Family movie night

Kids should always go to sleep early enough to allow themselves a reasonable amount of hours of sleep. I know that, of course, and I am not going to advocate for sleep depriving your kids but I believe that a tired child will eventually fall asleep and that letting them have a controlled rebel once in a while might even be good for them. For that we have Family Movie Night. We are not staying up all night, just maybe say, one hour past their bedtime (or less for younger children, you don't want them to get to the over tired stage) as long as they complete all their other daily chores; homework, clean up, dinner (yes, for my kids eating is considered a chore), showers etc. Then we all gather around our living room's TV screen, including our family dog, get some snacks (another thing we normally don't let the kids do at night) and pick a family movie, preferably a comedy because the whole purpose of this activity is to have fun and not overload their brains too much before bed). Like every fun thing, too much equals no fun at all, so we try to limit that for once a week or once in two weeks, and pick a day that they are not particularly tired or have the option of staying up a little late the next morning. And the most important part is that we (their parents) sit and watch with them, that's why we call it: ״FAMILY movie night״ to make it a whole family kind of experience. So last night we watched "Home alone 3", we were all laughing out loud like crazy. It is a cute movie but mostly we just enjoyed each other's company, got to cuddle up all in one sofa, including the dog. After the movie the kids went to bed happy and woke up this morning a bit tired but with big smiles on their faces, citing funny text pieces from yesterday's movie and talking about our next Family movie night. For us it's a great way to spend some quality time together.