Deep couch sitting

VIEWPOINT

By RALPH HARDIN

Evening Times Editor

There was a commercial a while back that I liked. I don’t know how effective it was as a commercial since I can’t remember if it was a commercial for couches or maybe some kind of TV or cable service or possibly even something about family time.

But I definitely remember there was a Dad and his kids and the Dad was talking about doing some “deep couch sitting.” The idea, at least as I understood it, was that sometimes you just want to relax, unwind and spend some time with loved ones on the couch and just… exist.

Well, my daughter came home from college the other day. She is going to be home for about a month between college semesters, so that’s cool. She also asked if my grandson could stay with us for a few days since she hadn’t seen her nephew in a little while, and his parents were all too eager to grant her re-

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quest. They’re both pretty busy with end-of-the-year/ holiday season stuff, so I’m sure they appreciated the break.

Well, let me tell you… we have been doing some deep couch sitting. The other night, it was just raining and raining and just yucky outside, but we were as snug as could be, sitting on the couch under a big blanket, watching “Elf” on TV and eating popcorn out of one of those big tins you get at Walmart for like five bucks that has the three different kinds of popcorn (even though we all know the caramel corn is the best).

Now, my grandson is only 16 months old, so he doesn’t really understand what’s going on when he watches something on TV, but he definitely understands the value of both snuggling and popcorn, so we all got in some serious deep couch sitting.

And we’ve been able to do the same with me, my wife and our baby girl since she’s been home. There has always been something that just felt “right” about sitting on a couch with a kid (or two… or three) wedged in between us.

Even now that they’re grown, we still wrangle them into deep couch sitting whenever we get a chance. We even got a longer couch so we can include the “add-on” kids.

So, as winter inevitably marches on, I highly recommend grabbing a loved one for some deep couch sitting…