to think that soap operas are dull...

[MrsMadWriggle]

... and that the people who watch them could make better use of their time?

Yes yes, I know that it's up to people how they spend their leisure time. But if you're going to devote several hours a week to an activity, why not make it something interesting, rather than watching the same storylines going round and round.

Yes, I've been there - watched Neighbours at lunchtime as a student and followed Dirty Den and Ange in the '80s. It can be addictive, I know. But thank goodness I broke the habit 20 odd years ago. At, say, 4 hours a week for 20 years, I would have lost over 4,000 hours of my life watching telly.

And before I get flamed, can I please say that I am NOT insulting people who watch soaps, just that I think they are a waste of time.

Oh - off on the school run now, so not posting and disappearing.

I find soap operas tedious and I don't understand the appeal. However, I waste my time (and brain power) watching crap tv talent contests (masterchef Australia anyone?) and man v food, so I'm in no position to criticise anyone else's viewing choices.

Agreed. MIL watches every single one of the soaps in an endless round of drivel. Drives me and DW mad when she visits.

Masterchef Australia is just rivetting however. It like X Factor but with the contestants in combat with intense heat and sharp knives.

I can't invest in something when I never will know how it ends. And they are dull and full of stupid people shouting at each other.
At least they were when I stopped watching and when I occasionally see some when my mum stays over.

My mum tries to fill me in on storylines sometimes and I find myself wondering 'can you hear what you are saying' ... 'so she was married to him and then she got pregnant but it was that mans baby but he was arrested for burning down the pub and his sister who used to work for the woman that owns the pub tried to sell the baby to pay for a new home with the fella there on the donkey with the backgammon set..... '

It is mostly like Jeremy Kyle with a better set designer

you obviously never watched sunset beach

It depends on what soap operas you're talking about.

If it's UK or Australia - generally, YANBU. They are DULLSVILLE. American ones, on the other hand, aren't.

Like SEA said - you should be watching Sunset Beach. Or something like Days of Our Lives where people are constantly being kidnapped and replaced by their evil twin, or being posessed by the devil, or the actor just randomly disappears and you get a voice saying at the beginnging "from now on, the role of Bob La Blah will be played by Frank McFrankerton" and then some completely random actor, who looks nothing like the original guy, takes over. It's awesome. They're also all ridiculously over the top/good-looking and fabulously wealthy.

I could never give up on Corrie , it's a family friend.

I listen to the Archers.... Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' was described once as a play where nothing happens, twice. The Archers is a series where nothing happens six nights a week and for an hour on Sundays. It is the equivalent of meditation. At least, being a radio prog, I can multitask my daily 12 minutes of with preparing supper or reading the newspaper. No time wasted there.

TV soaps... yeah... total crap. Never watch them.

I expect there are plenty of things I do that could be dismissed with "you could make better use of your time".

But soap-watching is not among them.

Mumsnetting might be one though...

dh and i made a pact a long time ago.

Dh grew up in a house where his mother watched ( and still does) every single soap opera that is on tv.

my mum never watched them

so when we were first married and i told him i hated the whole saturday being taken over by sports, he said that we could make a pact where by he doesn't watch sports except for world cup and sommat super spesh - if i dont watch soaps.

i never did watch em , so thats fine by me.

at soapless custy.

I couldn't miss the sport though....

YABtotalyU.
Soaps are fantastic. I love them, particularly Home And Away and Neighbours.
So bad they're good.

I stopped watching soaps years ago. My mum is obssessed though. She still watches Neighbours and Home and Away and she is in her fifties. I laugh at her when I visit

But Home And Away has hot guys, and they pretend it's warm in summer so they can have topless beach scenes with said guys. What's not to like?

Warm in winter I meant obv.

I stopped years ago as well, it was so nice not to think "Oh I need to get home and see..." I also love having sky plus now as I only watch stuff I like, not endless drivel although with dd2 due in a couple of weeks will have to start recording old series of House, Mentalist etc to keep me entertained through those loooooong nights feeding!

I hate soaps now,but I used to watch Home and Away,and Family Affairs,remember that? when I was in my teens.

Once Shane died in Home and Away I lost all interest,though did watch Family Affairs for a year or so.

I used to watch soaps as a teen/young adult but I was much happier when I filled my life with stuff and wasn't watching 'misery' tv.

I do still love television series which can also be a pile of poo - my faves are House, Desperate Housewives, Grays Anatomy and Law and Order.

One of the reasons I also don't watch them now is that they are unsuitable for children - hasn't there been 57 murders in Corrie and a couple of serial killers?