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World Cup or Love Island?

relationship breakdowns

Battle of the remote!

This may or may not be the debate of summer 2018 but in a lot of households, impending doom may be brewing between husbands and wives or boyfriends and girlfriends.

Who has priority over the remote control when it comes to watching the World Cup or Love Island?  Both are potentially aired at the same time but on different channels.

This is a genuine dilemma in some households and already I have been told that one individual had blocked her partner’s number on her phone because they had a huge row over this particular issue one night this week. Unfortunately for her the argument ended with the World Cup 1 and Love Island 0.

How many more arguments are going to surface because a compromise cannot be met over who gets to watch their beloved football game or reality dating show? Will this lead to husbands or wives for example seeking legal advice over the future of their marriage and whether this can be deemed as unreasonable behaviour for a divorce to be granted? If that particular complainant feels that their other half is acting unreasonably then we could see this as an example in an unreasonable behaviour divorce petition. It could go something like this……

“My wife insisted that she watch Love Island when my home nation was playing in the world cup final. This then forced me to have to watch it in the local pub. A few drinks later and after the game ended I came home and she started a huge argument with me because I had been drinking”.

If you want to save your relationships and avoid any arguments over the debate of summer 2018 then here are some tips to consider:-

  1. Invest in Sky multi-room so one of you can watch the football in the lounge and the other can watch Love Island in the bedroom for example. You may also need to invest in more televisions if you are a one television household.
  2. For the Love Island fans, go to another fans house (who is allowed to watch it) so you can also discuss the various villa dramas as they unfold.
  3. For the World Cup fans, go to another fans house or the pub, but be careful of how much alcohol is consumed if it is likely to cause an argument later on.
  4. Love Island is available on catch up however you will need to avoid any social media if you don’t want to see any spoilers.
  5. You may have the facility to record or pause live TV so the other programme can be viewed but again as in point 4 above, you may want to avoid social media for potential spoilers.

Is this a big issue in reality?

As family solicitors, we like to analyse these potential problems and see whether the issue is as big as it should be. Love Island is aired 7 days a week usually at the same time and the World Cup Games are also on 7 days a week but at various times of the day/night.

Love Island mostly lasts for one hour between 9:00pm – 10:00pm, which isn’t a problem for the earlier World Cup games or even the 7:00pm starts as really those games could finish in time for Love Island at 9:00pm. However whilst most football games last 90 minutes with a 15 minutes break in between, games can last longer because of extra time.

Already you can feel the anxiety levels rising as the clock moves closer to Love Island time and a crucial winning goal is needed in the last few minutes/seconds of the game.

On a Sunday there are two Love Island programmes lasting 2 hours in total (9:00pm – 11:00pm). A potential problem exists here if football fans like watching the evening highlights as these programmes clash.

On Saturday there is a Love Island re-cap programme on from 9:00pm – 10:00pm. This is where a further potential problem lies as some viewers will miss episodes in the week and so rely on the Saturday night catch up, which could clash with the 8:00pm World Cup Games.

However one reassuring point that has been noted from analysing the fixture list is that the World Cup Final game will take place on Sunday 15th July at 4:00pm so even with extra time or penalty shoot outs, the game should finish before Love Island starts. Everyone is a winner!

For more advice in relation to family law issues such as divorce, separation, finances or children matters, please do not hesitate to contact Kirsten Tomlinson, an Associate Family Solicitor at Maguire Family Law on 01625 544 650 or email Kirsten.Tomlinson@family-law.co.uk

If you would like to see more of Kirsten’s views on family law issues then follow her twitter account @KGGTomlinson.

 

 

For specialist advice on any family law related issue contact Maguire Family Law by email: james.maguire@family-law.co.uk or telephone:

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