One of my favorite things about becoming a parent is that I have a built in reason to indulge in some good old fashioned nostalgia. There are milestones I’ve been dreaming about since getting pregnant that revolve around sharing some of my favorite things with my kids. I’ve hit some of those and I’m still waiting on others, but it is such a cool experience to revisit some of my favorite childhood memories again but this time through a different lens.

It is no surprise, given how much I read, that one of the top things I have looked forward to sharing is books. In fact, I wrote this post way back when I only had one kid and it is so much fun going back and reading it and realizing we are most of the way through that list! (The Giver and about half of the Harry Potter Series are still in the works… I think we have a lot of reading to do this summer though!) The challenging thing about books have been which to read out loud vs. letting them explore on their own, and when to read out loud given my kids have such an age range! Am I re-reading for each kid? Do I wait and try to share them all at once?

The nostalgic movies I have are a little simpler, especially since the ones I was most looking forward to sharing are pretty family friendly. I love seeing my kids enjoy the same classic Disney that I watched as a kid. Plus, the running commentary they provided on the Star Wars Prequels really should have been recorded because it was better than anything I could have imagined. What has been surprising is how much more I have loved them watch some of the things I came to later in life. I have a vivid memory of seeing Enchanted in theaters Thanksgiving of 2007 with one of my best friends and his family. I was deeply depressed that year and felt so far away from anything resembling my dreams or a “fairy tale” mindset and I remember thinking how much I just wanted to feel that childlike wonder again and how much I wanted a love story. So when the sequel came out a few years ago and I wanted to show my kids the original, there was something extra magical about how hopeful it made me feel that I somehow ended up with so much love and family around me to enjoy this story.

While many of the TV shows I want to share with them either haven’t aged well or are still little old for them (looking at you, LOST…) this is one area where nostalgia is trumped by discovering new things to love together. It has been a blast to watch the reboot of Ducktales (which, to be fair, is filled with its own hits of nostalgia specifically for us millennial parents) and I spent a good chunk of Mother’s Day rewatching favorite Bluey episodes. Thanks to streaming, there’s no such thing as TGIF, but we have our own Saturday morning cartoon rituals and I’m hoping that in the near future I’ll have the pleasure of rewatching Boy Meets World with them.

It’s not all about media though. I didn’t know the best part of Disneyland is watching your kid meet Mickey or Spiderman or Elsa and experiencing the magic through their eyes. I didn’t know how much joy I’d feel watching them snuggle a stuffed animal I had as a kid or wearing the same outfit. I didn’t realize how much I’d love watching them put on shows the way I did. And it’s fun to realize that while this time is going SO fast, we aren’t done with sharing those things I love as they move into adolescence and adulthood. It is even crazier to imagine that if they choose to have kids someday that maybe I’ll get to experience this all over again, and that we’ll move into new traditions that I’m starting without realizing it during their childhoods. Traditions around holidays, food, running for a cause, watching new shows together, and on and on.

It goes so fast. So it feels lucky to grab onto little moments that let me feel like I get to relive some of the really good stuff all over again.

Do you have a favorite nostalgic memory or piece of media from childhood you’ve enjoyed sharing with your kids or just revisiting again as an adult? I’d be so happy to hear about it!