In a cheeky attempt to get my blog read i have added it, as it was a little suitable!
Can Netflix save your marriage?
This sadly is not a euphemism for a new sex toy or trend. I am in my late thirties, have two children, a husband and a job. My house fooled me with the illusion of being clean until the low winter sun came in and I am now being taunted by cobwebs and teased by a stain I thought was a pattern.
We have a garden, a beautiful garden. No one imparted to me the wisdom a garden takes work, lots of work. Kneeling & weeding, cutting, tying, raking. I own gardening tools. I did not know there were such things as gardening tools. Mainly due to the fact that I grew up in the west of Ireland and if a blade of grass, forced itself into existence among the rocks we fainted in shock. Like Victorian heroines we were, delicate. Not the welly wearing, bog tanned, Tayto eating fools of a John Hinde postcard.
My husband has a job, I don’t understand much of it. He lives in the fabled land of IT, where servers crash, back ups fail and you get a vicious look if you suggest “did you try to turn if off and back on again?” The eldest child, I have two as mentioned, it has nearly killed me. In this modern life they must do more than school and pick their nose, so she goes to gymnastics. The youngest daughter is traipsed along to this to view, but at three has not been shoved by her parents onto the treadmill of activities, yet.
The above is to illustrate that we have no time and are tired. In there I have neglected to add shopping, cooking (from scratch of course) & the fact if my husband has clean socks during the week it is a miracle. If there was a new sex toy or trend we would be the last to know.
The usual very waffly point I am trying to make is how do you spend time together. As this couple who are playing at being adults. You own (in conjunction with the bank) a house. Attempt to raise children, (salting money away for future therapy) and hold down a job (saving for a good lawyer when the tribunal comes). If you had some time together before you had children you live a long time on those memories. Unless you have family nearby it is hard to get out together once the children have left sticky handprints on your heart. Baby sitters cost a fortune. Once we calculated it would cost £105 to go to the cinema by bus and home by taxi (so we could have a drink of course!), pay the babysitter £8 an hour, cinema tickets and all the rest you might like on a simple trip to a see film.
Netflix. When you have got to the point where the children are asleep when you would like them to be asleep. This is what we do now. The Bridge first. Then House of Cards, excellent, at one point we stayed up until 4am doing the famous binge watching. Episode after episode. Sitting side by side on the couch, drinking too much wine. Discussing the characters, betting on what’s going to happen next and egging each other on to watch the next.
We have moved to the next bit of being together, which is being together constantly but not having time for each other. Netflix may be the modern equivalent of reading to each other. Modern life is good but even with the washing machine and fridge to help, existing takes time and money. This bit will end at some point and a new phase will start but it is a comfortable place, rubbing along together quietly, not the big nights out together. Lidl steak and Rioja. I think soon there will be a divorce case where they cite one partner watched a few episodes of the their Netflix series. without the other. Netflix cheat. Sad.