You might have imagined that this would be a sarcastic rant about how much fun it is to go to the movies with your kids. From the astronomical prices to the outrageous rating systems, the constant need to potty or talk during the movie or to even walk out due to an unexpected scary scene (that may or may not have been scary), yes, we’ve all had our bad days out to the theater with our kids. It happens. You just have to shrug it off, let it go, go with the flow… Well, by now, you already know all of that!

But what I want to talk about is how much fun it is to take kids to the movies. That’s right—fun! Recently we took our four-year-old to see a 3-D movie (How to Train Your Dragon). It was an excellent children’s movie and we all enjoyed it immensely, but what we really enjoyed was experiencing our daughter’s—and the other kids around us, even—reaction.

Firstly, she’s still old enough to where going to the movies remains a novelty. So she is excited all of the way there, all of the way in the lobby, and even squirming in her seat before the movie starts. We bought a soda—something we rarely do these days—and a large pretzel, which made her even more excited. She happily munched and drank her way through the previews, giggling over the summer lineup (which looks like it might be fun, I’ll admit as well) and toying with her 3-D glasses.

Then, when the movie began, all you could hear throughout the theater was “WHOA!” My husband and I kept stealing glances at one another, grinning like idiots, as the children in the theater gasped and laughed and were simply delighted with the 3-D effects. Some reached out as if to grab the screen; others simply yelped, “Cool!” This mass effect continued throughout the film, but not annoyingly so as you might guess; on the contrary, they were typically very quiet, rapt with attention—and you can tell if they like a film or not if this happens, of course; when our daughter hates a movie, she asks questions throughout the whole thing instead, acts distracted, gets up, or even asks to leave. And when amazing scenes came to view—such as flight scenes—gasps of pleasure could be heard throughout the theater. It was like attending the movie with movie lovers, much more fun than when you attend with bored teens or adults muttering things like, “That is SO lame,” behind you as you try to enjoy the film.

Then, there was the clincher: at the end of the movie, when the credits began to roll, all of the people in the theater—led by the children—began to clap. It wasn’t a smatter of hands but a full round of applause over this cute little kids’ movie that had kept every one of us happy and entertained for nearly two hours. We had all experienced it together, and we showed our appreciation together at the end by clapping our hearts out. What fun it was to glance around and capture that joy on everyone’s faces, so unlike seeing an adult drama, horror, or even comedy, where people just jump up and walk out, complaining about wasting their money.

And yeah, we do waste our money sometimes, I think; if you don’t enjoy a film, whether it’s good or not, you’ve wasted your dollars watching it since you were paying to be entertained, right? But whether you did or didn’t enjoy the movie itself, if you have an experience like this—a little slice of humanity, where you’re part of something without even realizing it’s happening, and the rest of the women and men and children around you are sharing in the same joyous happening—it’s got to be chalked up as an extremely pleasurable time.