Kelli Caldwell
- ABC's decision to suspend "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" led some fans to boycott, canceling their Disney+ subscriptions.Kelli Caldwell and her husband explained why they were canceling to their 12-year-old twins, one of whom loves Marvel.After Kimmel was brought back by ABC, Caldwell said she wants to wait to resubscribe and book a Disneyland trip.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Kelli Caldwell, a 54-year-old children's musician and stay-at-home mom from Portland, OR. It's been edited for length and clarity.
We've subscribed to Disney+ off and on. I've always subscribed to Netflix; once all the other platforms came around, we would add some. But since I've had my kids, a lot of the time we would have Disney+.
The minute I heard the FCC chair was putting pressure on ABC, and when I realized Disney was the one that owns ABC, I was really sad.
What do we do?
I've been aware that consumers voting with their dollars can make a difference, and that's something the little, individual person can do.
I went to my husband within two hours — and that was just because he was on a meeting, and I couldn't interrupt him sooner — and said, "We need to cancel this."
Kelli Caldwell
He's usually not as outspoken as me about stuff. I wasn't sure when he canceled our Disney+ whether he was gung-ho about it, or whether he was just not bummed out to cancel one more bill on our list. But that night before our kids' bedtime, they were watching TV, and I knew we needed to say something.
Everyone was in the living room, and I started telling the kids. My husband was kind of quiet. Once I got into it more, he added some reasons, and I was like, "Oh, he is on board." One of my kids wanted to storm off, and my husband was like, "Nope. We have to have this conversation."
I wasn't sure how to get into it at first, because they're 12. They have had some social studies, but they're not necessarily going to understand the Constitution in detail.
They're big fans of the musical "Hamilton." My son has two of the songs memorized and will rap the words. I utilized that to hopefully get them to understand. We tried to explain to our kids what it means to have our Constitution and a country where we have these fundamental rights. It was a bit of a rough go to get them to see the connection between that and canceling Disney+.
My son responded with, "Why should the children pay for this?" He recently had this whole list he's made — he's done some research on how to watch "The Avengers" movies in the proper order. He's midway through that process.
We said, "It is a sacrifice, and it really sucks that you should have to be part of that sacrifice, but there are a lot of kids in the world and the US that are having worse things happen."
We also drew it back to "Hamilton," and the sacrifice people made back then.
We told them, "We'll see how it goes. If things change, maybe we can bring back Disney+ and go to Disneyland again, too." They didn't know that we were already planning a trip in January. Thankfully, we had not told them.
I've been going to Disneyland since my kids were young
My kids are twins. We had done in vitro and tried for four years, so it was a relief to finally have them; it was a lot of work. I took a retreat when my kids were about a year and a half, and we got a babysitter to come and help. I decided, of all the places I'd like to go and have a retreat, Disneyland was perfect for me.
I love music. I've become a children's musician and songwriter. They have lovely, joyful music playing all the time there. I had such a great time. I was able to write songs while I waited in line at "Pirates of the Caribbean" — a love letter to my kids and all the things that made me love them and miss them.
Kelli Caldwell
I did that several more times before my kids were even aware of what I was doing. We didn't tell them that I was going to Disneyland without them. I did a lot of writing there.
Eventually, we did take our kids, and we were lucky that we squeaked in before the pandemic hit. We took them in January 2020 for their first trip, and it was awesome. A couple of years later, we had the whole week off for Thanksgiving, and we decided to drive down from Portland and wear masks. We were really happy that we got to do it.
I'm waiting to decide if we'll resubscribe
I'm waiting a little bit. I listened to Jimmy Kimmel's speech. It seems like Disney heard the message, and I hope they will be strong in the future against things like this.
I wanted to see what the fallout might be, and give it at least a week. It may be that, in a week, it feels like yesterday's news. If it were just me, I would wait longer to make sure Disney understands the impact and that they have to work now to get their subscribers back.
My husband's point was, "If we took it away to send a message, shouldn't we give it back to them for doing the right thing?"
I told my son yesterday that Disney changed their minds, they're doing the right thing, so that's good news, and we're going to wait and see how things go.
I don't want my kids to think this was not a big deal if we're like, "Today we're canceling Disney+ and tomorrow we're taking it back." I don't think that helps them understand the magnitude of what it was. I want them to feel good about participating and standing up for the right thing.
I felt that free speech was a big enough deal that they did need to understand what was going on.
I have a feeling we'll be going to Disneyland in January. I texted the cousins, "It's looking much better, I'm relieved." Someone texted back, "I'm relieved also, I was worried."
We're not going to book yet. I'm going to give it some time.
