Over the past couple of years, I’ve talked about how much our family has enjoyed using Netflix (especially using it with ChromeCast)… and many of you have asked about our favorite shows to watch.
So, since I’ve had a little extra time to watch Netflix these past few weeks, I thought it would be a perfect time to share some of our family’s favorite things to watch on Netflix.
ANDREA:
I’m a big chick-flick movie lover, so I constantly have a list of movies I’d like to watch if Dave is gone (or if I’m sitting on the couch with a newborn all day). I also scout out movies I think Dave will like and save those to my list for the nights when all our children are in bed at a reasonable hour and we have time to sit and watch a movie together.
The last movie we watched was The Butler and we both really enjoyed it!
Since I don’t usually have 2-hours of free time to watch a full movie, I’ll often watch it in parts… or I’ll watch shorter TV shows. Here are some of my favorites:
- America: The Story of Us (this is a really cool documentary all about the history of America — from the arrival of the Pilgrims through the current day)
- The Office
- Cake Boss
- Property Brothers
- Buying and Selling
- Love It or List It
- Storage Wars
- Chopped
- The Pioneer Woman
DAVE:
Dave watches many of the same shows I watch (the documentaries, The Office, and the home renovation shows) but he also watches:
- Psych
- Old James Bond movies
NORA:
Nora is our TV-watcher. She has been fascinated by TV since she was an infant (Dave’s mom said he was too) and would literally watch it all day long if we let her.
I’m completely fine with her watching some TV every day… so when she gets to “watch a show” these are her favorites:
- Cat In The Hat
- Curious George (she especially loves it when they have new movies)
- Thomas and Friends
- Chuggington (another train show)
- Strawberry Shortcake
- Veggie Tales
- Doc McStuffins (via the Disney Junior App)
SIMON:
Simon really isn’t interested in TV at all. He will occasionally watch a Baby Einstein DVD and excitedly dance along to the music… but other than that, he’s rarely entertained by TV for more than a few minutes. He’d much rather look at books or play with his toys.
That said, there are 2 shows on Netflix that will hold his interest for at least a few minutes…
- Daniel Tiger (it’s interesting that Nora has “moved on” from Daniel Tiger and now Simon is the one getting excited about it!)
- Color Crew (a show with crayons coloring pictures)
So that’s the current list of shows you’ll most likely find on our Netflix Playlists.
I appreciate that Netflix makes it easy to keep track of our favorite shows too, because we can create separate profiles for each person in our family. And although we usually just watch the shows on our TV, it’s also easy to watch them from any of our computers, our iPad, or even our phones — thanks to the Netflix App.
Now, please don’t assume that we are a TV-obsessed family. We actually only use 1 TV and it’s definitely off more than it is on.
Also, I should mention that (although this might sound a bit sad) watching Netflix is currently Dave and my main form of “entertainment” since there’s not a whole lot we can do with 3 kids 3 and under.
We wait until they are sleeping, and then take turns choosing what we’ll watch. Sometimes we fold laundry while we watch, sometimes Dave grades papers while I respond to blog comments, and sometimes we just eat a big brownie sundae with our feet up!
Although we most definitely have more time to watch Netflix movies and shows during the summer months, I’m sure we’ll find time to watch during the school year as well…
So please share!
Nancy says
I love Psych!
Lori says
Andrea, Awesome post! But as I got to the end I said ” there are those slippers again! ” I know you’ve sourced them before. I believe yours are even a mens smaller size if I remember correctly? Could you please list source again? They look so comfy and I love that you and Dave are so close that your feet touch!
Andrea says
Yes, those slippers were from the men’s section at Target (several years ago). I’ve had good luck with men’s slippers from Target 🙂
Lori says
Right now I am watching Hunt for Red October and I love the movie Leap Year. Amy Adams is such a great actress! I didn’t know HGTV shows were on Netflix. I generally watch them on my free HULU channel. I also watched the story of America and really liked it.
Andrea says
I just watched Leap Year yesterday!!
JJ says
Alias was one of our favorites, and that’s not my usual taste in shows. It expanded my interests–haha! My 2-1/2 year old likes Super Why and Curious George. My 1-1/2 likes Daniel Tiger. Through our Roku(if you have the YouTube app, you should be able to access it), their absolute favorite is Hooplakidz. It’s nursery rhymes put to songs and other educational stuff. House was also good, but like a lot of shows some scenes weren’t necessary. Oh, and my son loves the old Mickey Mouse clips. He laughs hysterically when Mickey dances. And, I’ve also liked the Christian comedy shows on there if you need a good laugh. On YouTube, I also love Tim Hawkins(Christian comedian). His videos about parenting are hilarious.
Mrs. Crackin' the Whip says
I love the list of recommendations! Baby Crackin’ has officially stole the iPad so he picks out his own shows. I’m sure thankful for Netflix though. He’s limited to the Kids button which is awesome. Age appropriate content, yes! Before we subscribed to Netflix, he was watching shows on on youtube and I found him watching Beyonce and he had clicked through a ton of other odd links. Not cool dude. To put this in perspective, I was on maternity leave when Nora was born!
Leigh says
I am at the end of my feel terrible first trimester and we all have been watching a lot of Netflix. Knowing that The Pioneer women is on Netflix on now is excellent.
My kids are 6, 4 and just turned 2.
They would suggest
-Kipper
-Little Einsteins (‘Tin ‘Tines. for which my youngest potty trained)
-Jake and the Neverland Pirates (Jake Pirate)
-Wild Krattz
And the PBS kids app. There are a few only on streaming that my older two love. Design Squad particularly.
I have been watching Foyle’s War.
Aimee says
I love Netflix! I don’t watch as much as I would like, but when I do I like to scroll through and enjoy watching, especially when my husband is out of town. The show all three of my boys love, although it only keeps our 16 month old entertained through the theme song, is Mighty Machines! It’s a really great show that has the machines narrating what they do. My 4 year old who isn’t that in to TV shows has liked it for a couple years!
Jane says
We cut cable in 2006 and never looked back 🙂 We got Netflix only a few months ago and love it! We enjoy watching some old shows like Rockford Files, Star Trek and The Twilight Zone and documentaries like Food Inc., Death by China and Hungry for Change. We also watched all current episodes of The Walking Dead. Of course if it is just me, I watch Melissa & Joey, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, The Pioneer Woman or Chopped. My boys just discovered DinoTrux and they love Max Steel and Transformers.
Pam says
I love Call the Midwife, The Paradise, Last Tango in Halifax, Doc Martin…all of which are British shows. I also watch Orange Is the New Black.
Danielle H. says
I just started watching Call the Midwife and I am obsessed! It is so good, but probably something you wouldn’t watch with Dave! I would love to get rid of our cable but we live away from the state we are from (my husband is in the Air Force) so we have to get the NFL package to watch our team.
Jen says
If you like “The Office”, I think you’d really enjoy “Parks and Rec”. So funny! If you enjoy English shows, try “Doc Martin”. I reminds a lot of Gilmore Girls-quirky town with quirky people, cute and simple. And the English scenery is AMAZING! If you are into serious dramas, we LOVED “The Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad” but I know those only interest some people! 🙂 And, I know many people (myself included!) who said they would NEVER watch either and, boy, was I wrong!!
Lauren K says
Andrea – are those HGTV shows on Netflix? Or are you watching through an App? We want to cut cable, but I’m hesitant since I love watching HGTV.
Andrea says
Lauren, they are all on Netflix — there are a bunch of HGTV shows (not all of them, but enough for me!)
Julie says
My Little one would watch Masha and Misha a Russian only video on youtube. It was fun to watch this because it was in Russian, but you could totally tell what was going on! But….Netflix has translated them and they are now Mash and the Bear. They are too cute!
Andrea says
yes, we just saw the Masha and Bear for the first time last week 🙂
Alicia G says
We mega love Netflix too. I’m going through Gilmore Girls and my daughter’s faves are Octonauts and My Little Pony.
Andrea says
LOVE Gilmore Girls… however, it was big on TV when I was in highschool so I’ve already seen most of the episodes and don’t need to watch on Netflix 🙂
Katy says
My older daughter and I really like Heartland (a Canadian show set on a ranch) and Hart of Dixie. My little ones love Transformers Rescue Bots, Super Why, Veggie Tales and Masha and the Bear. My husband watches Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives from the Food Network and Counting Cars.
Kristen @ Joyfully Thriving says
We’ve just started Parenthood as our new Netflix series and our really enjoying it. In fact, my husband is surprised by how much he’s enjoying it. Ha. I also liked Call the Midwife and Sherlock, as BBC series go. Yay for Netflix and no commercials! 🙂
Julia says
Andrea, this whole post cracked me up. I could write something very similar about my own family. What I don’t understand about it all is Color Crew. At various points my two oldest kids loved that strange little show.
I loved Parks and Recreation – it starts off slow and over the top with its characters but by season 3 it is great. Really great. I could watch Season 3 on repeat. It’s a great show.
Other Netflix favorites: (1) Not paying for cable! (2) Dinotrux (I have three boys) (3) Any cooking documentary (A Chef’s Table, Jiro dreams of Sushi, The Mind of a Chef – actually Mind is the most amazing one they’ve got.
I enjoyed reading this a lot, it rings true. I won’t judge TV usage by parents unless it is used as the parent. Not the case here. Share your new favorites periodically – because it’s darn hard finding new things to watch sometimes!
Andrea says
I know — color crew is one of the ONLY things that will capture Simon’s attention for any amount of time… so I use it when I’m desperate to get him to sit still and stay out of trouble!
Susie says
I just finished Parenthood! LOVED it! My sister kept on telling me I should watch it over the years that it was on, and I never did. I watched it over 3 different services though…Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu Plus. Now, I’m starting The Good Wife, but it’s much more serious…would love to find another drama that has a bit of humor in it too.
Lana says
Susie, I too am a Parenthood fan! I watched it while it was running. But once we got Netflix, I found Gilmore Girls with Lauren Graham (Sarah from Parenthood). It is a great show also! Drama with humor. I think if you’re a fan of Parenthood, you would like Gilmore Girls as well!
Andrea says
We have Parenthood on our list to watch in the future. Everyone I know seems to love it!
Andrea says
Yes, Parenthood is on our list as we’ve heard it’s really good. We haven’t started watching it yet though. I watched a few episodes of The Good Wife on TV a couple years ago, and I just couldn’t get into it. But I know my mom and my sister really like it.