It’s so hard as a parent to draw our kids into meaningful conversations, isn’t it?
Especially if the conversation is about something extremely important, but rather abstract in the minds of our kids, as the topic of building character?
Then again who says you have to sweat it out?
I’m a lazy parent – if there’s an easier way to do the job just as well without me having to do all the heavy lugging, I’ll take that option any day and twice on Sundays.
Which is why I love family movie nights.
Did you know that it’s been scientifically proven that movies have the ability to persuade and teach our children?
Really. It’s true. This article on the power of persuasion by Dr. Jeremy Dean discusses the psychological reasons behind why movies work so well to influence our thought process. One of the comments he makes is this “Stories work so well to persuade us because, if they’re well told, we get swept up in them, we are transported inside them.”
So, what if we secretly stacked the cards in our favor? What if we, as parents, were very strategic in the movies that we choose and then used that impressionable time right after the movie concluded to discuss and impress upon our child the favorable character traits we want them to glean from that show?
It’s amazing what kids will open up and say in this very vulnerable and open state. I am sharing this with you because I have personally found it to be so much more effective with my kids than just trying to talk about “doing the right thing”. At times when I’ve tried to discuss “doing the right thing” with my teenagers, all I ever received was the classic eyeroll.
Call me “sneaky” if you must. But hey, it works. And I’m all about doing things that work, especially if they are easy.
Therefore, let me equip you, my dear parent friend, with this list of 25 of the best family movies that I believe will help you in this venture. These movies will appeal to all age groups and engage the entire family, however for the purposes of this article, they are sorted by Rating.