Are you looking for a new TV show to watch that will give you insight into the truths about motherhood? I think I’ve found the show for you!
It’s hard to find accurate pictures of motherhood. Especially on TV. People overexaggerate or underestimate how much work it’s going to be.
Feeding. Diapering. Terrible two’s. Preschool. Kindergarten. Testing. Middle school. Hormones. Feeding adult appetites. Attitudes. Dating. College prep. College.
Imagine being a single, working mother raising three daughters — a teenager, an eccentric middle child, and a spicy young daughter. Add to that helping to care for your mother…who lives across the street.
In addition to looking after your family, what if you were trying to earn a living in a difficult industry while having time to have fun with friends and, occasionally, get in some private time with potential suitors?
That’s exactly what FX’s new show Better Things is. It just premiered last week and you can catch it on Thursday nights at 10.
Better Things is a new comedy series on FX co-created by Pamela Adlon and Louis C.K., starring Adlon as Sam Fox – an actress, with no filter, who is also a single mother raising three daughters — teenager Max, eccentric middle child Frankie, and spicy youngest daughter Duke — in Los Angeles.
She is mom, dad, referee and the cops.
She also helps to care for her mother, Phil, who lives across the street. In addition to looking after her family, Sam tries to earn a living in the difficult acting industry while having time to have fun with friends and, occasionally, get in some private time with potential mates.
While watching this show, I get the refreshingly realistic sense that Sam’s life is a lot like mine (even though I am married, live in Virginia, only have two kids and none of the other responsibilities she has).
Here are three truths about motherhood that NO ONE can deny:
1. Life is Better When You’re Well-Rested
As moms, we tend to sacrifice ourselves and make sure that our children, our husbands, and our home are taken care of before we take care of ourselves.
But if you use up all of your energy on everyone else, who is going to take care of you? So, please be sure that you are getting enough sleep. I personally have to have 8 hours of sleep or I tend to get cranky (and then have to make up the sleep that I did not get over the weekend).
But you know your body better than I do, so just try to get the amount of sleep your body needs, whether that’s more or less than 8 hours each night.
2. You Should Have a Fun Bedtime Ritual Every Night
In my house, we only have two hours to get homework, dinner, baths, and everything else done before my six-year-old daughter needs to get in the bed.
It’s easy to feel guilty when I have to make her go to bed when it seems we just got home – and as she says, “but we haven’t played yet!”
So, when the night feels like it’s ending too quickly. We just snuggle up with a good book or while watching one of her favorite shows. Ending the night on a cozy note always makes bedtime easier.
3. Sometimes Quality Time is Spent Grocery Shopping
Spending time together as a family takes planning, but it’s a great investment. When our kids feel close to us, they try harder to please us and make us proud, which then makes the whole family stronger. Planning doesn’t have to be complicated — with a little bit of effort, we can turn bonding into a lifetime of funny, sweet stories and lasting memories.
When you’re planning for family activities, make sure to involve your kids in the process. You’ll be surprised at their suggestions!
I call it multi-tasking if we can talk about the day while getting what we need from the store.
Why You Might Relate to This Show
If you are a take-charge type of person who doesn’t let your circumstances get the best of you, you will love Sam. If you stand up for your kids and keep it real with your expectations of their friends, you might be Sam. If someday you might be looking after your mom, while simultaneously caring for your own family, you understand Sam.
I know I do!
Lucky for you, FX is giving away the Better Things experience in the form of an amazing swag bag to one lucky reader.
Image Credit: AIMING FOR AUGUST
How to Win a Better Things Swag Bag
The Swag Bag includes:
• Ray-Ban Sunglasses
• Chipolo bluetooth keyring
• Leather Clutch
• Emergency Beauty Kit
• Hypoallergenic travel pillow
• Ultra-Soft travel pillow protector
• Essential Oils Blend Mini
• Skinny Lip Balm
• “Credit Card” Mints
Head over to the Better Things website and tell me which clip is your favorite and WHY! Your comment must be thoughtful and I will be reviewing the comments to ensure they are.
This promotion is open until September 28, 2016 at 11:59 pm EST and is limited to US residents, 18 years or older. The winner will be chosen randomly. Winner must respond to email within 24 hours or prize may be forfeited.
Before you leave, check out other Current Giveaways:
I like the smoke detector clip. It was hilarious when all of her kids (and some extras!) come running out of their rooms in a panic, when it was just a low battery.
I like the bed eye clip because I feel like she’s me right now.
I need to see this show! It looks so good!
The smoke detector clip I like the most. I can really relate. Seems like when our smoke detector goes off if our kitchen gets a little smoke in it while cooking, my kids come running and jokes around.
My favorite clip is the pillow pick, I always have a hard time finding a pillow. I never thought about using her criteria for finding one lol
Ha! This looks so great. The smoke detector clip is perfect. 🙂
My favorite is the blowout. It seems whenever I start doing something around here for myself, the house goes into chaos. Better things!!!!!!!!
Haha, this is great! I love the smoke detector clip. I really enjoy checking on your blog every day. You are a talented writer! Thank you so much for the great offer 🙂
LOL How else would you pick out a pillow? What a great marketing ploy ….. the scream resistant pillow! That pillow scene is my favorite because I can relate!
A scream resistant pillow! What perfect mother criteria for a pillow. I will binge watch immediately! Smoke detector was also funny and seems to happen a lot in my house, I cook, toaster smokes, the low battery in detector goes beep beep.
I like the “Bed Eye” clip.
I appreciated the pillow clip – I can absolutely relate to that some days
The smoke detector scene was so funny lol…thats how it was at my old apartment only it was everytime i cooked lol.
The “Pillow” scene for sure. I get it. I live with a twelve year old girl. I so get it.
I like the Bed Eye clip best. I like it because I have the hardest time waking up in the morning. I don’t have kids, but if anyone knocks on the door, I like to just sink back down into bed.
I like the Pillow clip. I never thought about selecting a pillow by screaming into it.
I saw the first episode of this show and it’s refreshing to see mothers in a more realistic light. Albeit, with more drama and humor.
I like the Fresh clip because we all want to stay looking young as much as we can
I like the Pillow clip because some days I can totally relate to it
I loved the Pillow clip. I’ve never had to “test out” pillows before but I’ve defiantly had days where I’ve felt like screaming into my pillow due to my daughter.
I love the Pillow clip, as I think I have been frustrated enough to yell into a pillow in the middle of a store before as well. Looking forward to this show!
I like the smoke detector clip. It just made me laugh with all the yelling and all the random people coming out of her daughter’s bedroom (why the heck was everyone in there?! How did she not know they were there!?) Not to mention I’ve totally dealt with a crappy detector going off in the middle of the night and stumbling around in the garage trying to find the ladder and batteries when I’m half dressed and tired. It’s very relate-able.
I liked the smoke detector clip the best, because who can’t relate to it going off at a bad time? It was funny, and I have totally set it off making dinner. This show looks great!
I like the smoke detector clips because I can definitely relate. Ours would go off in our college apartment if you slightly burnt anything and the first time it happened we all were either yelling about it or trying to get the others to stop yelling.
I liked the Rude Awakening clip. This is the main reason that we moved our dogs out of our bedroom. Because for some reason, in the middle of the night, they thought it was a great idea to clean themselves.
My faves are the bed eye and the smoke detector! Can’t wait to watch this, just set my dvr!
The Smoke Detector Clip looks great.
My favorite clip is “bed Eye” i love that its a funny show and that its kinda like real life! made me laugh!
I like the Bed Eye clip the best – so my life! Looking forward to watching this show.
The pillow scene resonates with me since my life has had lots of stress lately!
I like the bed eye one. That’s me pretending to be asleep when they come knocking, thinking they will find something else to do instead. Right when I need that one moment of sleep.
I like the “Pillow” clip. I can relate to wanting to scream into a pillow once in awhile and it’s set up very cute – she seems like she’s normally shopping until she screams into it 🙂
The smoke detector is my favorite clip. I can relate to it. I never know what’s going on in my house and when I speak no one moves….just continues to ask questions expect me to handle it.
Love the fresh one, I am always looking in the mirror looking at my face and my eyebrows. Love how he was showing her how her face looked fresh. I need to do that to myself when I am down in the dumps over my lines.
The Smoke Detector clip was my favorite because I could relate to how something as simple as the smoke detector alarming could cause chaos. My son would get upset whenever the smoke detector sounded.
I like the Bed Eye clip because it reminds me of where I used to live and I would do the same thing.
I have watched the first two episodes and I really like this show. My favorite clip is the one where she is in the bed and the dog is licking, I can’t count how many times I have said Stop Licking.
My favorite was The Pillow clip. I have often wanted to do this- at home or in the store. I will definitely check this series out. It looks pretty funny and insightful.
I love the season 1 sneak peek! This show is definitely relatable to me! I was a single mom for 6 years until I met my current fiancé! I can’t wait to see full episodes and how her life plays out.
I like the Bed Eye. It started and I thought – Well that’s me on a saturday morning. Then the kid starts knocking and it was definately me. Funny.
I like the bed eye clip! So cute 🙂
I liked the Bed Eye clip! Many days I pull the covers up and hold…very…still….
I loved the screaming in the pillow. Can’t tell you how many days I need to do that~
The pillow clip was my favorite. Sometimes you just have to let the frustration out. I can’t wait to watch this show.
I like the Smoke Detector clip. It was so funny and I was literally laughing! It reminds me of my family. Chaos and craziness over something so simple as a smoke alarm going off!
I couldn’t get the clips to play on my computer but reading the description, I love a show that acknowledges and celebrates the sandwich generation PLUS a single mom. Definitely a lot better than some of the characters you see on TV!
I like the pillow clip. I feel like I’m walking around like a mombie these days, and if I ever spent enough time near my pillow, I may just scream!
I love the “rude awakenings” clip. It’s the essence of this show – a “small,” honest, real moment that’s still hilarious. I hear that gross wet licking/gnawing sound from dogs constantly, and her very familiar exasperation made me laugh out!
I like the pillow clip because it shows how pervasive stress can be, and how important catharsis is, but is still humorous. It’s the kind of depiction of parenthood that resonates with parents without making things seem grim. And it makes me want my own scream resistant pillow!
I like the bed eye clip. I think you can relate to that even if your children are grown. My son is 36 and I remember how tired I always was. Now his children are waking me and I experience it all over again. I wouldn’t trade it for the world but it sure can be hard.
The pillow clip is my favorite, now I really want to watch this show looks really good. It looks so funny!
I like the Smoke Detector clip. That happened in our house so many times when I was younger. I kinda love that she isn’t wearing pants also. haha.
The smoke detector is my favorite clip since I can relate to it My family is pretty crazy too lol!
I like the smoke detector clip the best because normally when it goes off at my house everyone is freaking out about the noise and frantically trying to get it to stop.
The smoke detector clip was my favorite! I thought it was hilarious and sums up family chaos in a few short seconds!
I like the “Bed Eye” clip.
I like the “Bed Eye” clip cuz it’s the story of my life right now! I have 3 kids age 1,3 and 6 and they’re always waking me up!
My favorite clip is the pillow pick, I always have a hard time finding a pillow
the smoke detector clip is my favorite lol. it shows how crazy things can get!
Pillow spoke to me on a deeper level. We’ve all been there. This show gets it. 🙂
I love the smoke detector clip. I can really relate since I just sent my alarm off last week with burning cookies. It made me laugh.
The smoke detector scene is my favorite. I can’t wait to see this show. I am very excited to watch it.
The pillow clip is my favorite. It’s funny 🙂
I enjoyed the Pillow Clip… how many times have I screamed into my pillow. A lot! You have to have one that holds all that angst in.
I love the bed eye clip. That is my life lol. I love them but they Mom me to death.
I like the rude awakening clip. It just looks like a funny show.
I liked the Pillow scene the best. Being a mom I have definitely been there, done that!!
I loved the pillow scene. It’s so refreshing that they don’t try to sugarcoat motherhood and make it unrealistic like some shows!
The best clip is the bed eye. I’m sure all of us have felt this way many times! Just wanna crawl back under the covers and say noooooo!
The best clip was the smoke detector one! We have obnoxious smoke detectors and CO2 sensors that have the same problem, so I can totally relate to this! 🙂
My clip has to be the bed eye clip! As I write this in the morning, I’m debating shutting my eyes once more…sleep is so tempting at all hours of the day for me! I love how relatable this show is.
My fave was the Dr. Office clip! Haha, I can see myself asking my doctor the same thing. Have I shut down yet?! This show looks like it’s hilarious!
“Pillow”; that priceless bit was a hoot in “The Skeleton Twins” too
I like the bed eye clip because it feels like my mother sometimes.
My favorite clip is “Bed Eye”. As the mother of three young children, I can completely relate to it. In fact, I almost choked on my tea laughing while watching it because I thought that I was the only one who did this. Nice to know that I am not alone after all.
I like the Pillow clip because sometimes you need to be able to comfortably smush your face and scream out your frustration. I would have also laid my head against it, but maybe she plans to strangle someone with the pillow? I don’t know. I just enjoyed the scene in the clip.
I liked the smoke detector clip! It reminds me of our house especially when my teen daughter onced broiled taco shells and set my oven on fire
The smoke detector clip because it relates so much to real life. With kids any little thing can be turned quickly into chaos.
I find the Smoke Detector clip hilarious and I can relate to it. I’ve often yelled the same thing in a room full of kids. “Can every body stop?” lol
The smoke detector clip is my favorite. Just all hell breaking loose.
I love the pillow clip. There have been so many days when everything goes wrong and I would just like to scream. Screaming into the pillow sounds like a perfect idea to me!
Ha the smoke detector clip is funny n so true!
I love the Pillow clip! I can so relate to having one of those days that I just need to scream in a pillow! I also touch them to find the perfect one! LOL
The “Pillow” clip made me crack up. Probably because that is how I feel most of the time!!
I love the Smoke Detector clip and relate to this episode, except I had to go over to DIL house at midnight to replace batteries.
I cant wait to see this show, I love the clip of her in the dr’s office, so cute
I can relate to the pillow clip! I never thought about trying it out by screaming into it though!
bahaha.. I love the Bed Eye clip… I’ve done the exact same thing.. lol
The pillow clip! I always have a hard time picking out pillows at the store, maybe next time I will try this method!! lol!!
I like the smoke detector clip. I can totally see something like that happening in my family. We always have tons of people over our house.
I liked the Bed Eye clip because it showed surprise about the noises around her and that by covering up the eye you remove yourself from the situation.
lol! The smoke detector clip is funny. We came home from vacation to hear ours beeping, so it’s relevant to my life now!
I like the clip Rude Awakening with the dogs because it is funny with her dogs waking her up.
The scream resistant pillow. I have a new criteria for pillow buying now! 🙂
The smoke detector clip is my favorite. In my house something small can start complete choas.
I love the Bed Eye clip since this is exactly how I feel every Saturday morning! This show looks hysterical, especially if your a mom! Can’t wait to watch!
My favorite clip is Bed Eye because I know the feeling ALLL too well! Between having two little boys and a husband that’s like a third boy I know it very well haha
I like the smoke detector clip. While obviously this one is a bit over the top, I think it’s relatable! We all have chaotic moments when the smoke detector goes off – scared kids, barking dogs, etc.
Pillow scene for sure
I like the Smoke Detector scene. That happened at my house when I was young so many times. I also like that they aren’t wearing pants for some reason. So hilarious.
I like the bed eye clip because I have actually done that…many times 🙂
I like the smoke detector clip. It was one of the most hilarious ones. My dectector goes off, but only when I’m cooking, the dog starts barking, the kids come out and “Oh, mom’s only cooking!” Almost the same, but not as funny as Better Things! 🙂
I liked the Season 1 Preview clip the best! It showed great moments and really made me want to watch.
I like Bed Eye the best. It’s WAY too relatable to me, lol!
I really enjoyed the pillow clip. I can certainly relate to that today. I am a teacher, and it was quite an eventful day! I feel like I need a pillow to scream in as well.
Bed Eye was definitely the most relatable to me. I always dread when I start hearing movement in the house. It means I’m about to be thrown into the day, usually against my will!
I would have to say the smoke detector clip. We have all had those kind of moments when it set off!
I liked “The Pillow” best. There are so many times that I wish that I could just scream into my own pillow. Ha!
I like the Pillow clip best. Because I found it funny and she seemed satisfied after she screamed into it. 🙂
The Smoke Detector clip: every. single. time. the man decides to ‘cook’.
I like the pillow clip the best. I definitely feel like that sometimes, haha!
My favorite clip is the ‘Smoke Detector’ because panic happens to everyone.
The Pillow is my favorite clip! I do this in my car often! Maybe I should buy an extra pillow to keep in my car! Pillow screaming is so cathartic!
My favorite clip is ‘Pillow’ – it made me laugh because I was taken off guard when she chose the ideal pillow by screaming into it. Can you imagine seeing someone in real life doing that?
I can definitely relate to the pillow pick scene. I am so picky about the pillow I want to use myself.
The pillow clip. Having a stressful job, it seems like something I would do
I’d pick the smoke detector. Really! That’s great! Been there!
I am saying the Pillow Clip. It is really sweet!
I love the “Pillow” clip because I feel the same thing. Taking care of children is not only the most wonderful, and challenge job, but it is also the most stressful job that we have ever had. Being a single mom of an autistic boy, sometimes I just want to cry and yell at the pillow to release my stress 🙂
The smoke detector clip was the best. So funny and you can really relate.
I think the smoke detector clip is pretty smart. I like it
I like the rude awakening clip.
I like the “Bed Eye” clip. Looked funny!
Bed eye. I will not make a sound for as long as possible to get a few more minutes of quiet time.
I like Bed Eye because that is so me. I could have picked the Smoke Detector, but that noise… That is the noise of my nightmares!
The blowout clip describes my life perfectly!!
The pillow scene is my favorite because it’s something I think about doing when things become too much for me to handle, and I just want to scream into the pillow
THE PILLOW CLIP! I NEED THIS NEW METHOD.
The smoke detector clip is my favorite. Smoke detectors are very important but I’m sure we all have stories about malfunctioning smoke detectors.
The smoke detector clip because I in my house the smoke detector always goes off
My favorite clip is the Smoke Detector clip because I can so relate! It seems like everyone in the house always freaks when the smoke detector goes off, so I can relate to her yelling, “Everybody stop!” Can’t wait to see this!
Andysavi.Mom@gmail.com
I love the “Pillow” clip. It was so funny! I can relate to screaming in frustration for sure. Maybe I should get one for work! *LOL* I kristiedonelson(at)gmail(dot)com Thank you.
I love the pillow clip! My husband hates pillows, like only wants there to be one pillow per person in the house! He would get a kick out of this clip too!
I really the pillow clip. I strongly dislike pillows and I can relate,
freebiegoddess03@aol.com
The pillow clip because it made me laugh so hard!!! I can certainly relate!