We have enough remotes to go around. One for me, one for him, one for the kid, and one for the cat. (Tv [just one!], VCR, DVD, cable…) They all do different things though.
We have a Tivo-like device - no surfing, flipping or deciding what to watch. It’s all prerecorded.
The person who recorded the show gets the remote to fast forward through commercials.
Our cats have learned to work the remotes (after a fashion) by sitting on them. We know who to blame when our channel is suddenly changed, or when the programming screen comes on. The cats haven’t evolved prehensile butts yet, but I’m sure they’re working on it.
Two of our cats are also very bad about checking the answering machine for messages, and then not passing those messages on to the humans they were intended for. We know they do this because they do it in front of us.
My husband usually controls the remote, unless I want to watch a particular show, in which case I demand the remote. He will flip channels otherwise, and I can’t stand it. Usually I don’t watch TV…I have a computer with internet access, and several game consoles.
We share it, mostly, though I tend to be the more aggressive one. Even when I don’t have it, I’ll often be the one saying which channel to surf to. However, since we both seem to like the same programs, and my attention span about equal to that of a wood louse, it’s not often a problem. I’d rather be on the internet, hopping around on whatever whim I feel the need to follow at the moment. Besides, I can only watch the TV while upside down, and I even then, I speak to the set. Mr. Stasaeon needs to calm me down if we watch Cops. I’ll be hanging there, yelling at the screen, “That’s RIGHT! Get him! Get him! TASE HIM! YEAAAAAH! How’d you like that?”
Nobody sane ever watches TV with me. Gimme the remote.
It’s usually 'im indoors that holds the remote (plural, really, he rarely watches tv unless it’s via the TiVO so he needs both remotes). If I’m watching something that he doesn’t like, he’ll usually sit there huffing and sighing until I let him change programmes…mostly if I know he’ll be around, I’ll be watching some odd bit of trash so I don’t really care if he changes channels on me. If it’s something I really want to see, I do it when he’s not around, it’s much the easiest solution.
Having said that, actually finding something I want to watch is the most difficult job!
We share the remote. If we’re both watching something the remote usually just lies on the couch between us. But if I’m watching something about the evolution of US supply convoy tactics in the Atlantic during WWII, or if she’s watching a British period drama/murder mystery, then the remote lies with the watcher for the duration unless the other party raises a serious objection (i.e., “This is hella boring, is there anything else on?”).
Wow. Sounds like all you guys have TV wars or something.
I live alone, so the problem doesn’t arise, but it didn’t when I was cohabitating either. The remote would be on the table, if there was something we’d both like to watch we did, if only one wanted to watch that person did, and if by some fluke we wanted to watch different things at the same time we had two TVs. No big deal.
I probably hold the remote 75% of the time. We have a DVR so most of our joint watching is a recorded show, the only work is going through the commercials, and adjusting the volume. If the show is General Hospital, it’s ALL up to her, since she’s going to skip through the “boring” parts, and I’m not qualified to make that determination.
We share. On football Saturdays, it’s mine and keep your mitts off. In prime time, she has her shows and I generally do other things or watch other TVs. But whoever is holding it, once you hear the voice of our local commercials from Terry Hanks of Sundance Chevy, you had better hit that mute button or she will become violent.
I currently live alone, so I control it. But even when I lived with someone, it wasn’t an issue.
Say what? (Now I have an image of hangin from the ceiling like a bat.)
While that would be awesome, no. Just draped upside down on the sofa.
Wow are my SO and I the only ones who fight to give the remote to each other? Neither of us want it but he usually gives it to me anyway. I think it’s so he doesn’t have to put the remote away when we go to sleep.
We sort of share it, although I end up with it more often when we’re watching TV together. We almost never watch live TV anymore, and most of the shows that we watch together started out as “my” shows – Law & Order (any flavor), House, etc. I control which TiVoed episode we watch, usually, because I’m the one who is more into them and has seen more episodes, so I get the remote. For shows that we got into together, like Good Eats, Mythbusters, & Dirty Jobs, it depends on whose idea it was to watch TV in the first place, who is closer to the remote, and whose hands are free. It frequently changes in the middle of a show. Also, some shows I like to watch with my finger on the mute button, because I have a phobia, so even if he’s got the TiVo remote, I have the TV remote just for muting capability.
If there’s nothing on, hubby will probably suggest that he play video games, and I usually agree. So we don’t ever have the flipping-through-channels discussion.
We used to do that at my house , but my lovely and wonderful wife missed the
lesson on sharing in kindergarten so I aquired my own room with my own T.V.
When I was married, my husband controlled the remote, and with the exception of Mystery!, could not resist flipping channels compulsively, usually right before the punchline of a joke, or seconds before the murderer is revealed. If something were taped, he would rewind and replay, frame by frame, any scene that might possibly reveal the naughty bits of some female in a brief millisecond glimpse. Any commercial was an excuse to scroll through the channels (it was basic cable, so only forty or so channels back in the 80’s) returning to the program I was watching just in time for (you guessed it!) the next set of commercials.
Needless to say, I don’t miss him at all.
I actually got the idea to start this thread the other night when we were watching three things at once, and I realized I had no idea which one was the “primary” show. We were watching exactly 1/3 of each program.
She does, for two reasons:
- I’ve never been a “flipper.”
- The range between “too quiet” and “too loud” is much narrower for her.
Besides, my hands are usually all greasy from massaging her feet.
Waitaminute, I’m submissive, aren’t I? :eek:
My wife watches home shopping and sit coms. My TV is downstairs with a computer and video games. We do not watch together. I watch Link TV ,Cspan, PBS ,mythbusters,little people big world ,
She watches idol, dances with stars etc. She watches awards shows. If we didn’t have a couple TVs it would be a big disagreement.
Gross.
She does. I watch maybe an hour a week literally (Family Guy and maybe some local news). I actually enjoy just listening to her laugh at her shows from my computer room.