Raise your hand if you’ve ever been personally victimized by Netflix or another streaming television service.

🙋

Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, etc. are all my co-conspirators in why I stay up way past my bedtime . After a long day of answering 5,000 questions and 6,000 requests, not to mention driving, here, there and everywhere, once the kids are asleep and my husband and I have eaten dinner—I want to zone out on the couch watching TV.

And in those early days of marathon newborn breastfeeding sessions, you could find me on the couch binging a highly entertaining show that typically had nothing to do with diaper changing or exhaustion or nursing or baby blues. Sometimes my daughter would eat for like 30 minutes on each breast—what else was I going to do?!

During the 3 am feeding wake up calls, I have gotten used to grabbing my phone and headphones and hooking them up while I rocked and shushed my baby girl in our rocking chair. I needed to escape into another world for a little while, and I also needed something to keep me awake so I didn’t fall asleep.

When I was super pregnant and couldn’t sleep due to high discomfort levels, my shows were there for me in a way no one else could be. I couldn’t really flip on a light and read a book when the rest of the house was sleeping. I didn’t have the energy at that point to work on projects around the house or fold laundry or prep meals, etc. I basically had to watch TV.

Each of my three pregnancies had their own end-of-pregnancy binge-watching show . For baby number one, it was Pretty Little Liars (I’m into teen high school dramas, what can I say?). For baby number two it was Hart of Dixie . For baby number three it was Nashville . Each time I think of those shows, I am reminded of that very special moment in time where I was getting ready to meet each of my daughters.

I love television. I love rich characters who eventually feel like friends. (Pathetic? Yes, yes, probably, but whatever…) I love being entertained. I love shaking up the monotony of our daily lives with a killer theme song and a good story.

So without further ado, here are 20 shows I have watched that I have become (likely unhealthily) obsessed with while I was watching them:

1. Friday Night Lights (#TexasForever)

2. How I Met Your Mother (Legend….wait for it…ary)

3. Orange Is The New Black (have your tissues on hand for the end of season four, just sayin’)

4. Insecure (*SO* good)

5. Parks and Recreation (#Treatyoself)

6. The Office (I still don’t even understand how Steve Carell can so beautifully play someone so awkward, so flawlessly)

7. Riverdale (#TeamBetty)

8. Jane The Virgin (you will fall in love with Jane Gloriana Villanueva)

9. Homeland (warning: you may find yourself holding your breath the WHOLE episode)

10. Shameless (the Gallaghers will make you feel good about your life’s choices)

11. Scandal (you can handle it)

12. Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (the musical numbers are hilarious)

13. Catastrophe (I wish the seasons were longer)

14. Parenthood (be prepared to feel all the feelings)

15. Girlfriend’s Guide to Divorce (If Donna Meagle is in it, well you can count me in, too)

16. Ozark (Laura Linney and Jason Bateman are sooo good)

17. Divorce (SJP is a genius and I will watch anything she is in)

18. Hart Of Dixie (you will want to move to the south if you don’t live there already)

19. Stranger Things (#WinoForever)

20. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (WARNING: Only one season so far—we binged this so fast and then were sooooooo sad when we didn’t have any more episodes to watch #TheStruggleIsReal)

And here are 20 shows that have been recommended to me to watch:

1. Empire

2. Handmaid’s Tale

3. Blackish

4. Polkdark

5. Call The Midwife

6. Longmire

7. Superstore

8. Nurse Jackie

9. Queer Eye

10. Schitt’s Creek

11. The Sopranos

12. Breaking Bad

13. Mad Men

14. The Mindy Project

15. Bloodline

16. UnREAL

17. Scrubs

18. The Crown

19. Big Love

20. Prison Break

We just finished Friday Night Lights. I need to know—which of these (or another one!) should I binge watch next?

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