#2020yearof… The Mandalorian.
I’m writing a series of posts here and on Instagram about how 2020 will always count. Read more about why here.
(Spoiler alert, if you don’t want to know any surprises from S2E5.)
Back in March, with school closed, we started what became a family tradition. Every Friday evening, the constant rolling clatter of tides of Lego being sifted in Ikea tubs would pause. We’d order pizza, and cue up the next film in our Star Wars film canon optimum viewing order.
Family movie night is no unique or original tradition. But it’s been a novelty for me, now that our kids are old enough to share our taste in pop culture – some of the time anyway. We continued over the summer, with some Disney classics and 80s throwbacks. (Flight of the Navigator anyone? Not as good as MT remembered it.)
Then, in September, at last, the great day arrived. The email pinged into my inbox to let us know our subscription was live: Disney+ had arrived in Denmark.
Since then, The Mandalorian (for the uninitiated, the first live-action Star Wars TV series) has been our Friday night family fireside moment. It’s just…so. much. fun. It has what is already one of my all-time favourite theme tunes – to rival John Williams’s opening chords. It has gunslinging, swashbuckling, and monster-slaying adventures every week. It has The Child, aka Baby Yoda. It has Amy Sedaris! It has Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka actual Tano! And all the galactic generation-x-geek-friendly Easter eggs you could wish for.
More than that, it represents that 2020 is also the year I started to enjoy my kids’ company in a new way – in the way that I am less mum, and more me. We can enjoy things in the same way, they get my sense of humour now – the joy of making them giggle uncontrollably without the joke being poop-related – and they are starting to learn who I really am. This year has made us all more honest with each other, in a way that, I think, underpins their resilience – they seem braver to me now. Watching first-hand how they learn has given me more to admire, not to mention that with anything non-language-related I have been learning or re-learning alongside them.
The force is strong in these ones.
Don’t get me wrong – I want them to be in school. There’s stuff to get done. But now, I look forward to when my cool little nerd-buddies come home.
May it never end. This is the way.
Thanks for reading. If you want to keep up to date with future posts and behind-the-scenes insights, click here to join my journey, and receive a preview from my memoir exclusive to your inbox.
And thanks for all the likes, comment, and support here, and on Instagram and Facebook. It costs you nothing, but it means everything to me!
The Frustrated Nester 