Anyone live with someone who HATES sports and esp. that you watch it (or something else you watch)?

[charlie and algernon]

If so, how do you deal with it?

My roommate HATES, LOATHES sports. Last year, just as the Ravens were losing to the Steelers in the playoffs, she very passive-agressively posts on facebook that she "hates football" and "can't stand anyone who watches sports." All of this while I'm right outside her room watching the Ravens. I watched that Super Bowl at a friend's house, allowing her to be one of the few Americans NOT to be watching the game.

This year, I now have my own TV and cable in my bedroom and so have watched a good number of games in my room with the door closed. But if I'm going to eat and watch a game, I want a table, so it's out in the living room to watch the game(s). Yesterday, I come home to watch the Ravens game after running errands in the morning. She's in her room with the door partially closed. I turn on the game and go into the kitchen to get my sandwhich together and I hear, very clearly, her door slam shut from across the house. I had to chuckle at that.

But still, I've never understood it. It's not like I blast the TV or shout at the plays when she's home. When I'm there alone, it's another story, but I've always been respectful when she's home and yet I still almost always get the passive agressiveness and the eye rolling when she comes home and I have a game on. Though, part of it with her is that, while I'm an active hiker and she's an active runner, she feels that RUNNING is the ONLY sport that counts and everything else is bullshit games.


But still, anyone else live with someone, or friends or family with someone who just HATES something that you watch or do?

[Maccagirl]

1. Yes, I had a roomie awhile back who always said the same thing

if I turned on a baseball or football game even for a second-"Are you really going to watch that?" Ironically she loved the Olympics and couldn't get enough of skating, bobsledding etc.

[charlie and algernon]

3. haha, I'll have to see if I'm still living there by the time the summer olympics roll around

next summer to see if her hatred of sports extends to the Olympics. Though it does have track and field which involves lots of running, so she may be into that. :rofl:

[Shagbark Hickory]

2. I don't hate sports but I am bored to death by American "football". There's one thing I do hate tho.

Roommates!

[charlie and algernon]

4. that's fine, there are sports (like golf) and other shows that bore me to tears

but I don't hate the people who watch them. There are too many channels and too many things to do to hate the people who may like things I don't.

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. My husband used to give me a hard time over watching cheerleading. "It's dumb. Not a sport. etc" He

didn't get it when I said I didn't see it as good-natured ribbing, but hearing the kids saying what he said and seeing how it made me feel finally helped him to understand.

[Arugula Latte]

12. My dad used to make fun of my mom when she watched a show he considered silly.

One day I said something to him along the lines of: "Yeah, but you watch football, and what's the point of that? They run around, they fall down, they move a ball -- it's pointless, and why do people care so much who wins? That can be seen as a waste of time, too." I think it sort of shut him up for awhile.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. It's hard sometimes, to see the value in something someone else likes. I know I'm

not immune to the feeling either, but I am trying to keep it to myself. :hi:

[Chan790]

6. I have 4 roommates that watch cable news programming 24/7/365.

I make a conscious effort to NEVER watch that shit...if it's important, someone will let me know or I can become aware about it through social media.

I prefer willful detachment from current events. So much of it is crap designed to fill the 23 hours in a day that were not newsworthy outside of the "news hour" prior to CNN and the 45 minutes it takes to read the NYT.

[Iggo]

7. I live with someone (the teenage girl) who hates sports...

...and she lives with someone (me) who hates reality TV.

I could've pulled the I'm Bigger Than You And I Pay Rent card, but instead we worked it out like civilized people. The DVR is a very important tool in this matter. It took some convincing for her to concede that it was fair that I should be able to watch live sports when for the most part she has to delay watching, for example, Jersey Shore. But I got the concession by treating her (mostly) as an equal and allowing for exceptions.

We cope.

[charlie and algernon]

8. We have a DVR too and both record shows with it

I don't recall ever seeing her watch a show "live" in the living room. She does have her own TV in her room, but still, the DVR is important and I never do anything that would mess with the recording of her shows. So it's not an issue of me keeping her from watching what she wants. In fact, it's set up where you can't watch ANYTHING on a cable channel if the DVR is recording. It will actually automatically switch channels to the show it needs to record. But again, even when I've had to stop watching a baseball game because the DVR flipped the channel to one of her fashion shows, I don't actually start hating her because she likes fashion shows. I just go into my room and put in a DVD or play a game, no problem.

[GreenPartyVoter]

15. DVRs and multiple TVS are a godsend for peaceful cohabitation.

[charlie and algernon]

16. I agree and the whole thing probably started off bad because I didn't have a TV at first

The TV I had before I moved in blew up in a lightning storm. So I was stuck ONLY watching tv in the living room and I think that set things on the wrong course because she ALWAYS saw me watching tv, esp sports, in the living room. But again, I never messed with her DVR recordings.

Though obviously after yesterday's door slamming, her hatred of sports and me watching them hasn't subsided even though I now have a TV and cable in my bedroom.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Some people complain that more TVs equal more separation of people and less time

talking to each other. They may have a point, but if all the talking is just arguing about the TV, then maybe it's not so bad to get the extra TV after all? :)

[charlie and algernon]

18. oh we hardly talk anyway

Even if we're both in the kitchen, she won't say anything unless I actually initiate the conversation. At this point, I'm only staying here because it's cheap and within a couple miles of my work.

[GreenPartyVoter]

19. What an uncomfortable situation. :^( *hugs*

[suninvited]

9. How old a teenager are we talking about?

If she is under eighteen, you might want to watch a couple of episodes of Jersey Shore before letting a teenager watch it. I caught a little of it this weekend and I was shocked that this is what our teenagers are watching!

[Iggo]

13. I've seen it.

I watch at least one episode of almost everything she watches. And we actually watch a ton of shows together (all that formulaic summer crap on basic cable, for instance.) She's a streetwise 16 who came to us at age 12 from her mother's house where...let's just say it wasn't an ideal situation for a little girl to be in. I cut her a lot of slack, and she seems to watch it for the train-wreck factor. If I thought those orange fucks were her heroes, I'd put a stop to it. (Or actually, I'd have her dad put a stop to it. I'm the uncle.)

[hedgehog]

10. My daughter lives in a co-op, and they have several TV rooms

to suit different tastes.

[Arugula Latte]

11. I have a really low tolerance for American football, but my husband watches it

We have a downstairs room where he watches and I can avoid it. It works out fine -- I never complain about it, and he never tries to talk sports with me, unless I ask him something specifically. I think many women who dislike sports have a special loathing for football.

[WildEyedLiberal]

20. Your roommate sounds extremely rude

People who are that righteously opposed to something someone else does for entertainment usually do so out of a sense of superiority - "I'm better/smarter/more sophisticated because I don't watch sports/reality TV/pop culture and people who do are beneath me/inferior/not intelligent." It's a really ugly attitude and speaks to a really ugly character flaw.

That said - and I fully acknowledge my own possible hypocrisy - but I have a friend who is very ostentatiously into "arty" stuff - opera, theater, British mysteries on PBS, etc. - and it sort of drives me nuts. She fortunately also enjoys "lower" forms of entertainment so she isn't snobby about it, really, but I can't help but feel like no one really loves opera and Masterpiece Theater that much, but that they only make a point of watching it to reassure themselves that they are, in fact, intelligent and cultured. I've tried to watch some of those PBS British programs and been bored to tears. I try really hard not to ask her what the hell she actually sees in that stuff because I know it would be hypocritical of me to judge her for what she likes when I hate being judged for what I like, but... sometimes I really do think people love "high" culture and pretend to hate "low" culture just to affect intellectual elitism.

[PassingFair]

21. There are certain things I CANNOT and WILL NOT watch, all sports and all car shows...

Smartly, I married a man who's involvement in sports
consists of saying "what game?" to any questions about
ANY game.

Not so lucky on the car shows, but he can watch them
any time he likes, I'll just get up and do something
else or read if he really wants to watch them.

We have 5 computers and a TV, so it's usually not an
issue.

He won't watch the reality shows that our daughters like,
but they all like the vampires shows (I don't...).

If we are both watching TV together, we just pick something
we both like. We compromise between the 4 of us.

[madinmaryland]

22. My wife hates most all sports (football most of all), but ironically, she will sit

with me and watch NASCAR.

Go figure.

[Skittles]

23. hey charlie

I have found that when people really really HATE sports, they are more likely to hate the fact that someone would rather watch sports than pay attention to THEM - in other words, it is a narcissistic reaction - and take believe me, that gal is a CLASSIC narcissist

[charlie and algernon]

25. I've kinda came to that same conclusion

It certainly explains why 90% of her facebook posts are designed to elicit lots of "wow! that's awesome!" and "You're amazing!" responses.

[applegrove]

24. I hate football. I played flag football as a tween girl. I loved to play it. I know lots of

plays.I have every reason to like it. But I don't. And my dad watches it all season. The more I am forced to watch it the more I dislike it.

[LynneSin]

26. I think it's time for a new roommate

Not sure what the size of your apartment/house is - but it could also be a case of clausterphobia.

I never had a roommate but a good friend had a roommate that drove her bonkers. This roommate was always on the sofa just watching TV in general; many times with her boyfriend. Since it was a typical two bedroom apartment, my friend felt like she was stuck in her bedroom all the time.