Binge Watching

This term 'Binge Watching' is suddenly hitting me from all sides. The first I'd heard it, was day before when Diksha's friend said that of Diksha and me doing a back to back of 'Friends'. ( that's one series that inspite of so many repeat watchings, can still make me laugh, and still make me go...'aah, that's an honest moment', and it has tons of both of those).

Then yesterday Dhruva calls and says, Have you watched "House of Cards?you really should try, I've been binge watching it'.



And this morning, I chanced upon this article, 'The Grass in Greener in Connecticut ' by Sohaila Abulali ( what a tra la la kind of name.....sweet), and she was talking of having binge watched 153 episodes of 'Gilmore Girls', and that's when I remembered having done the same with Gilmore Girls a couple of years back. ( I'd recommend reading the article, she writes beautifully and has a brilliant sense of humor too )

She said something to the effect of.... 'no one can really be like the Gilmore Girls', and that caught my attention so fully, because a friend had given me the entire set (all episodes, all seasons) saying 'watch....... the relationship that you and Diksha share is ditto like theirs'.

Ooops,....for those who don't know Gilmore Girls, it's this story of three generations of Gilmore women, all smart, independent, opinionated and funny. The main protagonists are the mother and daughter, Lorelai and Rory, who are more friends than parent-child.

For those who might want to actually watch, here's episode 1 of season 1

It's wonderful when you can start treating your child like a friend, the shift kind of happens when they get to about sixteen, of course based on how much freedom and trust there is in the equation right through.

It's like what Sohaila said 'Have you ever had a child? Mine is luscious. I would die for her, no question. Living for her...ah, that’s trickier.' 

It's hard to talk of what ideal is. Each would have their own yardstick, and there's no commenting there. But if we've been able to respect them (the children) as individuals all through, brought them up to be thinking individuals..........and on the way have as much influence as possible, (and not through control), there's good chance you'll find the friend in them. That, and throw in freedom and trust, and that's when you'll see the relationship shift..............it's no longer a relationship of obligation...it becomes a relationship of choice...... the rare ones, that are that much more meaningful, beautiful and fun.