We love having our kids’ friends in our home. So do the parents of our kids’ friends. Our current ‘chill pad’ is the garage, complete with Berber carpeting (we got a sweet deal there), a (gently used) Ethan Allan sectional, a very large television used only for movie watching (we ditched our cable around seven years ago), half a dozen blankets to ratchet up the coziness factor, and two oversized, stuffed teddy bears who double as bean bags. A few quick strides from the kitchen, the pad, though chill, is anything but unsupervised. We know the dynamics of any given kid mix, the invitees generally have an 11 pm or 11:30 curfew on weekends, and the movies have to pass muster. Inception
was a particular favorite. High octane and charged with tension, it has a brilliant plot, intriguing characters, and an ending that reverberates in your mind for days.
These events have the feel of an old-time movie night in the backyard, minus the old white sheet doubling as a screen and the projector breaking down halfway through.
The point of movie nights in the chill pad: our teens and their friends gather, they laugh, they eat (and eat) from the bottomless tub of homemade popcorn that always makes the rounds, and they watch something made that much more exciting and fresh by the fact that they’re watching it together.
Together is good when you’re a teen and you’ve got a crowd eager to do something. It’s also good when, as the mom, I not only help stage the affair but provide the venue. Under my roof also means on my radar.