Family life can be incredibly demanding as it uses up a lot of your energy reserves, as well as the time that you would previously have spent sleeping or relaxing. When you have to work, attend to the various needs and desires of your children, keep the home clean and prepare food during the week ... It can be easy to get into a TV-watching routine when it comes to spending quality time with your partner.
For most people, this means collapsing on the couch, remote control in hand and staring at the television. But if you are in the habit of doing this every day, you can quickly find that you are in a rut that is difficult to escape.
The limbo of watching television
After the chaos of feeding, bathing, dressing and putting the kids to bed, cleaning the kitchen, and getting ready for the next day, there's hardly any time left for the night. If you choose to spend the little time you have in front of the television, it is likely that you and your partner have little, if any, quality time together.
Studies show that watching too much television can lead to feelings of isolation and, in severe cases, depression. Also, relationships portrayed in TV shows and movies can give us a false sense of deficiency in our own relationships, as well as making us yearn for a romantic ideal that is completely unattainable.
Finally, if you find yourself watching TV particularly in the late afternoon, staring at this big blue screen could have an adverse effect on the quality of your sleep. Bright light tells our bodies that it is daytime, even though this is the time when we should start to relax. Even small electronics can promote wakefulness when we should be resting.
How to escape from limbo
There are many things you can do instead of standing in front of the screen, although exhausted you may find the possibility of doing it very exciting. If you've discovered that both you and your partner are wasting important quality time, then the optimal time to reconnect is when the children are asleep. You don't have to be particularly resourceful about spending time together. You can follow the following ideas:
- Have a conversation
- Enhance the affection between you
- Play a game together
- Read a book together
When to accept television limbo
Spending time together in the ways mentioned above will help remind you that you were a couple before parents. It can be easy to get lost in the world of parenting and have to organize every last aspect of your children's lives, but the burnout that occurs as a result shouldn't distract you from caring for your partner. However, sometimes all you want to do is collapse in front of the television and forget about everything for a while.
Fortunately, doing this with your partner is not as bad as you think, although only if you are seeing the same thing. Watching the same TV shows and movies can help create a shared social reality between you.
Couples who have shared friends do not need to watch television together to achieve this, but those who do not can watch programs together can explain this deficit in closeness. Sharing media in this way can create a higher quality of relationship overall. The important thing is to know when it is time to turn off the screen and look at each other.