Family movie nights are getting easier now that the boys are six and seven. I could go on about everything that’s wrong with the new cartoons – bad storylines, self-righteous messaging, weak character development, seizure-inducing cinematography – but I’ll save that for another time. We’re not quite ready for Sixteen Candles, Teen Wolf, or Happy Gilmore, but we also don’t have to push back bedtime arguing about nine different poorly made cartoon movies on Netflix or Disney Plus.

Now dad just reaches back into his childhood and says, like I did the other night, “Alright, boys, we’re watching Princess Bride.”

“What’s that?”

I might give them one sentence of context, but they’ve definitely never heard of it, there’s no trailer, and they didn’t see some cheap Princess Bride plastic game at Target or an Inigo Montoya figurine in a McDonald’s happy meal. Nope, dad’s picks are mostly immune to cross-marketing.

As you recall, Princess Bride has everything a kid would want: adventure, monsters, Andre the Giant, sword fighting, magic, revenge, and a cameo by a young Fred Savage. And, as a bonus, just to gross them out a bit, there’s kissing. It’s nothing more or less than an incredibly well told story.

As I watched the boys watching the movie, I was overcome with – let’s call it exponential joy. Not only was I relishing in their enjoyment, I was reliving the enjoyment I felt when I was a kid watching the movie.

The next movie night I doubled down with Swiss Family Robinson with similar results. Context: “This is a movie about a family that gets stranded on a deserted island.” Honestly, I didn’t remember much else other than some pirates and a tiger in a pit (one of the unsung benefits of having a bad memory), but they were all in.

I’m building a list of 260 movies* that should take us through middle school. My biggest dilemma right now is when to show them Weird Science, which is one of the more underrated films of all time. For better or worse, I expect it to happen earlier than Andrea would hope, considering they already know several scenes by heart.

When people talk about parenting to non-parents, the focus is usually on the hard stuff because the good stuff is harder to explain. But we don’t do enough promotion of the ephemeral joys of being a parent, like sitting down with your kid to watch a movie you loved and find that he loves it just as much. It conjures up something magical, I would even dare say sacred.

Taking this a step further, it gets even more interesting when you start to love things because your kid does. For example, I’m learning classical guitar alongside my Sam and, for the first time, will be attending Lions training camp – something I’ve scoffed at my entire life – to get an autograph from Hendon Hooker. I also never watch the NFL draft, and yet I watched six hours of it in order to witness this moment.

*I’m a long way from 260 movies, (I think I’ve got about 12), so please reply with your favorite movies from childhood.