I’m wondering if any of you has this problem with a loved one.
My mom loves TV. Maybe a little too much. To the point where she needs to get her priorities straight. Her excuse is that she gets real stressed out at work and likes to come home and unwind. I understand this, as I have never had a stressful job and have no business to judge.
Now, I’ll try and talk to her, but she’s too engrossed with whatever she’s watching (as of this writing, it’s football). Other times I’ll try and say something, she’ll glance at me (but I can tell, from the glazed look in her eyes, that her attention is somewhere else), nod, turn back to the TV, and turn the volume up. I’m not really angry, but my feelings are hurt. I feel like I’m living with Homer Simpson here. Plus, she can be a real Nazi when it comes to choosing something to watch. I don’t care; I have a TV in my room that I hardly watch, but sometimes my parents can really get at it (which annoys me because it’s so petty–but most of the time I’m on my dad’s side, because he never gets to watch what he wants).
Well, I have to commend you. Generally younger people have less intellectual pursuits than their parents but you seem to be the exception which I find encouraging. Maybe it’s not just the TV but rather that some parents are not good at communicating with their children. Mine certainly weren’t and it made me mature on my own and much faster.
I can’t offer any solutions but just say that if you are better at communicating and intellectually than your mother, that is a good sign for you and maybe the only thing you can do is accept her as she is and make the best out of what you got.
I never thought about that, but you’re probably right. My parents are not good at communicating, and neither am I. There will be times when my mom has shows that she HAS to watch: Law & Order, Roseanne, shows on Game Show Network, etc. Some of these shows aren’t bad, but I’m like, “Mom…they’re repeats. Who cares?”
The most TV I watch is my Sunday night lineup on FOX: Futurama, King of the Hill, The Simpsons, and Malcolm in the Middle. Sometimes on Mondays I will watch Everybody Loves Raymond and Becker. And maybe I’ll catch The Simpsons twice a day and a Seinfeld at 10:30. But that’s it. I use my TV for movies. I usually spend all my time on the Internet and writing. I don’t understand her quasi-obsession over TV. She’s much more intelligent than that.
My dad just watches what she watches, and sometimes reads.