Let me start off by admitting that I am a TV junkie! I have subscriptions to Nextflix, Hulu, YouTube TV, HBO, and Starz. I love binge-watching shows and make it a point to watch at least two hours of TV every night. Please, don’t judge…
Our family’s main source of media is our YouTube TV app. We watch it through our Apple TV at home and it allows the whole family to watch the local channels to see football games, the Voice, Songland, Masked Singer, Game of Games, Fixer Upper, House Hunters, and so much more. While most of the time our family watches YouTube TV together on the couch, sometimes I designate TV alone time. When this happens, each member can log into the YouTube TV app and watch different shows from their devices simultaneously. When YouTube TV came out, it was the final straw that allowed our family to cut the cord. It became the perfect blend of live TV and other shows I can DVR, all for much less than cable.
Now, we also have monthly subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu. Netflix is key for me as there are tons of shows I watch: The Crown, Orange Is the New Black, Stranger Things, Ozark, Somebody Feed Phil, Friends from College, and more. My kids enjoy watching The Flash together and some of the cooking and baking shows.
I activate and cancel Hulu often since all I watch on there is Handmaid’s Tale. My daughter, on the other hand, loves Hulu now. She started watching Full House and now is catching up on Nickelodeon shows (which we do not have on Netflix or Youtube TV). It seems that I have created a monster! Since she is the only one currently consuming that media, I asked her to pay for the subscription, and she happily agreed.
My last two channels, HBO and Starz, are only activated when certain shows are in season. When Game of Thrones and Big Little Lies are on, I go to my HBO app and activate it for a few months. The same goes for my number one favorite show, Outlander. I download the Starz app and either watch the shows on my phone or through the Apple TV.
The last of the dreaded media channels on our family’s lineup is YouTube. As much as I loved YouTube as a History teacher, I am not much of a fan as a parent. While there are plenty of useful and entertaining videos on YouTube, there is also a lot of junk and inappropriate content that I am always trying to monitor. Currently, my son loves watching Dude Perfect, BlacktipH (a fishing channel), and gamers talking about who knows what. My daughter enjoys hair braiding videos, slime, and Disney.
For the record, my kids are 9 and 11 years old. Now that they are a little bit older and can watch real shows, we enjoy consuming media together. Despite some bad language and kissing here and there, I feel there are many lessons to be learned watching TV together. We also try to have a movie night every two weeks or so and watch either a classic from my childhood or something current. To those parents with tweens, like me, how does your family consume media?
