Ted Lasso To The Family Rescue! by Ali Skylar
My kids are about 7 years apart. My daughter, Lexi, now 28, is the big sister. My son, Chaz, is 21 years old and the younger bro.
When they were young, it kinda sucked when it came to planning family vacations, or trying to find a game we could all play together, or watching a movie that was appropriate or that everyone could agree on, or even picking a restaurant.
The age range was tough enough, but add in the fact that they were of the opposite sex and life became doubly challenging.
I felt like I had two parenting lives: one for my daughter, and then one for my son. Why didn’t we have them closer together?
I didn’t plan on having a second kid. Between running a 24/7 business with hubby and raising a kid holistically (cloth diapers, homemade foods, natural remedies, nursing, and traveling far distances for cool pre and elementary schools), I wasn’t sure I had it in me to bring another being into the world and raise them the way I saw fit.
But then my daughter just got so friggin’ cute and around 5 or so started asking for a sister. I got bit by the mommy bug again and felt a presence knocking on our family door. So hubby and I said, “let’s do it!”
(I came from a family of 4 kids pretty much one and a half years apart. Honestly, many times when I was younger, growing up with 6 people in a 2 bedroom apartment in Manhattan, I would have preferred to have been an only child..:)
At the age of 5, I figured I had given my girl 100% of my attention for a long enough time where she knew that no matter who came after her (hubby before we had kids wanted 7 – ha!!), she was confident that she got enough mama attention to warrant embracing any new being that came into our family.
Well, honestly, my rationale didn’t really work. Once I birthed a brother instead of a sister, all bets were off. Jealousy abounded on both ends during their younger years, and I realized that no matter how much time I spent with either kid, the other felt slighted or ignored. Oy.
And no matter how hard we tried to create family experiences, it was not always workable based upon where they were at developmentally.
Even as young adults it was next to impossible to find a movie that they both would enjoy watching with us. As long as it isn’t a horror or violent movie, Jamie and I are into all types of movies (I’m a big action/marvel as well as romcom fan and can tolerate sci fi as long as it’s profound, like the Matrix).
Not the case with my kids though….until the TV series Ted Lasso came along on Apple TV.
On my kids’ last visit home we all sat and watched a show together that the 4 of us loved!! Oh my god, how friggin’ cool. It took long enough – but that’s okay. It happened. All four of us sitting together, enjoying an uplifting, funny, heartwarming tv series, eating popcorn, laughing and crying together as a foursome. (Being an older parent, time may not always feel like it’s on our side – so we do appreciate when cool experiences happen sooner than later.)
Thanksgiving is coming up and we’re all going to be together again. I know my son is going to want to binge on the Mandalorian series with his dad, and I’m going to excitedly watch the Macy’s Day Parade performances with my Broadway Bound daughter in our PJs, eating flagels and egg salad with lox cream cheese on Turkey Day.
But I’m excited to recreate our Ted Lasso experience, so I’ve been looking for and notating movies and tv shows for a month now, searching for entertainment that we can all enjoy together during their way too short but sweet visit.
Here’s my list so far that I’m crossing my fingers will be fodder for a family affair. Feel free to make suggestions in the comments box…:)
MOVIES
My Spy
The Commitments
The Peanut Butter Falcon
Troop Zero
TV SERIES
Life In Pieces
New Girl
Happy Endings
PS: Nix to the following show suggestions since separately, the kids have already binged on Schitt’s Creek, Friends, Community, and The Office many times!
Tags: aliskylar, familymovies, older parents, TedLasso, Thanksgiving, ThanksgivingMacy'sDayParade
