A Typical Day

Dave and I had a conversation that went like this the other Wednesday night.

Dave: (big sigh) We should write a book on how to survive your 18-hour kid in a 16 hour day. (pause) People really watch TV?
Me: That will be the title, "TV? Who has time for that?!" That reminds me, I forgot to DVR Duck Dynasty again.
Dave: We don't even have time to remember to record the shows we plan to watch.

The discussion continued as we speculated about how other parents found time for TV. Some options seemed feasible:
~ They don't get up as early so they can stay up later.
~ They forgo sleep for TV.
Then I think we got to the truth of the matter: it's all about priority.

I used to be a Thursday night TV junkie, planted on the couch from 7 - 10 watching Friends all the way through ER. I even set my VCR to record the line up when I started grad school and had class on Thursday night. Then something crazy happened. I started getting stressed out about finding time to watch my recorded TV. Then I started running out of VHS tapes. I made the difficult decision to give up my fictional TV friends and my stress level decreased significantly. Plus, I had time for all that studying that graduate level Statistics demanded.

Over the years, I've tried to watch TV, but unless the show was in syndicated re-runs every night, I've had no luck. I am strangely, fascinatingly, horrifyingly drawn to Sister Wives. I loved the Sookie Stackhouse books and I watched a season and a half of True Blood until I couldn't handle visual imprint of the gore in my head, and more importantly, the complete deviation from the book plots anymore.  Also, I was convicted by my own inner monologue that kept reminding me not to do things that I'm ashamed of. You know what would be really shameful? Explaining True Blood to my five year old. The DVR is great, but it created the same problem as the VCR in grad school. There was just no time to watch, and that list of recordings just kept growing until I told Dave to delete them all. I stumbled onto the beauty of Duck Dynasty one night when both kids spent the night with Aunt Becca, but I've never managed to watch it again. The most TV I usually watch on a given day is about 20 minutes of House Hunters, and I rarely see which house they picked because I fall asleep before it's over.

The problem, you see, is that TV hasn't been a priority for me since grad school. My typical day looks like this. Dave's is very similar except that he leaves earlier for work.

5:20  Get up and shower.
5:35 - 6:00 Get dressed, put on make up, make my breakfast
6:00 - 7:00 Get kids up, dressed, fed, brushed and wiped, in between, check email and dry my hair.
7:00-7:20 Get shoes on, make sure children potty and have backpacks and lunches.
7:20 - 7:30 Drop off Ella at school.
7:30 - 8:30 Drive to work.
8:30 - 5:15ish - Work like a crazy person with an occasional break to look at Facebook.
5:15-6:15 Drive home.
6:15 - 715 Cook supper, prep  backpacks for the next day, catch up with Dave and the kids.
7:15 - 7:45 Eat supper, catch up with Dave and the kids
7:45 - 8:15 Bathe children and clean up the kitchen (we split these chores).
8:15 - 8:45 Get kids ready for bed and read books to them.
8:45 - 9:00ish Lie with Luke while he falls asleep (some nights it's fast, other's it's not, and Dave and I take turns with this task)
9:15 Go to bed.

You see? When would TV fit into this schedule? I genuinely don't know.

If there's extra time, there is usually a book to read. Occasionally, I watch a movie on the weekend if I'm not completely wiped out once the kids are in bed (because weekends are for catching up on family time, chores, and rest). I just can't make a long term commitment to a TV show. Books and sleep and sitting on the front porch with Dave while the children play are higher priorities for me, and once those things are done, there isn't a lot of time left for TV.