Saturday, November 22, 2008

Moms and Movies

On Thursday night, my fifteen year old daughter attended the midnight premiere of Twilight. For those of you who aren’t around teenaged girls, Twilight is the movie adaptation of the book of the same name, which is a paranormal love story involving vampires.

My daughter has been counting down the days for almost a year. To say she was excited was putting it mildly. We’re not one to let our kids do things on school nights…or parents who ever look forward to being part of a two am carpool-but my husband can never resist when she asks him for favors…and well, we figured going to the midnight movie with a group of girlfriends was pretty darn tame, all things considered.

So, Tom took the two am pick up and I took the morning after. On the way to school I took her out to our all-time favorite breakfast spot, the Holtzman donut shop. Boy am I glad I did. I heard all about Edward (EDWARD IS SO CUTE) and the crowds of girls and the excited text messages that zipped through the theater. But, I kind of expected that. Again, she is fifteen.

But what really made me smile were her descriptions of the other people at the theater. Boys? No. There was a group of Moms. Yes, to her dismay-and my amusement-there was a crowd of mothers (Mom, some as old as you!) at the midnight showing.

No, they weren’t with their daughters. They were with their own crew of friends.

I told her how even Moms still like love stories. After all, Harlequins are all about this. But I couldn’t help but laugh when she told me that the moms at the theater…acted like moms.

It seems these Mom Twilight Fans couldn’t help but try to put some Mom orderliness in the throng of teenagers. They reminded girls to not cut in lines. To control their giggles. Asked that they stop screaming and talking so much. Oh…and watch that texting. We’re in a theater! Usually, I’d be right there with them…I love rules.

But I have to admit this time I was on my daughter’s side. There still are times in a girl’s life when nothing can be substituted for an opportunity to laugh a little too loudly with six of your friends. If it’s not at a midnight showing of the ultimate chick flick, I’m not sure when it is.

In a few weeks, Jane Porter’s movie adaptation of Flirty with Forty will be on Lifetime. My girlfriends and I will be having our own party. I imagine we’ll be talking during the movie and laughing a little too much. Who knows, I may even squeal when I see that hero surfing.

But our daughters aren’t invited. Actually, neither are our husbands. We’ll be silly in private. I just don’t know what I’d do if someone told me to settle down…and stop acting like a silly girl.

Since I’m on the subject of books made into movies…anyone have a particular favorite? I have to admit to loving the Harry Potter movies, Emma, and Little Women.

Shelley

5 comments:

Phoebe Jordan said...

That is so cool. The books were amazing to read even though I'm 19 and it is a Young Adult book I don't read YA because I'm more for full adult books especially romance.

I'm going to wait until next week to see the movie. I know it will be packed here in NYC at the movie theaters and I'm not to happy with crowds. Edward is cute but I think he is HOT!

LOL!

Phoebe Jordan
Talk About My Favorite Authors

Anonymous said...

Hi Phoebe!
I've heard great things about the books, too. I'm sure I'll pick them up to read soon!

Shelley

Michele Dunaway said...

Shelley, how fun!!!

Totally different here. My daugther is torn. She hated the last book in the series, and then just to be sure it wasn't her, she went online and found other people who felt the way she did.

She's one who loved the series--even standing in a two hour line to get the first three books signed when the author came to town. She was also there at midnight when the 4th was released.

She wanted to go to the midnight show but I told her no--she has to get up at 5:30 AM anyway to go to school as she's an eighth grader who takes three ninth grade classes, two honors.

She'll probably see it. However, she's not in a rush. My youngest had to see HSM3 when that hit theaters.

As for me, I haven't seen an "adult" movie in a theater in years and I DVR most of the tv stuff. Simply no time.

Marin Thomas said...

Shelley

My daughter is sixteen and her girlfriends have all read the books--like Michelle's daughter mine did not like the 4th book at all but loved the other three. I read the first three and while my daughter is an Edwards fan I'm a Jacob fan :-) We've had some lively discussions--but I told her I just can't picture snuggling up to and kissing a chunk of ice--ugh!

She didn't go to the opening Thursday as she had a huge Spanish test on Friday--but the girls at school who read the books and went to the movie said they were disappointed because it left out some of their favorite scenes or cut them short.

I want to see the movie,and my daughter promised to go with me after she'd seen it first with her friends and then when the crowds die down, lol!


Marin
www.marinthomas.com

Anonymous said...

Hey Michele and Marin!

How fun that we're all going through the same thing! My daughter didn't care for the fourth book either. She was eager to see the movie-and pretty much had planned not to like it. She was pleasantly surprised.
Luckily, our school had early release yesterday...so she only had to make it to noon! I'm just glad she's reading.

Shelley