Watching movies together is a great activity for education, bonding, and expanding your kids’ horizons.

However, you need to be mindful and intentional about it so that you do more good than harm.

Here’s a set of rules I’ve formulated for myself while picking movies and arranging movie nights.

Don’t watch too much

Movies are not your primary activity with your kids.

It’s simple to just turn something on and let them watch, but you need to remember that all the content we consume brainwashes us.

Your goal as a Pagan father is to show them the good stuff and shield them from the harmful stuff.

With that in mind, keep the movies occasional – they should be a treat for your kids and not the bread and butter of your upbringing.

Start slow

Your kids are not born with a taste that demands constant sensory stimulation and expensive visual effects.

Start with simple older movies like Conan where what you see is pretty much what they shot.

If you start with modern CGI-filled movies like the modern Marvel stuff you will get them used to unrealistic fights, secondary and overproduced films, and constant sensory stimulation that one can never get enough of.

Don’t burn their taste

In general, expose them to modern movies as little as possible.

They will see enough of them with their friends, on school trips, and with other relatives. You have to be the source of good taste for them.

Show them the good, clean, fun, and meaningful stuff first – my movie reviews can help you pick what to see.

Violence and love in movies

I’ve found that if you don’t tell your kids what to think, they treat everything they see in movies reasonably.

They don’t have the emotional, intellectual, and traumatic luggage that we do and don’t mind seeing battles and love scenes – as long as all of these things are natural as they happen in life. Eros and Thanatos are always near each other.

Obviously the movies focused on gore and horror are a no-no, as well as movies made with the only goal of arousing you.

Always discuss what you watch

Every good movie has several plot lines and many lessons to take away.

Make sure you share what you thought about the story and ask your kids to share their findings too.

There are a lot of parallels you can find between different movies – always voice everything you notice.