In our family, we love watching movies. Tom and I often check out a film after the kids go to bed. Our girls – Mary, seven and Adelaide, five – love to see a movie together. And we love to take in kids’ movies together, all four of us.

With all that movie-watching, our Netflix is busy!

Sure, we like to go out to the movies, too. Compared to staying home, it’s an expensive outing. We splurge very occasionally, but usually prefer to enjoy in the comfort of our own home.

Family movie night has become an honoured tradition in our household. Sometimes, it’s a frosty winter’s night. The cold wind is blowing snow into drifts in the dark outside the door. But we are in flannel pyjamas, bundled in blankets on the couch with hot chocolate. Family movie night can also take place on a too-hot summer’s evening. We’re still in our jammies – light cotton ones this time. And we’ve traded the hot chocolate for buttery popcorn.

Hotel Transylvania, Puss in Boots, Dolphin Tale, Madagascar 3 and Frankenweenie are a few of the many selections we’ve viewed together on Netflix this year. We’ve introduced some classics to the girls, too, such as Bambi and Lady and the Tramp. They’re as easy to find as the latest films.

The girls watch more than movies on Netflix. Mary loves to watch Power Rangers, and Netflix is so easy to use, even little Adelaide can call up her favourite My Little Pony episodes (under my watchful eye, of course).

Another bonus about movie night at home is knowing we only need to trudge upstairs with the kids for their bedtime routine after the movie’s over. No clicking tired children into car seats afterward, driving home and carrying them into the house.

Because, I don’t know about you, but we’re all about making life simpler and easier when we can. We don’t miss manually changing discs when switching movies and waiting for them to load, for example. And since kids like watching their favourite flicks again and again, Netflix keeps the recently watched TV shows and movies at the top of our queues – and even better for parents’ sanity, Netflix offers thousands of new shows and movies. I love it because now we have so much more variety to watch without adding physical clutter to the home with yet another plastic DVD case. Not to mention that streaming Netflix is SO much better than ‘the olden days’: walking to the local video store to rent a movie! (Remember that?)

Tracy Cooper is a stay-at-home mother of Mary, 7, and Adelaide, 5.

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