Mr. Know-It-All: Handling Star Wars-Averse Offspring

Q:
I have two kids, ages 4 and 6. When I showed them Star Wars, they said it was boring and refused to watch. How do I get them into the saga?

A:
If your progeny were meh on any other sci-fi classic, my advice would boil down to "get over it." But the first Star Wars is a special case—it's the most sacred cultural touchstone for anyone born between the Ford and Reagan administrations. If your children don't know Star Wars, can they ever truly know you? This is why it's important to keep trying to get them to see the power of the Force.

It won't be easy. By today's narrative standards, Star Wars: A New Hope suffers from glacial pacing. Contemporary kiddie entertainment has primed your progeny to expect nonstop action instead of talky scenes about droid sales and Imperial politics.
 
To keep things lively, you need to make the Star Wars experience more active. "Get the kids off the couch while watching the movie," advises Kevin Decker, coeditor of the book Star Wars and Philosophy. Equip them with ersatz lightsabers and have them whack at a makeshift training remote; wrap brown towels around their bodies and encourage them to be Jawas; turn a cardboard box and some packing peanuts into the Death Star's garbage compactor.
 
Willing to get sacrilegious? Then swallow your disdain for Jar Jar Binks and show them The Phantom Menace before retrying A New Hope. "Anakin is a kid in it, and there's a reason that kids' films almost always feature protagonists the same age as the viewers," explains Kevin Wetmore Jr., author of Empire Triumphant: Race, Religion, and Rebellion in the Star Wars Films.
 
But unlike a Jedi, you should keep "try" in your vocabulary. You must accept that it is possible your offspring will never become Star Wars converts. If that ends up being the case, control your feelings or you'll be giving in to your own personal dark side. All padawans must choose their own path.
 
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/04/st_kia_starwarskids/