This is hard to write (gulp), because I am SO guilty of it. But, once I recognized it, I had to call it out for what it was---a goal destroyer, a dream basher, and relationship duller...Netflix was and is a lot of things for everyone---a "get your mind off of everything" network, a "movie night" at-home-thing, a "life is hard so I'm gonna binge watch while eating potato chips and drinking healthy shakes" producer...the point is...Netflix IS those last three things I just stated, but just like everything else we let become a part of our life, it has had unintentional consequences, and they haven't been the good kind.
First, let me sing my Ode to Netflix.
Netflix Netflix Netflix, King of my soul!
It's so so lovely how you make me forget
the ugly parts of the human soul
that I read about too much on Facebook.
Netflix Netflix Netflix, you are the
"I want to sit and do absolutely nothing" dream
fulfiller,
you are the
"I'm bored" children's phrase killer.
You are the, "we are poor and don't trust anyone to babysit anyways"
date night giver.
Netflix Netflix Netflix,
so why is it that you have to be so bad for my liver!?
So, yeah. liver doesn't make sense, but I was DONE with that ode.
The truth is, I still love Netflix, but we are moving are relationship status from "Engaged" to "In an open relationship"/"It's complicated"(who seriously uses those status' btw? If you need to use that, end it girlfriend!)
I love finding a show that I love to watch. It gives me something to look forward to. But, then I realized that there are so many more things in life that I should be looking more forward to than a show. My Man helped me realize that without even trying because he'd generally much rather do something productive(like try to get our HAM radio licenses) than watch a show. And, whenever I'm like "Hey, wanna put on a show?" He normally says sure, but I can tell he just let every productive goal for the night go out the window because wifey over here is done with the day. I don't want to be that wifey (except, sometimes I do.)
When I don't turn on a show the second the girls go to bed, I feel more like being myself and building my character with the things that I actually care about and am interested in, and I think Netflix (hand in hand with FB) have done a FAN-FREAKIN-TASTIC job of helping each individual of our society forget what they like to do in their spare time. I think it has helped people forget what relationships are supposed to be like. And, I'm not saying stopping watching Netflix with your significant other is going to make your relationship THAT much more way fun or something, because honestly it's probably not going to. When I don't do a show, I usually clean, or blog (duh) or sit on the couch and stress out AND tell myself not to stress out (SO much more productive than watching a show while stressing out and never telling myself to stop stressing out!) or color in my cool owl coloring book, or eat good food, or do random other things that I would have never otherwise done. But, what I can say it has done is made our relationship more healthy. Why? Because I have been feeling happier because I have been feeling more productive and I have been dreaming more about things I want to do and I have been remembering that I want to pursue certain passions. And, let's not forget that even though in marriage you "become as one", there are definitely still two individuals in the "oneness", and each of those individuals will make the other individual happier by being happier themselves. My Man loves me more when he sees me get excited about things I love, and go after them. And him being such a great example of that to me, is the very reason I love him so much.
I want to reiterate that I love Netflix and Netflixing, and YES the fact that I am writing this might strongly correlate with the fact that I don't have a good show series to watch right now, but, I am thankful, people! Let's not forget who we are and that each of us actually have interests outside of the acting world. Life is FOR REAL, so let's live it.
