7th Heaven

I used to love watching 7th Heaven when it originally came out. And now, I'm enjoying it all over again, watching the re-runs. Without intending to, I've started watching it from a whole other perspective, now that I am married to my own "Eric Camden". Although, I'm glad to say that Eric and Vaughn aren't that comparable, but more on that later.

I've found that I'm quite inspired by "Annie Camden"... I love watching how she handles life as a wife, a mother, a stay-at-home-mom and the wife of a minister (yes, I've mentioned wife twice, but there are different roles at play in each 'title'). She has a much larger family than me, but as a stay-at-home-mom myself, I like seeing how 'perfect' life could be (unobtainable, but nice to see, nonetheless!) and how to ideally cope with raising kids. Yes, I know it's all fiction and not real, but the show's a good role model - with so many dysfunctional TV shows out there, it's great to watch one that encourages good values, morals etc. I do find that Annie is a little too accommodating of Eric's ministry at times, which brings me to my next topic:

"Eric Camden". As I said, I look at the show in a different light now, being married to my own version of Eric. But, I was also quick to point out, he and Vaughn aren't really that comparable. They are both ministers of religion, but how they respond to their calling are two completely different views. Vaughn has always looked at his priorities as follows: 1. God 2. Family 3. Ministry. God and Ministry sound like the same thing, but they are distinctly different. Just because you follow God, doesn't mean that ministry should be equal in priorities and always take preference over everything else in your life. And so we have the example of Eric's priorities: 1. God 2. Ministry 3. Family. I get so annoyed with how he continually gets his family to take a back seat while he sorts out ministry issues in the church. Of course, it's great he's so dedicated to his congregation, and I'm sure his parishioners are grateful for his 24 hour availability, but I think he should prioritise his family a lot more. Of course, there are times when family do need to 'sacrifice' their father/husband, so he can help someone, but it should be the exception, not the rule.

A couple of most annoying examples:

1. Annie's mom passed away. On the day of the funeral, Annie spend the whole day grieving alone while the wake was held at their house. Where was Eric? He was counseling a married couple having issues and helping a heap of other parishioners who were coming to him with problems during the day (all these people were attending the funeral/wake at the house).

2. Eric was seen going into a hotel with a married woman by Annie and the kids who were sitting in the car at a set of lights. We then see that he's checking this woman into the hotel because she's leaving her abusive husband and Eric is counseling her. I don't have a problem with this. My problem comes later in the show when one of the kids mentions what they saw (Annie didn't want to bring it up because she knows Eric has a lot of confidential counseling and she trusts him). He brushes it off and says that he can't talk about it because of confidentiality. As he's been to the hotel a number of times, the small town starts talking and gossip is ripe in the church and on the street. Annie starts to get wind of this and although she verbally supports her husband, you can see it's bothering her as she doesn't have a clue herself as to what's going on. Finally, by the end of the show, Eric tells her exactly the situation and she's there, supporting the abused wife as well. My thoughts? Why not explain from the beginning (when one of the kids first brought it up), the situation with the woman? He doesn't have to give names or full details, but at least give Annie something concrete to know, as opposed to hearing all the horrid rumors going around. It appeared to me that the absolutely confidentially of the situation was more important than his marriage and reassuring Annie that nothing was happening, instead of brushing it off as 'confidential'.*

I was going to write on a couple of other times, but I've already vented a little too much already, so I'll stop here! I'll close, letting you know that I still love the show and will continue to watch it, but just sometimes it really grinds my gears to see Eric prioritise his parishioners over his family, time and time again.

* I don't want to know what's going on with Vaughn's ministry and know details of counseling he's conducting with people when I really don't need to know (I'd rather not know!). However, I know that when a situation occurs where it's best I know something (rather than nothing), Vaughn will let me know enough to not worry. I spoke to him about the situation above and he completely disagreed with how Eric responded as well. Phew! It wasn't just me! Communication is the key. You don't have to break confidence to put someone's mind at ease and you'd think Eric would trust his wife enough to give her some basic information!