The other night my husband had a late night at work, and I was pretty excited. That meant that I was going to have the TV exclusively to myself! For the record, I'm definitely not a screen-time limiter (gasp!). My son rules the TV until 5 P.M. when either my husband or myself declares it to be "mommy and daddy TV time." I'm not sure why we even add the word "mommy" because let's be honest, it's daddy TV time. Which doesn't bother me. After a long day of dealing with the millennials entering the armed forces my husband deserves some time to unwind and relax. So, unlike many wives and moms, I was totally embracing his absence for the evening for one reason (and no, its not because we are used to being apart, although more on those days later) the fact that I was going to have complete reign of the TV for an ENTIRE night was so lucrative!
The clock finally struck 7 o'clock and my son's bedtime routine was in full force. We sat in the chair, and, being the philanthropic person that I am, I decided to let him watch his favorite movie, "Home" while we rocked for bed. He fell asleep and I laid him down in bed per usual. The baby was sleeping so soundly in her swing (by the way, I LOVE our swing, hmm...that gives me an idea for another time). This was it! The time had come! It was truly and fully mommy TV time.
Then my brain froze. Over 400 channels and I had no idea what I liked to watch. What shows do I like? What channels besides DisneyJr, NickJr, and Fox News do we even have? During the day, unless the PAW Patrol rescues it, Toodles brings it a tool, or The PJ Masks save it I have no idea what anything is. As for the evening, well, our daughter was almost birthed to Watter's World on the Fox News Network. So you see the kinds of shows popular in our home. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the lessons my son learns while watching educational preschool TV, and I do like staying up to date with the various news shows my husband watches, but damn it sometimes I just want to watch someone try on a bridal gown, look for a fancy house in a foreign country, or a juicy Lifetime sexual tension induced murder mystery.
As I surfed through our channels I was just lost. It doesn't help that we've lived in Germany for the past three years prior to moving to our current location so I honestly have no idea what stuff is on TV these days. I settled on a show about people who move into buildings the size of an outhouse and can only get dressed by crawling or laying down; HGTV told me this is referred to as "tiny house living." After about three episodes of mini homes, I decided to turn my attention to my old friend who has yet to fail me in my viewing pleasure, Netflix. Whatever "Netflix and Chill" means to teens these days (I know what it means, I do have two children afterall) to me it just meant sit there and chill and zombie myself into the boob tube for....exactly two minutes before the baby woke up to eat. Good thing good ol' Netflix offers a pause button!
So, gone are my days of binge watching shows (because I do not consider the 6 hour PAW Patrol marathon that happened earlier as binge watching....). But that's ok, because you know what happens now? I don't take for granted those times when I DO get a little bit of time watching things only I like. I look forward to something as simple as using the remote for my own viewing pleasure. So I always start at channel number 289 because that's DisneyJr and that's the only one I have memorized.
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