Downton Abbey

We have a Situation on our hands, all 30-somethings.  PBS went and rolled out a knock-out Masterpiece Classic TV series (move aside, childhood fav The Princess and the Pea with Liza Minnelli) that has all of us procreating-age people reeling.  At first, I just thought my husband and I were super “on-trend” (albeit 3 seasons into the trend…) and had discovered a popular treasure in our period piece-obsessed culture.  Then, when watching the 3/8/12 episode of Up All Night, when Chris agreed with Reagan that it would be best to forgo a night on the town and just “queue up an episode of Downton Abbey”, I realized may be another element involved here. Indeed, this program is a representation of how parents-of-young-children understand Life the Way It Should Ideally Be.  For example, I have requested my husband start referring to me as The Ladyship.  We have yet to see how this one throws down, but think of the boosted sense of self-import that would accompany being addressed in a such a manner.  And while I will likely never have my own personal dressing servant, if anyone in this world is ever impressed that I select and lay out my own clothes in the morning, I am officially declaring Heaven on Earth.

Yes, I most definitely have a lady crush on this Great Woman. I just love her snide little smile…awesome!

The Dowager Countess herself rolls out fantastic tidbits of wisdom that are extraordinarily helpful to parents, such as “[When something goes wrong], it does no good to think about how we wish it hadn’t happened, our goal becomes minimizing the damage.”  Granted, she was referring to trying to bribe the silence of the Turkish ambassador in regards to a family scandal, which is perhaps less applicable to my life, but she’s right.  Is this not what we as parents do every day?  Spilled juice?  No use for tears–wipe it up and move on.  Poop-stained onesie?  Break out the Dreft and try to minimize the damage.  In short, Downton Abbey, in its depiction of old school England, allows us to understand a more ideal and fantasic life.  To echo Will Anrnett, queue up my new beloved program, honey…

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Meredith

Meredith blogs at The Mom of the Year, where she dedicatedly earns her title one epic parenting fail at a time, offering quick, relatable laughs for fellow parents and all their empathizers. She has been part of several best-selling anthologies, featured on prominent sites such as Huffington Post, In the Powder Room and BlogHer, and loves her role as the Executive VP/Operations Manager of The BlogU Conference. When she's not breaking up fights over Legos and juice boxes, she remains fully committed to sharing a less serious look at the world of parenting.

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