Mayim’s Family Movie Night: ‘Daddy’s Home 2’

I recently watched Daddy’s Home 2 with my kids. Mind you, I’m a few months late because it came out at Christmas time and it’s totally a Christmas-themed movie, but that’s not what the movie is about.

Daddy’s Home 2 is the sequel to Daddy’s Home, which my sons and I saw as well. Both movies have some salty language and a few off-color vulgar jokes, but ultimately, these movies hit home in a way no other movie has since I got divorced almost 6 years ago.

The premise of the movies is that Will Ferrell’s character is the stepdad to two young kids who dislike him greatly. His wife’s ex is played by Mark Wahlberg and he is the quintessential “cool dad” who is unreliable but super fun when he shows up. The first movie shows the struggle between the stepdad and the “real dad” as the kids call him, and it’s hilarious and sweet and funny. The kids end up liking their stepdad more, and they see dad for what he is and they all end up finding a way to exist together.

The sequel has both dads’ dads show up for Christmas. Mel Gibson and John Lithgow play the grandpas in appropriate diametrically opposed fashion and there are a lot of laughs and pratfalls.

However. What sticks with me the most is the conversations that happen on screen about divorce. And even though I am not remarried, seeing the relationships play out in these movies is so important for me and my boys as we navigate life as a divorced family.

It gets quiet when the dads go toe to toe about who knows the kids better. I can see my boys listen hard when the children complain about not having any underwear at their dad’s house because it’s all at their mom’s. (I have literally had that happen!) My heart swells when I see the exes coming together for holidays. We do that for our kids.

I don’t think showing divorced families making nice in movies will encourage people to get divorced. I don’t think it makes divorce look shiny and beautiful. Because it’s not. But what we get from these movies is an acknowledgment that things are never simple and that’s ok. And sometimes life hurts and that’s ok.

What matters most is the commitment of grown-ups to be mature and loving and to put the needs of kids as close to first as possible. And if it means a few uncomfortable meals or holidays, so be it. Kids indeed are resilient. And what they want most is to be loved.

Thank you Daddy’s Home and Daddy’s Home 2 for showing us hilarity, complexity, and possibility. Our life looks a lot like the lives on screen and we love laughing at our counterparts, learning from them, and finding ways to bring our complicated family together for everyone’s good.

For more movie nights with Mayim, read about when she and the boys watched The Queen of Katwe.