. HOTEL is a great movie to use to teach a lot of the ten commandments. It covers more than a few. I should bring up the fact that if these kids were in church and prayed to Jesus they would probably behave better. I will use that one after she goes to the movie with her dad. I know the next question everyone wants to know is why I do not like to take my kids to the movies. I don't like theaters. Why? They are gross and if you turned a black light on in any theater it would explode within seconds. The germs there has to be beyond anything we can comprehend. I have had a little phobia about theaters since the first time my foot got stuck walking down the aisle when I was about six. EWWW!
No where around the entire world would anyone purposely go into a dark room with that many germs and eat food. Only in a theater do we find this appropriate. If it was daylight, and you walked into someone's home and their floor looked like a movie theater floor and their dinning room furniture looked like any chair located in a theater, you would not eat their food. You probably would not eat for the rest of the day just thinking about it. Yet we do this and pay big bucks for it. EWWW! I am spoiled when it comes to movie theaters. Many moons ago, before we were married, my husband took me to a little place called Cinema and Draft House. Let me give you a little glimpse into clean movie watching. This is the only way to watch a movie outside of your own home. You walk up to the ticket counter and there is a big list of rules. The first being no kids after nine, the remaining five or six explaining why you could be kicked out. You pay a very small fee to go inside and watch your movie. Once inside you go into the theater and sit at your table. You heard that correctly, TABLE! A nice clean disinfected table. A nice waitress would come up and she would wipe it down one more time and give you a clean menu. She would take your drink order which included coke, tea, beer and wine. She would return with your drink and take your food order. Yes, food order. The food was supreme. She would return about 15 minutes into the movie with your plate of food and condiments. People this is the only way to watch a movie. About 25 minutes before the movie was over she would clear the table and silently offer you dessert. At the end of the movie the lights came on and you paid your bill. Take this into perspective-- any place that serves food has a food inspector. The place was clean as a whistle top to bottom. My foot never got stuck to the floor I can assure you. It was an awesome place and I miss it. For years I had hoped that it would catch on on the southside, but it has not happened yet. Although alcohol was served, nobody ever got out of hand because it was a movie theater. You can't watch a movie when somebody is loud and acting like a nut. I preferred this place over Applebee's or Ruby Tuesday any day of the week because drunk people can be obnoxious there. When we were dating it was one of our favorite places to go out. Now you all understand that my husband spoiled me and I just have a hard time going to the grungy, dark, sticky movie and paying big bucks to do it. For the price of a popcorn and drink down the street, I could have eaten a whole meal and dessert at Cinema and Draft House. Good times. I do however, take my girls if daddy just can't, but he takes them most of the time. Especially, daddy/daughter movie date day.