To those who took issue with my TV comment- I tried big bang- for me it fizzled at first sight of the pseudo Demetri Martin grossly overacting that persona. I do like TV, and I love to laugh. Bourdain’s No Reservations has me in stitches. I love Breaking Bad, and Mad Men. Loved L&O CI when it had DeNofrio, the occasional documentary, and my guilty pleasure- Judge Judy. My idea of hysterically funny is Black Adder, or The Alan Partridge show-on DVD. Up with the Partridge! So, to each his own.

We only watch DVDs at our house because we don’t have TV reception (on purpose), so we don’t see any of the latest series when they are broadcast. But I am familiar with many of them because people I know talk about them and I see articles about these shows on websites and in the newspaper. Sometimes I get good tips about a show we’d enjoy on DVD.

For the record, I don’t have a problem with people watching TV. My husband hates television advertising so that’s why we don’t have TV reception. To each their own…

Did you not read the sentence that said he started reevaluating his lifestyle when he started *thinking* about having kids? And making the changes needed to be able to create the lifestyle he wanted?

It’s about planning ahead and making life happen. Not having life happen to you.

Think about it.

Ditto. Except My first thought is always “green bean pickers don’t have a choice to do this.”

And the Big Bang Theory is hilarious. I think it’s a fine way to spend 30 minutes. Laughter is good for the soul. How is enjoyment (and yes, television can bring enjoyment) not a viable way to spend time?

To be honest, board games make me anxious and overall I don’t enjoy them. They don’t enrich my relationship with people, because I tend to be a sore loser. I am working on that, but I find working on it (i.e. playing board games) to be stressful. Different strokes for different folks.

I am so happy for Trent. He obviously has exactly the life he wants and, from what he writes, he sounds like a great father. His children are lucky to have a work-from-home parent with the flexibility to care for them.

But the thing is, we’ve read this article before. He recycles this material on almost a weekly basis and these personal insights don’t interest me. My life is very different from Trent’s and I have a very different world view.

Also have to agree with the sentiment that Trent is just rubbing it in at this point. I mean, didn’t he once encourage people to take on second jobs or some such?

But as beautiful as this was, all it did was make me feel like crap for all the times I had no choice but to bring in unfamiliar relatives to watch the kids when I had to work, as a single mom, and as the only one putting food on the table, in the ad industry, when not showing up because of sick kids is like asking to be passed over or fired.

I did, through hard work, and luck, change my situation dramatically. But glowing about being able to nurse a sick kid on a workday is nothing but a painful reminder to the 95% of people who do not have that luxury. And this world would not work if we all accomplished that dream- unless we all became Amish. Someone has to make the shoes, man the power station, etc.

I really dislike the judgemental attitude. Why burn an evening watching Big Bang Theory? Valid… but why burn an evening playing a board game? Its a game, not a skill, and Trent could spent the time he plays board games with friends learning a meaningful skill, right?

I mean, lets be blunt, no matter how you dress up a night of having fun playing board games, its a game, and all time spent playing is time that should be spent learning something meaningful. I mean really, board games? Settlers of Catan won’t save the world. Its meaningless. Your children can’t eat off your gaming skills! Likewise, they can’t eat off your ability to watch Big Bang. Trent needs to stop being a hypocrit and proudly tell us how each and every moment of his life is learning meaningful skills since every moment not spent doing so is completly and utterly wasted.

Oh wait… am I judging? Gosh, how wrong I am to do that… but I find game playing a meaningless timewaster and judge Trent accordingly. Every moment he spends over a board is a moment he should as a *father* spend with his children since you know, he chose to have children and therefore he gave up any and all fun for himself.

But funny… in fact Trent has any number of high maintenence hobbies that he refuses to toss aside in order to spend his every waking moment as a father.

Yes I am being a bit cynical and harsh but after a while the hypocrisy of “I play fifty dollar board games that run for hours” vs “watching a half hour sitcom is a timewaster, if you gave a damn about yourself you’d be learning a meaningful skill” gets a bit cloying.

“There was never any question of leaving him with someone who would watch him, relegating a little kid who doesn’t feel well to an unfamiliar situation.”

I’m not a parent, I but assume parents who do this aren’t dumping their sick kid off on someone just so they can have a night on the town.