It's been a week of posts on this little blog. Strange that after having two kids and being married for almost six years, one celebrates a week-long commitment, but in this crazy chaos of early motherhood, committing to something and having it last a week is a great accomplishment!
The post "headline" might sound familiar to some of you. It's a line from "Grey's Anatomy" - the popular soap medical drama on ABC. It's one of my Dear Husband's and my shows. Our shows are near and dear to us.
Here's the rundown of what we watch religiously:
Grey's Anatomy
Scandal
Go On
Last Man Standing
Parenthood
Nashville
The Americans (even though it's web only...blah. So we are on hiatus for a little bit.)
For backup in case none of those are new:
Friday Night Lights
West Wing
It may seem like a lot to take in, but for two hours every night, DH and I have date night. We don't have cable so the only requirement is that the shows can be seen on Hulu or Amazon Instant Watch or Netflix. All of our's (except for The Good Wife, which we have seemingly dropped) can. Score!
We have a nice mix of drama and comedy. We've added and lost shows over the last six years. We used to really be into the criminal dramas but decided for my mental health that needed to stop. Anytime a child was in danger or worse, I lost it. I mean LOST IT. I would have nightmares and horrible "what if" scenarios constantly running through my head. Not good. Still happens sometimes with the shows we have, but not as often.
We don't have a plethora of go-out date nights, but we have nightly stay-in dates. We put the kids down then have some dessert and watch some shows. I usually fold laundry or do some other task because I feel so unproductive just sitting there. For some reason, men never feel that way. Is that genetic??
Anyway, it doesn't matter necessarily what we watch; it's that we have a commitment to doing it. We don't like going to bed before the other (me especially) and we (almost) never watch an "our show" without the other. And if one was to do that (ahem - DH), then he....they...would be ridiculed and teased for a good amount of time about it (i.e. TV-whore, TV-slut....I'm real mature with my insults).
Now, I do have my own backup shows. DH has drill weekends and football games so I need to do something while folding laundry by myself! Here's my personal list (most of which DH can't stomach):
Smash
Glee
Parks and Recreation
New Girl
Up All Night
See the common, happy, up beat, fun, mostly-brainless theme surrounding all of them? No heavy dramas for me by myself! I learned my lesson with the year-long deployment when I decided to watch documentaries about dolphin killings and the sad, sad "Letters to Zachary" and Army Wives. I mean - what the h*ll was I thinking!??
So I pulled myself out of that rut and sat myself at the happy show table. Thank goodness! Usually just what the doctor ordered after a day/weekend of having Little Man and Little Miss to myself.
Be it together or when we are separated, TV provides an escape from our every day lives yet reflects something within our lives. When we are together, it's an awesome date night. We end up discussing things from the shows quite often, I think more than we realize. It's something we look forward to together. It's our "us" time.
I've talked about the guilt in getting me-time.....for some reason I feel 100% less guilty about having us-time. It's so important to do sans children. We've created a lot of memories and had some great discussions, arguments, etc during these times. It even helps end a fight. There will be silence while we brood then one will say "do you want to watch something?" and the other will have to say yes. Show starts, we laugh, fight is over. Well, maybe not over but it usually puts the fight into perspective.
So if you don't have one (or 10) already with your spouse, significant other, roommate, best friend - FIND ONE! Find one that's a guilty pleasure - makes it even better.
Cheers -
Megs
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