I’ll take my Netflix To Go, Please!

5.5 years ago when our strapping young man was but a wee toddler, Netflix was more portable than a DVD player, but only as portable as your data plan or wifi signal. Our little man was not a happy traveler once we passed the 2 hour mark in the car – and since both Grandmas lived farther away than 2 hours, we made a big decision: we bought our first iPad – with a data plan – with the express purpose of streaming Netflix on the way to Grandma’s house.

We could have gone the route of a portable DVD player, but then you had to mess with cables and DVDs and mismatched cases and discs. Netflix was our entire form of media consumption at home, and thus it would be in the van, as well. 

Get frustrated when trying to find titles you’re allowed to download? Just click on the menu on the left!

Throughout the past year, Netflix has done the incredible, and has provided a HUGE amount of content for download to devices – and you can guess how this family feels about that! If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve seen how much this has meant to our family this year – we’ve done a few flights (BC twice as a family – in one year? Two parents-only trip to Europe?! Welcome to life as an airline employee!). 

Netflix has saved us from being That Family With The Kids Who Stand Up and Dance On Their Seats And Whine About The Length Of The Trip Every Five Minutes. We bring colouring books and picture books and a few toys each, and then we bring  tablets pre-loaded with everyone’s favourite content and headphones for all.

Daddy watches Ozark, Mommy watches The Big Family Cooking Showdown, the Boy watches The Magic School Bus Rides Again, and the Girl watches Beat Bugs (and sings, mostly adorably, along with all of the songs). And they All Lived Happily Ever After. 

The End. 

It’s not really the end – because not only was this tool amazing for the airplane, but when we got to the cottage in BC, we pre-loaded more material on for the kids so that when they got up at the crack of stupid, they could quietly sneak over to the couch, don the magic headphones, and fly away with Miss Frizzle again. 

We were early subscribers to Netflix (the digital form, not mail-in). As in, we were on a waiting list to have a Netflix installation CD sent to us for our Wii back in 2008. The most common complaint that we heard back then was, “But they have nothing GOOD on it! It’s a waste of money.” 

TRUE, it wasn’t like walking into Blockbuster and finding all the latest releases lined up, it was more like heading into your local convenience store and picking something that you hadn’t heard of before that looked kind of interesting. There was always something to watch, and there was a tonne of good content. As recently as 2 years ago, some friends were still trying to make the excuse, “But they have nothing GOOD! Where’s the Hollywood Blockbusters?!” 

Oh. My. Gosh.  ARE YOU SERIOUS?! Was my response. First of all: they HAVE Hollywood Blockbusters. Second of all: THEY DON’T NEED HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS!  THEY HAVE THEIR OWN CONTENT THAT’S INFINITELY BETTER! 

And guess what? All those nay-sayers? Yeah, they now subscribe to Netflix, and each and every one of them has been raving about The Crown and Stranger Things for the past year. Hah. Take that. 

Anyhow. All of that to say: Netflix has a tonne of amazing content – and sooo much of it can be downloaded for everyone’s peace of mind.  And when they create their own content, they give us access to download it. So here’s to many, many more Netflix Originals, and many, many more quiet drives and flights! 

Disclaimer: We’re (very grateful to be) part of the Netflix StreamTeam! This means that we get to promote a service that we – and our combined 2 spouses and 6 children – ADORE! We occasionally get fun stuff in exchange for posting about things that we would post about ANYWAYS, but we do legally have to let you know this. All views are, of course, our own.

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Jenn vanOosten

I live in Hamilton, Ontario, and love my city. I'm a Netflixer, choral music geek, bookworm, inventor of recipes (I take Artistic Licence on EVERYTHING that I make), wife of one, mother of two, and owner of a neurotic Schnauzer. I respect people who respect others. I love good food that's well done, but my favourite lunch is KD & hotdogs. With ketchup. I'm addicted to Clearance Shopping. I will ALWAYS get the product that I want at the price that I want, eventually.

Latest posts by Jenn vanOosten (see all)

• How I Epically Failed the #RenewLife 30 Day Challenge… and Why that Failure is Helping Me Kick Off a Great 2018 - January 8, 2018
• What to Watch on Netflix: Jenn’s Top Picks from 2017 #StreamTeam - January 2, 2018
• I’ll take my Netflix To Go, Please! - December 5, 2017