Guilty Pleasures

One of my guilty pleasures is watching soap operas. Yes, typical of me. I’m a stay-at-home mom, whose days consist of picking up toys, wiping up poop, wiping runny noses, and picking out whatever thing my son stuck up into his nose or ear. In the middle of it all, I watch TV.

Today, while I was watching one of the shows, I realized something. Well, not really realized (I had known all along) but wondered how it came to be that we were all so accepting of relationships that go on in soap operas. Take “The Bold and the Beautiful.” Right now, there’s some weird storyline going on involving a baby. To make a long story short, there’s a guy who wants to marry a woman who’s the legal mother (not biological) of HIS biological baby brother. So he’d become a step-father to his own brother. Not to mention that before he fell in love with this woman, he was dating this woman’s daughter not too long ago. And this woman is at least 20 years older than him.

I don’t have to tell you about Days of Our Lives. Everyone knows that show. There’s a huge cast on this show and in one way or another, they’re ALL either a Brady or a Horton. Or like Hope, some of them are both. Who cares about the other people? Everything revolves around these two families, including relationships. They’re all one big happy family – literally! I see a girl dating her uncle. Sure, the uncle was adopted into the family but he’s still her uncle nonetheless (and they’re the same age, how convenient). I see females moving fluidly between fathers and sons, brothers, uncles and nephews, cousins, and even grandfathers (ew)! Nothing says it like a girl who has dated every male member of a certain family. You gotta love Brooke - she's dated (and married) every male in the Forrester family. The father, both sons (had an affair with them at separate times then later married them), had an affair with her daughter's two different husbands (not at the same time). And get this, one of her daughter's ex-husband is the half-brother of one of the Forrester sons, who Brooke got back together with for the millionth time. Oops, did I confuse you?

My favorite character in Days of Our Lives is Sami, no contest. You have to give it to the girl, she’s changed. AND she deserves brownie points. Why? Out of everyone who’s dated everyone else in the family, she only went after two brothers. Who wouldn’t? They’re hot!

To sum it all up, even though I have a habit of catching soap operas on TV daily, I’m still amazed at how accepting we are of what happens in the shows. Maybe it’s because we’re relieved it’s not our own lives. Maybe it’s because watching their messy lives helps us appreciate ours.

Here’s my reason for watching (and I told a friend so just last weekend): I watch the shows to learn from their mistakes so I don’t make the same mistakes! If anything, that’s a pretty darn good reason to keep watching! :)