Mrs. Homie and I have vastly different tastes in TV. Generally we try to watch things that we both enjoy (Big Bang Theory, Modern Family…) on the DVR together. Things that I like (Mythbusters, Wipeout…) I’ll watch and she’ll just sit in the living room at her laptop and not pay attention. Since I don’t have a laptop, I play World of Warcraft in another room while she watches things that she likes.
So last night, I’m watching something on the DVR, and after it’s over she says “Let’s watch Big Brother!” Now, I hate BB and would rather watch paint dry.* So I say, “No problem. I’ll just go into the other room and…”
To which she replies “I watched Wipeout with you last night!”
ME: You like Wipeout, and I’m not stopping you from watching BB. I’m going into another room so I don’t have to watch it.
HER: You’re so selfish sometimes.
WTF???
*I am literally not kidding. Watching paint dry is boring. Watching BB is boring and simultaneously distasteful. Watching paint dry wins.
If my partner wanted me to watch Big Brother I would arrange a divorce or a hitman.
About ten years ago I was travelling for work and had arranged to share digs with a work colleague to save on costs. On the way to the apartment building he said “Isn’t it great!? There is an eviction on Big Brother tonight which we can watch!” I was so pleased when we got to the apartments and they had stuffed up the bookings and we had separate apartments.
Oh, since I didn’t answer the OP’s question, no, I don’t think you’re being selfish. However, I think men and women operate differently in these cases. You think you found a solution which works for both of you. She thinks you’re refusing to take part in something she enjoys.
I can’t think of anything more boring than being forced to watch a TV show that someone else wants to watch, and they insist you watch it with them. I will agree to be in the same room and be allowed to read or be on my laptop, to keep them company if they wish. But insisting you watch their show with them with rapt interest? Maybe if you’re dating, or newlyweds you might be a good sport and might even take an interest. But I loathe enforced togetherness, being a disgruntled loner and married several years, I don’t insist my SO sit down and watch an old Hollywood musical, and he doesn’t insist I sit down and watch Fox News. This reminds me uncomfortably of the spouses who are joined at the hip, have to go out to do errands together, have to visit relatives together, and have to go to bed at a certain time every night together. I’m an adult, I don’t want to go to bed at 10 p.m., YOU go to bed and let me watch my TV show.
I’m a girl, and I resent the idea that all women are like this. Couples do not have to do everything together. I watch TV shows all the time that my SO has no interest in…he plays on the computer in the other room.
I’d also hire a hitman if my SO forced me to watch Big Brother together.
If that doesn’t work for you, fine, but exactly why are people who enjoy it not allowed to spend as much time with their spouses as they want?
I don’t think you’re being selfish. Of course, I can be watching something on TV and my husband will wander in and change the channel without even asking, then act baffled when I tell him I was watching the previous channel. (In his defense, he usually has pretty free reign over the TV, so he probably just assumes I’m not watching it. But still.)
I was mentally checking off all of these, but we have good reasons! The errands are usually for house stuff that we discuss as we shop, we both have to endure each other’s relatives, so we visit together (turnabout’s fair play and all that), and left to our own devices we both stay up far too late, so having one partner going to bed gets the other motivated to go to bed already.
We tend to watch the same tv shows, but it’s no big deal if one of us goes into the basement to do something else or watch something else. As for the OP being selfish, I don’t think he was, but his wife obviously did, so they have a discussion to have there.
I think it boils down to HOW much you dislike the show. Do you hate it with the intensity of a thousand burning suns? Or do you just not really care that much for it and still “insisted” on not watching it.
If its the former, I think your wife is being the selfish one to want you to suffer through it for her needs. If its more the later, then yeah it wouldn’t kill you to watch it with her every once in a great while. Or, in other words, I think adults that always need to be doing what THEY want to do without much consideration for what others want to do are being selfish/immature (that goes for both the former and the later).
I think the solution should have been that if it was really some together time she wanted, that you both found something at that moment you could both enjoy (fornacatin is always a classic choice).
This is why I don’t watch TV actually. Well, not Big Brother per se, but the TV is monopolized by my wife for her shitty TV shows, and my son is usually playing games on the other TV.
So, I go and do something else. Marriage is a riot.
Netflix will stream right onto your computer, Leaffan.
I remember staying with my aunts for a week and all they wanted to do was watch Indian Idol and some Indian Dance Stars program. ALL WEEK LONG. I estimate we watched a whole fucking season of it. :eek: When I had to go home and my flight was delayed and I had to stay overnight, I almost started crying at the airport.
Hate those things with the fire of a thousand suns.
Heh. I have almost the exact opposite problem. I don’t mind watching things I have no interest in (although I’m likely to have my laptop on while I’m doing it) but I feel super guilty for watching something he’s not into if he’s in the same room. I squirmed my way through “Persuasion” last night, because I’m certain he was bored out of his gourd. And yet, he’s a grown man…he even owns a laptop! If he didn’t want to sit with me as I watch, he could have gone into the other room. I even told him to go ahead and change it, I’ll rent it sometime; he said absolutely not, keep watching. So he wanted to be there, right? Right?!
I’ve got to get over this self-imposed guilt thing. :smack:
