THIS is why I'm not married
Apr. 13th, 2005 10:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shipperxYes, I'm a single woman over a certain age and I'm very, very set in my ways. Very. But this type thing annoys the shit out of me and it's this sort of thing that leaves me entirely happy to be single and spoiled rotten.
My father was in town again for medical tests (the surgery isn't scheduled yet but they ran the first tests today and another set are scheduled for next week). So I ended up having dinner at my sister's. So, while my sister and I made dinner, my brother-in-law disappeared upstairs to watch baseball. While he was off doing this, my sister and I had the television in the kitchen on LOST's rerun. My nephew came downstairs and instantly changed the channel. "Hey!" I protested. "Did you ever consider that maybe we were watching that." He complained but actually looked chargrinned and asked whether I wanted the channel turned back. I wasn't super insistent or anything. Sure, whatever. But he wandered out of the room a few minutes later. I turned the channel back. So ten minutes later my brother-in-law comes in and WHILE I'M STANDING THERE WATCHING THE SHOW, changes the channel to baseball. Hey! You think, that maybe the one who had been IN the kitchen with the TV on might... oh, I don't know, have been watching the channel that it was on before you waltzed in and changed the channel without so much as inquiring whether someone was WATCHING that? I made some sort of noise about it and he (rather rudely IMO) said "Well I'm not watching that" and turned it to baseball. Well, you know, while you might consider a TV drama "boring"... I tend to think baseball is BORING. And... um... I was the one in the kitchen. You guys were hanging out upstairs. And beyond that, it's just plain RUDE to walk in and change the channel when someone else is watching.
Being a single woman, I -- unlike my sister -- am far, far, FAR less tolerant of this sort of thing. Poor woman relinquished claims to the remote a decade ago. Personally, I watch what I want to watch. Their house has 6 freaking TVs. If the game was so goddamned special he could watch it in the next room instead of changing the channel in the kitchen while we're freaking making dinner for HIM!
It isn't so much that he did it. It's the utter bald faced way that he did it as if what we were watching was unimportant and we didn't even deserve the courtesy of at least asking whether we were watching it before changing the channel. It's just plain RUDE! (As was running the game throughout dinner. If it was a regular TV show it would have been turned off. But nooooo.... if it's boring-ass baseball we have to watch it through dinner (even if my sister and I continued to mock how BORING baseball is throughout the meal until my brother-in-law was tetchy about it.
But, seriously, there are certain luxuries to being a single woman. Utter control of the remote is one of them... and a home blessedly free of constant ESPN and Newschannels as the TV defaults are another (Why is it that for most men all that's needed is ESPN and the newschannel most suited to their political affiliation?)
I'm a set in my ways single woman, and I'm very intolerant of men thinking they are the lord and master of the remote control or that male preferences in viewing habits inherently trump the females.
It wasn't a big deal... but these things annoy me.
My father was in town again for medical tests (the surgery isn't scheduled yet but they ran the first tests today and another set are scheduled for next week). So I ended up having dinner at my sister's. So, while my sister and I made dinner, my brother-in-law disappeared upstairs to watch baseball. While he was off doing this, my sister and I had the television in the kitchen on LOST's rerun. My nephew came downstairs and instantly changed the channel. "Hey!" I protested. "Did you ever consider that maybe we were watching that." He complained but actually looked chargrinned and asked whether I wanted the channel turned back. I wasn't super insistent or anything. Sure, whatever. But he wandered out of the room a few minutes later. I turned the channel back. So ten minutes later my brother-in-law comes in and WHILE I'M STANDING THERE WATCHING THE SHOW, changes the channel to baseball. Hey! You think, that maybe the one who had been IN the kitchen with the TV on might... oh, I don't know, have been watching the channel that it was on before you waltzed in and changed the channel without so much as inquiring whether someone was WATCHING that? I made some sort of noise about it and he (rather rudely IMO) said "Well I'm not watching that" and turned it to baseball. Well, you know, while you might consider a TV drama "boring"... I tend to think baseball is BORING. And... um... I was the one in the kitchen. You guys were hanging out upstairs. And beyond that, it's just plain RUDE to walk in and change the channel when someone else is watching.
Being a single woman, I -- unlike my sister -- am far, far, FAR less tolerant of this sort of thing. Poor woman relinquished claims to the remote a decade ago. Personally, I watch what I want to watch. Their house has 6 freaking TVs. If the game was so goddamned special he could watch it in the next room instead of changing the channel in the kitchen while we're freaking making dinner for HIM!
It isn't so much that he did it. It's the utter bald faced way that he did it as if what we were watching was unimportant and we didn't even deserve the courtesy of at least asking whether we were watching it before changing the channel. It's just plain RUDE! (As was running the game throughout dinner. If it was a regular TV show it would have been turned off. But nooooo.... if it's boring-ass baseball we have to watch it through dinner (even if my sister and I continued to mock how BORING baseball is throughout the meal until my brother-in-law was tetchy about it.
But, seriously, there are certain luxuries to being a single woman. Utter control of the remote is one of them... and a home blessedly free of constant ESPN and Newschannels as the TV defaults are another (Why is it that for most men all that's needed is ESPN and the newschannel most suited to their political affiliation?)
I'm a set in my ways single woman, and I'm very intolerant of men thinking they are the lord and master of the remote control or that male preferences in viewing habits inherently trump the females.
It wasn't a big deal... but these things annoy me.
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 02:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 02:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 02:49 pm (UTC)(I have to sort of laugh that my sister really never NOTICES the behavior and yet simultaneously wonders why my parents almost ALWAYS choose to stay at my home when they're in town rather than her home -- which I know bothers her. But, even as I was leaving home this morning my mother called and said they were coming over to my house to hang out today because my BIL has the day off and they "didn't want to be an imposition" which translates to they always feel like in the way. My sister never quite grasps that the reason my parents prefer my home is that they feel far more free to do whatever the hell they want there as opposed to feeling like guests at my sister's. (But it has become so pronouced that my sister has become a bit offended that they prefer my home despite the fact that it's 1/6th the size of hers).
no subject
Date: 2005-04-14 03:00 pm (UTC)I've been reading