Josh and Becca Thrap and Family

Josh has been talking up Indiana Jones to the kids ever since it became official that they were making a new one. We pre-ordered the Lego Indiana Jones game, and the day it came in Josh and the kids sat mesmerized by it, conquering level after level. Josh was in Missouri the night the new Indiana Jones movie opened, and he went to the special midnight opening show. We have agreed from the beginning that although the kids were all interested, the original Indiana Jones movies were all just a bit to gorey for them to watch until they are older. When Josh came home after having seen the new one, he said that it was not as possibly scary as the others and that he thought the kids would be ok, and like it. Not neccessarily Elena, but at least Jacob. Having still not seen it, I was skeptical, but I negotiated that Josh could take Jacob when the movie was at the cheap theatre. Then Josh waited. I don’t remember the reasons, but while waiting somehow all of the kids got the idea that they were going to see the movie and all were excited about it. The movie came to the cheap theatre, but by the time it got there we had become so busy with work and school and dance and soccer and cub scouts etc. that a trip to the theatre didn’t fit into our schedules. This past weekend however, we had nothing really planned, and the few plans that we had made were called off due to rain. The idea of the movie came up again but the van needed gas and an oil change before we could take it out of town and prices being what they are these days, I convinced Josh that we had better wait until after payday (Monday). We never made a specific plan, and quite honestly I had forgotten all about it until Josh reminded me at lunch yesterday and made it sound like I had promised we’d do it on Monday. I asked him if it meant that he was planning to be home early so we could catch the matinee (which is what we used to do on Wednesdays when there was a movie we wanted to see) which is even cheaper and would get us home at a relatively decent time to put the kids to bed. But Josh had a meeting that was scheduled to run until 5:30, making the matinee an impossibility. Had I known all of this, I would have just let Josh take Jacob on the weekend, but since that hadn’t happened I conceeded that if the kids got ALL of their homework and hosehold chores finished before Josh got home, then we would all go to the movie. The kids were thrilled. We ran a bit behind and missed all of the previews, but arrived at the theatre with popcorn and drink in hand just as the movie began. The very beginning was incredibly violent (but not gorey) and the action suspense level seemed to me to match previous Indiana Jones movies. I became a little concerned about what was going to happen next (both in the movie, and possibly dealing with consequences of having seen the movie). Josh had said that there was one scene that was a bit gross and so as it approached he coached the children to cover their eyes and he doubly shielded Cameron and Elena and I covered Elise so there’d be no peeking–Jacob claims to have peeked. Later on, towards the end of the movie I thought some things were getting a bit intense for the kids so I shielded Elise again, but just for a moment, and of course they could all still hear and generally knew what was going on. Anyway. Once the movie was over, Elise and Cameron agreed that the ending action was really creepy and they didn’t really understand it. It was 9:30 by the time we were back in the van, and still needed to drive home. Well after 10 when we arrived at home, all but Jacob had fallen asleep on the ride. We carried them up to bed and there were no problems. I stayed up and worked on some scrapbooking and finally decided to call it a night just after 2am. When I settled into bed Josh stirred and got up to use the bathroom and take Elise to the bathroom. That’s when the problems began. Once Elise was up she woke up and could not get back to sleep. She had scary thoughts from the movie that she couldn’t seem to think away. We kept offering her ideas and items of comfort but she kept coming back into our room. The last time we sent her back to her bed and she stayed there was around 4 am (and poor Josh had to leave this morning for Missouri again at 5)! So it was difficult getting up this morning, and difficult getting all the kids going in time for school–Elise especially, but overall the morning ran smoothly and Elise seemed alright and there were no problems with the boys and Elena is still sleeping soundly. Final analysis: After seeing the film, I doubt that I’d have taken the kids to it–maybe Jacob. But they all enjoyed the experience and if there are no more problems with scary dreams, then it turned out ok.