I have a competitor at home who is making my married life Hell....Television/Idiot Box...better known as TV. I cannot understand if I should be angry on DH's addiction towards TV or is it just me...its really getting on my nerves. He switches on the TV first thing in morn to do his workout.No complains on this one.But once this is done he switches on the News channel and its on until he leaves for work :coffee.This is also acceptable since its for abt an hour and current affairs are important. Goes to work for abt 12 hours.I don't expect him to come home for lunch,call in between,come online or even come home early.The moment he comes home switches on the damn thing,then keeps his bag down,removes his shoes and the remaining activities of freshening up,dinner etc...all while his eyes and ears are glued to TV.Irrespective of how much I try to distract his attention he continues to watch till he's fallen asleep on sofa @ 12am.Much to my dismay,we have a TV in our bedroom.So when he realises he's fallen asleep on sofa...he comes to the bedroom..and there goes the remote in his hand for some more time. Last night I really lost it.I got upset that he didn't enquire about what I did the whole day or if any updates about my job interviews.He knows I am getting impatient sitting at home.I got hyper irritated just at the sound coming from TV when he came to sleep @ 1 and I freaked out on him.:rant This is not the first time he's doing it.Even while in India he would watch TV all weekend without going out anywhere and I wouldn't bother since I was independent.And also he and mil would have TV fights.But here in US he has the TV all by himself.I have told many times in India about his addiction and he reduces it for a few days and gets back to his old habits. Now comes the funny part:Today morn he switched on to do his workout and then switched off the TV.While having bfast also no TV But kept staring at me from time to time ( i can't explain but just the way kids do) I couldn't help smiling at this.The moment he saw me smiling n giggling....there's goes on the TV !!!!!!!!!! How do I reduce his addiction.I'm not saying its bad to watch TV.But there should be some limit. Please give me some tips...I am so irritated that I feel like cutting the cables!!!
Hi Chandy, I will tell you what IL should create a new forum in Marriage category for relationship with TV like Relatioship with In-laws. I have the same issue but now I also became a TV addict after 3 years of marriage.I dont like watching movies b4 marriage but now I have watched almost all the movies, the worst part I got my DH netflix subs for his bday and now it is 5 to 6 movies per in the weekend(I mena, each day in WE) and 2 to 3 movies in the weekdays... ..rofl... Apart from this, he will go for movies twice or even thrice in a month...If I say shopping a big NOOO but if I say movie night a big smile, the next day we go for grocery shopping... so AMC stubs card was also a gift I gave him for his B'day... Now we fight for which movie to watch.. you also enjoy watching with him.. try making this a hobby common for you both... It is difficult to do then saying it.. give it a try... I used to have a lot of fight in the starting... now... this has become a private time and sometimes we have quizes at home based on movies or The latest news, the winner gets what he/she wants...lol... Thanks Malar
Remove the TV from the bedroom , its right place is in the family room. Your marital life will benefit and you will also sleep peacefully.
I can't remove the TV from bedroom as it was given to us by corporate housing guys.Now I have made rules at home.No TV after 11pm except on weekends else you don't get lunch the next day bcoz I will also sleep late! Lets see how far this goes. Yest I told him I wrote this post on IL he was embarrassed for a moment. Thanks for your suggestion every1 and esp Malar.But I have never been addicted to TV for some reason.I just hope our children don't inherit DH's "TV gene"
I will tell you what IL should create a new forum in Marriage category for relationship with TV like Relatioship with In-laws. ----------------- I agree ,totally!!
Chandy, If you have a child lock for your TV, lock all the channels You can give him the unlocking code after 10 or 11pm at night. This will atleast reduce his habit of watching TV as soon as he comes home from work. Malar, That would a VERY busy forum :hide:
My Dh also loves watching TV. I started watching Tv with him. I am not a big fan and I do lot of work. It's frustrating to watch couch potatoes when you have so much work at home. But at some point we all need company. So just watch with him and make it your happy time.
Hi Chandy, As I said it took me nearly three years to bring this change in me... I was in your exact same situation, in India I was very independent so weekends used to be busy, but after coming to US and without job I felt really lonely. He is a workaholic, a TVaholic (lol), friends and then it is wife. So I was very upset. He will not entertain calls or chats during office hours unless and until it is an emergency. I felt like throwing the TV outside or you know anything to divert him from TV. This ends up in a fight and all hell breaks loose at home, after the fight he will resume with TV and I will be the one brooding over the fight. So I was the victim whatsoever. Then I one day I did keep the TV outside our apartment door and put a on sale tag on it (it was just two months old) if my husband was 10 minutes late I would have sold it , that is when he had a serious talk with me and I put the condition, I will not let him watch TV unless he allots me two hours everyday and takes me out every weekend( all this argument took place outside our apartment in a freezing cold temperature ha ha ha), he accepted and gradually and forcibly I also changed myself, so that I can maintain the peace at home, as we need two hands to make a sound. Orion, I guess, you have rightly said that is why I said a separate forum. All my friends keep saying the same thing. Regards Malar
Wow, what a fabulous idea to get an erring husband to come to the discussion table and to change his ways. :biggrin2: