Friday Night is Movie Night!

Posted by Shea on May 18, 2014

Visit our house on a Friday night and you will come across our family and more than likely members of our extended family, all lined up in front of the ‘tele’, movie on, with the smell of fish and chips filling the air because – Friday Night is Movie Night!

Pop into our house on any other given night during the week and you are likely to find me folding washing, ironing, cleaning up the kitchen, working on my blog or tackling one of the many projects currently on the go.

If the children are still awake, add to that, listening to school readers, revising sight words or battling with the ‘toilet and teeth’ routine, on a mission to get them both to bed on time.

We were introduced to the tradition of Friday Night Movie Night well before our children were born. Our Godchildren, who are now 14 and 11, have enjoyed this weekly ritual (thanks to their insightful parents), since they were old enough to be captivated by the television. Back in the day of being ‘DINKS’ (Double Income No Kids), my husband, aka The Hairy Godfather and I, aka The Fairy Godmother, would quite often head straight to their place after work to catch the start of the first movie – chocolate was always the shared snack!

Friday nights the world over is traditionally the one night of the week where normal routines are forgotten. People working Monday to Friday breath a sigh of relief and head out to engage in some form of change-of-routine activity signaling the weekend has begun. We are no exception.

When we weren’t watching movies and sharing chocolate with our Godchildren and their parents on a Friday night, we would generally be found sitting at a funky bar somewhere in the city – incredible view optional, a glass of wine essential. A couple of hours having a good old laugh with friends is terrific therapy to offload the stresses of the week and enter the weekend on a positive note.

Fast forward a few years and our status has changed from ‘DINKS’ to ‘Family of Four’. They say ‘when one door closes, another one opens’ and in this case that applies to our front one, (door that is) as everyone knows Friday Night is Movie Night at our house. In fact, the trend is contagious as it is also movie night at my Sister’s house, cousins, friends, Grandparents if it is ‘sleepover’ night etc…so we change venues frequently.

The kids have an early bath, we order fish and chips (hooray no cooking!), chill the wine and settle into a TV dinner, beginning with their choice of movie. No more ‘chores’ to get done and the ‘to do’ list can wait. This is about spending relaxed time together, as a family, enjoying the company of whoever else has popped in to join us.

Friday Night Movie Night has well and truly become our weekly ritual to celebrate the beginning of the weekend. After all, full-time Mums can relate to the fact we don’t have the luxury of leaving work at the end of the week and having a couple of days off. In hindsight our friends should have ‘coined’ the event years ago but, who would have known this humble idea would have appealed to so many people a few years down the track.

There is a terrific vibe in the house every Friday and over the years it has been noted my Husband is, more often than not, home from work on time, if not early (with no reminders necessary), keen to sit and enjoy this family night. We have both realise how important these family rituals are, especially as life moves faster and faster and spending valuable time with the people you care for, becomes trickier as we Strive for Balance.