People will probably wonder why I am even writing about this as the only female in a household of six, but for those who are fortunate not to have the same problems in their home I wanted to air the difficulties that are suffered when different members of the family want to watch TV. Whilst we are fortunate to have Sky and to also have more than one television in our home this does not help with the scheduling and watching dilemmas which seem to occur relentlessly and regularly!
When Duvet Boy is awake he likes to watch football. No-one has a problem when it is his team on the television but he does not understand why no-one else is interested in the different divisions, Spanish football, Champions League with no British interest, a re-run of all of the 1999/2000 season or a programme on the worst red card tackles in the world ever. As my youngest was not even born during the 1999/2000 season I do think he has a valid point!
My other teenager likes comedies and is happy to watch the same programme continuously. The Simpsons may have been going for twenty years but I am sure that by now he has seen nearly every episode and he is currently working his way through Two and a Half Men.
The oldest two also give us a different dilemma which is based on what programmes are suitable for them. Back in the good old days when there was no internet or You Tube, if a programme was deemed unsuitable then children were not allowed to watch it and that was the end. Now it is not so easy. Programmes can be seen on-line and even if you stop them at home it is impossible to stop them viewing if they are at someone else's house. We decided (rightly or wrongly) that it would be better to watch with them so now my husband sees The Inbetweeners and I think he is getting as much of an education as my boys!
Of course my middle one is literally stuck in the middle. He cannot watch the older and more adult themed programmes but does not want to watch the same as the youngest. If the TV is on late afternoon then usually the youngest will choose as his time is limited before bed. Quite often the middle one does not get time later as it will be too close to his bedtime and not long enough for a programme that he wants, so he does, quite rightly get miffed. As yet I have not found a solution to this. so any suggestions will be greatly received.
As for me, well I am just glad we have Sky Planner. Anything and everything I want to see is recorded. This is done as I know I will never be able to sit down and watch anything when it it actually live on the TV, and even if I could, I guarantee that there would be at least half a dozen interruptions. A one hour show always needs at least an hour and twenty minutes and that is with me fast forwarding during the ad breaks. I am sure they know it is my time to hold the remote so it is at this point there are queries on homework, school uniform, Food Tech ingredients which are suddenly needed the following morning, or social arrangements, staying after school for sports and anything else that may suddenly spring into their minds. I can't even wait until they have all gone to bed to watch in peace as they now go to bed as late as me.
To make things a little bit better for everyone we have managed to find a few programmes which everyone will watch together. Dr Who, Top Gear and Outnumbered are acceptable and I know this evening will be fine as we are all big fans of Hustle. The only argument now is how loud we need the volume to be......
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