Home Alone

[QueenIsabella]

This thread has me way way way overthinking Home Alone. Comparing my three sets of Aunts/Uncles with 5 to 6 kids, when you went to their house they had at least two chest freezers full of food. They had boxes of powdered milk on hand either for when they ran out of fluid milk, or because they had so many kids that fluid milk was too expensive, it was the only milk they bought. They had a stockpile of laundry soap. And in one case, because they remote area of Canada where getting groceries in winter could be tough, they had powdered eggs too.

While I would normally stockpile stuff, I would likely eat/use down the pile, prior to a big vacation. Maybe not the laundry detergent--it wouldn't go bad--but food, definitely. We never used powdered milk, other than for cooking, even when we lived in the Adirondacks. I would freeze gallons, though. Ironically, we're run out of milk more often in the past year than at any other time I've been a mother--my sons don't drink much, DD20 is lactose intolerant, as are DH and I, so we have our own milk. So, the boys drink it up, forget to write it on the shopping list, and voila! I'm out of milk. I tracked it much closer when I had 4 kids drinking regular milk in the house.

Keep in mind, an 8yo probably couldn't put together much of a regular meal. Even cooking eggs or boiling water for pasta would be iffy.

The most unrealistic part of Home Alone, to me, is that in a house full of people, no one is awake before 8 am? Not even the parents?? I don't know about anyone else, but before a major trip I wake up a least a few times per night worrying if I've overslept. And Kevin is 8, and he has a younger cousin - are you telling me all those little kids slept past 8?? I'm lucky if my kid sleeps past 6:30. And because of this, I'm lucky to wake up after 7 on the weekends.

(Add this to the list of movies that no longer make sense with cell phones. Power goes out, cell phone alarm still goes off!)

I'm with you on this--even without an alarm clock, I wouldn't likely sleep past 5, let alone 8am. Even though there were no cell phones, I would use a watch alarm--those were a thing back then--but, I probably would just wake up 8 times during the night, and give up the ghost at 5am or so. And there's no way I would have taken a sleep aid, because then I'd be worried that I wouldn't get up in time.

As to the ticket, the ticket and passport went into the trash, cleaning up after the spill. They thought they had an accurate headcount, there weren't any leftover/unaccounted-for tickets at the gate, and they were sitting "wherever" on the plane.

 

[_19disnA]

Thought the original movie was entertaining but the subsequent sequels just seemed like more of the same thing. Never really thought much about the background details. Perhaps they had inherited money from his/her parents. I liked it more for the entertainment value and the premise that it was possible to leave someone at home unaccounted for.

 

[nw6675]

We used to be friends

 

[tvguy]

We never used powdered milk, other than for cooking, even when we lived in the Adirondacks. I would freeze gallons, though. Ironically, we're run out of milk more often in the past year than at any other time I've been a mother--my sons don't drink much, DD20 is lactose intolerant, as are DH and I, so we have our own milk. So, the boys drink it up, forget to write it on the shopping list, and voila! I'm out of milk. I tracked it much closer when I had 4 kids drinking regular milk in the house.

Keep in mind, an 8yo probably couldn't put together much of a regular meal. Even cooking eggs or boiling water for pasta would be iffy.

We don't use powdered milk anymore. We keep UHT Boxed milk on the shelf in case we run out of fluid milk. We buy Fairlife filtered lactose free milk, and we buy the lactose free boxed milk. But I sure grew up with powdered milk in the 1960's. Many people don't even know what powdered milk is anymore.
I guess it depends on the kids. My kids were preparing their own meals by age 8, and pasta was one of the things they often made. Actually, by age 10 my daughter was making her own pasta too, and she still does at age 32.

 

[Disneyland1084]

I read in an article recently that Peter McCallister was a successful businessman while Kate was a fashion designer. A Diser was wondering how Kate, presumably in her mid thirties could have so many teenagers. I don't recall the ages of her children, other than Kevin ever being mentioned. In the first movie, it doesn't look like Buzz or the other ones were over 14, so Kate being in her mid thirties is doable. The oldest "kid" character Heather in the first one I assumed was an older cousin since she's not in the scene coming home at the end.

 

[Diznygrl]

Yeah, Buzz never seemed 16 to me, so I looked it up and the actor who played him was born in 1977, which would have made him 13 years old in 1990, and he is the oldest of Peter and Kate's 5 kids. Heather was the oldest kid of the 11, but she was the daughter of Rob, Peter's brother.

 

[Dan Murphy]

 

[Lord Manhammer]

A Diser was wondering how Kate, presumably in her mid thirties could have so many teenagers. I don't recall the ages of her children, other than Kevin ever being mentioned. In the first movie, it doesn't look like Buzz or the other ones were over 14, so Kate being in her mid thirties is doable. The oldest "kid" character Heather in the first one I assumed was an older cousin since she's not in the scene coming home at the end.

That was me, but enough people have chimed in to say that it was doable so that makes sense to me now, but man, that's a lot of kids in a short period of time. I'm an only child and we didn't have a ton of kids in my family until I was well into my teens so I never really experienced anything like what was represented on Home Alone. I also don't particularly like children, so the idea of having that many blows my mind.

 

[Lord Manhammer]

And look what is in the Times today, this is an interesting examination of the family’s wealth.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/20/...ytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare