To think there is nothing actually wrong with watching TV.......

[Miaowing]

.... and for wondering why people get so snobbish and holier than thou about it.

DH and I are in our 50s and childfree by choice. We do stuff but we also watch a LOT of TV. Mainly box sets, movies and sport.

I read a lot - he doesn't but he never has. He's not a book person.

There is nothing IMHO wrong with watching TV yet on here it seems to be a badge of honour not to own one or to be so high and mighty that its beneath you.

In real life I do't know anyone like that - which does make me wonder how there are so many on here.

Sparklesocks
each to their own to be honest!
I just can't look back at the last few years and be contend with having paid the bills and kept a clean home, what a waste of my life that would be.

I especially don't want my kids to look back and have done nothing because they were too busy watching tv and playing computer games.

I already have very little free time to be able to do much, I can't waste it in front of the tv. I don't relax doing nothing

I gain more from a couple hours of tv a night than I would from 4 hours of "chores" I don't need to do.

There’s always a couple of hours at the end of the day when I am too tired to do much except veg in front of the TV. Same for the DC, they need a little TV for downtime most days.

The rest of the day, when we are not tired,
I would think it was a bit of a waste to be watching TV tbh.

@haverhill and The Nanny

good for you, unlucky me I do have chores, a house and kids to take care of 🤷

You are definitely not being unreasonable! I absolutely love watching TV as it’s my way to relax and yes, I do watch what a previous poster described as ‘pointlessTV’ but I love it and who the hell does anyone think they are to tell me I’m wasting my time!!!
Live by the moto “The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time”

twosoups1972
“Oh yes, moost ‘ave t’telly for’t nanny!”

Like the name btw!

“I am in the South East, most people have a commute just as crap as mine unfortunately!”

Yes im in the south east too, and it always makes me laugh when people say that,
since the south east is a bloody enormous place.

driving to a business park in reading is very different to commuting into the city from a Kent railway town I believe around 10 million people live in the south east of England so you’re obviously not placed to know what their commutes are like and what is usual or otherwise

I watch a couple of hours of TV every night. I watch it while I'm doing other things as well, like making exercise books or planning lessons. So I'm generally watching TV as background noise to other things.

A pp earlier in the thread said nobody should complain about not having time to do other things if they can watch that much TV. But I think a lot of us are watching TV at the same time as doing something else, so we wouldn't have time to do other things as we're already involved in a time consuming (but boring!) task.

My sister does this! When we are in a group of people she suddenly turns in to someone that may as well be saying “a TV? Never heard of one are they something that’s just been brought out?” When in actual fact she watches tv ALL the time but claims not to! Drives me insane!! Especially when I receive a text from her saying something like have you caught up on peaky blinders/stranger things/Britain’s got talent but she’s wonderful in every other way

SeriouslyEnoughAlreadyRantOver no I’m not saying paying bills and cleaning are achievements, merely that’s it’s ok to relax as well as work and take pleasure in it.

Passthecherrycoke

oh sorry, let me be a lot more precise:
I work in central London and live in the South East, I have a shit commute.

I can't find a job that pays a decent wage in another area than Central London and I can't afford to buy a property in central London.
What am I supposed to do? Take a minimum wage job, move my kids in a studio flat in a deprived but cheap area?

I am sticking to my current commute, save as much money as possible and keep my kids happy.

It's hardly news that there are A LOT of people like me, we are all competing for the same properties and the same seats in the train and tube

That’s nice but I was just trying to make the point that your circumstances, all put together, make for a rather unusual day -whereas you’re arguing that it’s usual to work/ commute 12 hours a day, have 4 children and do 4 hours of chores daily, rendering you unable to find any spare time and not understanding how people do to watch tv.

Clearly the 20 odd million people watching the main channels everyday manage it.

Passthecherrycoke

not sure why you jumped from 3 hours to 4 hours for a start, which does make a difference over a week, but hey ho...

As not many people watch that much tv first thing in the morning, the amount of chores I do has nothing to do with how little tv I chose to watch anyway.

@SeriouslyEnoughAlreadyRantOver well it does because you're the one who mentioned chores being one of the reasons you don't have time to watch tv and why you couldn't understand how others had the time? Hence me and others explaining our days not being as hectic as yours and having the time, without a detriment to anything else.

Apologies, but then you did say:

“3 hours a day doing chores - sometimes more accurately 4”

Passthecherrycoke
yes, sorry ,but that meant including the evening. I didn't mean I have to get at 3am to clean the house

By the time I've made diner, dealt with the admin, cleaned the kitchen, supervised school bags, club bags and uniforms being layed out for the following day, do a quick tidy of the house, it's an hour in the evening gone.

Chores is just another reason to say “oh I have far too many important things to be doing instead of watching tv” as though down time and self care isn’t an achievement. Taking time to recharge and do something you enjoy is very important to wellbeing, and being the busiest person isn’t an achievement. If someone enjoys a it of tv, what does it matter to anyone else?

I don't know anyone who thinks doing chores is an achievement of any kind

more a sign of failing to be able to afford decent help!

Some of us prefer to do a hobby of some kind than wasting hours in front of the tv, that's all

I also used to commute to central London and have 3 children. I don’t spend 3-4 hours doing chores but maybe I am slovenly (no one is indoors in the day so the house is clean as I left it in the morning )

The commute alone was found time, I spent that reading.

I do my crafts while I watch tv though, it’s not one or the other

@SeriouslyEnoughAlreadyRantOver but how on earth do you find the time for a hobby with your non-9-5 job, 3-4 hours a day of chores, hellish south-east commute and 4 kids 😉

We love TV, especially in the winter. We watch a fair bit of sport, 14 hours on cricket world cup final/Wimbledon finals day but that's unusual. We both enjoy the same programmes, in the main, so we only have TV in one room. Can't stand soaps or most reality tv though, we like a great series like The Sopranos or Breaking Bad. We have Now TV and Netflix as most of the content on terrestrial tv doesn't interest us.

We go out a lot, exercise daily and enjoy reading so rarely feel guilty about watching several hours of TV when we 're in.

Oh god I had this yesterday. Had 3 people telling me they didn't have time to watch tv and they've got better things to do but when I asked them what they couldn't answer. I love watching telly, I do other things of course but watching telly is great!

I used to download tv to watch on my commute. Before I got a job 20 minutes away in another part of the SE that pays more than the city and I can arrive at in the comfort of my own car. I must be one in a million 🤣