After Mary was born, our evenings changed dramatically! Homebound after 8pm, we didn't really know what to do with ourselves at first. So, we subscribed to Netflix. For five years now, we have been on the unlimited DVDs, one at a time plan. Because we could only watch a little bit of a movie each night before I would conk out, it would take us several days to finish even one movie, so it didn't really seem like we were watching very much tv! Plus, there was the break between when we would mail movies back to Netflix and when we would receive the next one.
When Netflix started offering the streaming capabilities, we started watching more and more movies online. Still, for the girls watching a movie was definitely a treat reserved for special occasions. Even so, when we would watch a movie with the girls we tried to select ones that were educational (there are so many great documentaries available on Netflix)! But, this year with a twin pregnancy, I went through several periods of different forms of bedrest, so much that I think I spent more of the pregnancy on bedrest than not. Being able to put on a short movie for Mary and Maggie to watch was definitely beneficial for all parties concerned! It kept them occupied and gave me a chance to put my feet up, which was good for the babies (and me)! After Matthew and Jonathan were born, I continued to allow them to watch one video after their quiet time. The rare occasion had become a daily routine. We exhausted the Blues Clues library on Netflix. Thank you, Steve, my girls now think that any paw print is a clue! We also exhausted the Dora library on Netflix, but the girls CAN count in Spanish! So why end such a symbiotic relationship?
On July 12, we received an email that the cost for our current level of service would increase from $9.99 to $15.98, effective September 1. YIKES, that's a 60 percent increase! Such a big increase caused us to reconsider how much we value Netflix. I want to encourage my children to engage in activities that require them to use their imagination and creativity, like reading, playing dress-up, making birthday cakes out of sand, coloring. How does Netflix fit in with that goal? We concluded not very well. Plus, David and I each have growing "to read" piles and really want to spend more time reading. Not having Netflix is going to encourage us to choose to read rather than watch a movie. By canceling our Netflix subscription, am I saying movies are bad and we will never watch one again? No, not at all. We'll probably occasionally borrow movies from the library or use free Redbox or Blockbuster codes. What I am saying, though, is that for our family a movie will definitely be more of a rare occasion than part of our everyday routine.
I KNOW! I was pretty peeved by this change in Netflix. We've opted to drop the DVDs coming & keep streaming. We have the teeniest cable package possible, so when we watch tv, we watch the streaming netflix. To me, that's worth $8 a month or whatever. But I'm pretty ticked by the sudden huge spike.
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