Television Shows I Can Relate To

Sometimes television shows have characters that remind you of your own family. Occasionally it's a comedy or a drama but at times, the shows on TV take on a very special meaning to you. I am going to share some television shows that have had special meanings to me throughout my lifetime.

When I was a child, we watched the Walton's every Thursday night, and it had a special meaning to me because of the family size. Do you remember Grandma and Grandpa, John, and Olivia and all those kids, John Boy, Ben, Jim Bob and Jason along with their sisters, Mary Ellen, Erin and little Elizabeth?

You see like the Walton's we also had seven children but the family dynamics were very different, unlike the four boys and three girls we had five girls in the middle of the two boys. We had Myrtle and Elliot in the parental role with Tracey, Diana, Amy, Kim, Lori, Carmon, and Scott in the kid roles. Our grandparents did not live with us except for when my mom's family rented the top of Mount Pisgah in Pennsylvania. Then we became the Walton's and a half with all kinds of cousins, aunts and uncles in tents, campers, and even sleeping under the stars high on that mountain top. It was like living a television show with many photos taken.

This was an awesome television show about how big families worked together to accomplish any tasks that needed to be completed. I loved the part how they closed the show and this is something that I did with my own children when they were all little.

As we grew older and some of the older kids left, we rather took on an Eight is Enough kind of role, even though some of the kids were just friends coming over for the night. Do you remember the television show where Tom Bradford was a widower with all those kids? He had David, Mary, Susan, Nancy, Joanie, Elizabeth, Tommy, and of course Nicolas. Our house was full of kids, laughter, and love.

This very wholesome television show really showed what it was like to be a big family back in the seventies and eighties. Many families in America could enjoy this family television show without violence and we could relate to the story lines.

As a parent, I always related better to the television shows, which had several children because they seemed to remind me of my own childhood. It was always good to relive the memories those shows brought back. Do you remember The Cosby Show with Claire and Cliff Huxtable and their children, Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa, and Rudy? There are so many memories here within this show to bring back an avalanche of memories, as well as laughter. My father had the sense of humor that Cliff had and kept us in stitches. The family who played together and worked together to solve problems is a great way to raise a family.

When my husband and I were raising our family, others told us that we reminded them of the Conner's from the Roseanne television show. My husband and I got along so well and often joked like Dan and Roseanne did before his illness took away the family life we once had. We also had three children like Dan and Roseanne, but instead of Becky, Darleen, and DJ we had Amber, Alex, and Timothy.

Now the kids and I are sort of living life as the television show cast of Reba, or One day at a time. Reba McIntire who plays Reba is a single mom with three children who is doing all she can to survive the child rearing process with Cheyenne, Kira and Jake. I feel like I am Reba sometimes. Other days I feel like Ann Romano who was raising Barbara and Julie by herself. Reba and Ann Romano survived and so shall I, is what I tell myself on the hard days when parenting is so hard.