I know that some of our readers and contributors are parents.  Obviously we’re all geeks of one form or another and so our children are doomed to have inherited some of our geeky genes.  Is knowing that they’ll likely be geeks, causing them to be tortured by the “cool” kids, a bad thing?  Would you prefer your child to know that the answer to life, the universe, and everything is 42 or would you like to see them run a 4.4 40 and hit a baseball 500 feet?

These are questions that I’ve debated for a while and I’ve determined that my kids can choose their own path.  My eight-year-old daughter thinks I’m the coolest guy in the world and wants to be just like me.  Lately she’d rather play video games or watch a movie than play outside.  My wife hates it but what can I do?  I turned out OK.

Anyways, I told you that so that I can tell you this.  I came across an article over on Wired where they list the ten geeky movies that we should raise our kids on.  I disagree with some of their choices but some of them are extremely obvious.  Here are their choices.

1. Star Wars
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
3. The Last Starfighter
4. My Neighbor Totoro
5. Time Bandits
6. The Dark Crystal
7. WarGames
8. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang
9. The Goonies
10. Back to the Future
    

I agree with most of these choices; however, there are some glaring omissions.  I’m going to have to give a strong “second” to Star Wars and The Goonies.  I would also add The Lord of the Rings trilogy.  Granted this is a bit scary for the smaller kids but it’s such a staple in the geek world that it has to be included.  The Indiana Jones trilogy, UHF, and The Princess Bride are also a must.  Finally, Ghostbusters has got to make the list of geeky movies to raise your kids on.

Because of the age of my kids, there are certain movies that I won’t let them watch now that I can’t hardly wait to sit down and watch with them when they’re older.  My daughter loves to watch Ghostbusters but it gives the younger kids bad dreams so we can’t watch it very often.  She’s also been begging me to watch Gremlins with her but, again, bad dreams for the younger kids.

Are there any other movies that you think should be on this list?  What do you watch with your geeks in training, or if you prefer, your younglings?

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My kids love Transformers as well (which works nicely for me).  I can't get them into Batman too much yet, since The Dark Knight would probably traumatize them.

Strangely, they like some of the Star Trek movie, and watching Stargate with me.  Not the movie, the series.

Makayla and Kyle like to watch me race in Forza.  Does that count?