13 Movies To Watch with your 13-Year Old PART ONE

 

My mom had this "rule" growing up that I could watch pretty much whatever I wanted as long as I watched it with her. 

Friends? Sure. Grey's Anatomy? Ok. 

I never felt "out of the loop" but she also got to "speak into" some of the situations/themes of these shows and movies and it brought up lots of good conversations and helped me navigate some areas where maybe the values portrayed on the screen didn't match up with what I was being taught. 

When G turned 13 I was like, "hey... want to watch some of my favorite movies???" and since then we've been making our way through my list of FAVES from the 90s and 2000s (because let's be real... they just don' t make them like this anymore!). 

So here are 13 movies I've watched with my 13-year old ;) 

So here's the deal... navigating secular movies with a teenage daughter as a Christian mom is less about building a wall to keep the world out, and more about building a foundation of discernment to help her navigate it. There are certain shows/movies that she's asked to watch (The Summer I turned Pretty for example) that I've tabled "for now" after pre-watching them and discerning that those may be a better watch for when she's a little bit older. 

If you're on the fence about a movie - my suggestion is pre-watching them and deciding whether your kid is ready to watch them. There are SO MANY variables in play but we have always erred on the side of "let me tell you what that means" or "here's why that is problematic in real life" and ultimately, movies have been an awesome conversation starter for us in the areas of friendships, sex, peer pressure, etc.  

If you don't have time to pre-watch a movie before your kid wants to watch it - I typically head to reddit or Common Sense Media to get the low down on exactly what's in a movie to help decide if it's something I feel she's ready to watch or not. Common Sense Media also has lots of user comments and reviews to provide additional insight - although I still stand by YOU being the best judge of what your kid is ready to watch and watching for yourself is really the only way to know exactly what's in a movie.

Last, can we talk about HOW MUCH FUN THIS IS?!?! Sharing some of my favorite watches with G has been an absolute blast and has been a really great (and pretty much free!) girl time for us.