I think every family has a "thing." And by that, I mean, something that they all like to do together, maybe rituals or traditions or something like that. I think it's usually (although not always) driven by what the parents like to do, and I think that it's interesting to think about what our family's "thing" is. And I think it's cool to think how it may evolve as our kids grow older and develop new interests that are different from my wife's and mine.
So, I think our thing is that our family likes fantasy/adventure/imagination stuff. My wife thought it was funny that one day she came home from work when our oldest was a baby, and there we were (Dad and Baby) sitting on the couch watching one of the Lord of the Rings films together.
Subsequently, we will often have some fantasy film on at any given point during the week, like if we are having an informal dinner or lunch (sometimes these are known as "Snacky" meals), or if it's rainy or snowy, or if we are all sorting/folding buckets of laundry.
Funny: We were at a friend's house for dinner and we brought over The Fellowship of the Ring for the big girls to watch... The part with Gandalf "dying" came on and our friend was like, "Oh, that's a scary monster, isn't it?" and our girls just said, "It's called a Balrog."
The girls don't just like to watch movies with fantastical/magical elements in them, they like to read fantasy books, and write about/pretend little fantasy scenarios (among other things, of course).
Now, who knows if this will stick with the girls, but hopefully it's part of our family glue, in a way. It's sort of one of the things that bonds us together - a family narrative, of sorts. And, whether or not they continue to like fantasy movies or stories, I would hope that we encouraged them to think creatively and feel free to embrace their imagination in whatever they end up doing.
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