My Addiction to This is Us

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My Addiction to This Is Us

I don’t watch a lot of TV.

I do my best to not have my girls watch any unless it’s the weekend. That being said, on Tuesdays recently, we’ve found a little addiction that my husband and I are sharing. The TV show This is Us.

Tuesday night, we were sitting in separate chairs but suddenly, he reached for my hand and we spend 15 minutes just holding hands and staring into each other’s eyes. Sounds pretty boring huh? He said, “Hi babe.”

And it was this realization: that with all these hats and roles that we run around with, that even while watching TV, I was thinking about the baby’s fever, did the dogs get fed, and the drive to Southern VA in the morning. 

It’s like we become, for that hour, a part of their family.

The situations are ones that we relate to and become involved emotionally in. Earlier in our marriage, we’d discussed adoption but now, we had a conversation piece to really dive deep into. We talked about my family’s relationship with our kids as we watched the family on TV celebrate the holidays. 

I know many of you could judge and say we could have those conversations anyway. But after working all day and parenting all night, our brains are fried. So this show has given us some brain food to spawn relevant and really important conversations about.

It’s such a wonderfully put-together show that has real-life situations. It’s not terribly depressing like Law and Order or just mindless humor like Big Band Theory. This show is different. There are actual life lessons and morals that come from each episode that challenge me. They challenge me to think about being a more patient mother, a more devoted wife, and overall, show up as a better human.

I respect the way the show’s writer’s handle the difficult conversations husbands and wives and parents and children end up having. I appreciate that there is enough humor to realize that no one is perfect.

The show is almost a window into what we miss when we are scrolling on social media.

The imperfect ugliness that makes us family. And the reality that nothing lasts forever, kids grow, marriages end, loved ones pass. 

So let’s hug those that we care about a little longer, inhale a little deeper, and hold hands while watching our favorite show.