Soap operas are my big guilty pleasure. Yes, the acting is melodramatic and the storylines are sometimes so over the top they make the plot twists on Lost look logical, but still, there’s a lot you can learn from these daytime dramas. Whether it’s General Hospital, Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns, or One Life to Live, I find them absolutely addictive because they reflect (and magnify) our own real-life relationship dramas so perfectly. I record my favorite—All My Children—every day and watch it in the evening after I get home from work. Even my husband has (reluctantly) gotten sucked in, sheepishly asking about the doings of one character or another. And why not? They’ve got it all—looks, wealth, power, romance. And yet, no one in real life could ever be as miserable as these folks.
What have these fictional characters taught me? Well, there are several secrets to relationship happiness I’ve gleaned from watching daytime TV dramas. Check them out ...
1. Don’t Keep Secrets
It’s never a good idea to withhold information from your loved ones, even with the purest of motives. As we see in soaps, people often think they’re doing someone else a favor by going it alone, or protecting them from unpleasant truths, but it always blows up in their faces. In real life, secrets isolate us, make us miserable, and sometimes ruin relationships completely. Besides, isn’t it more respectful to allow your loved one to decide what to do with the facts, rather than taking away their power?
2. It’s OK to Take a Chance on Love
One trait soap characters have that I really admire is an almost infinite capacity to fall in love, and to risk everything to keep that love. It may seem reckless, but what’s really nice about this attitude is the emphasis on feeling something as you go through life, not simply plodding along. After all, love is the foundation of all human kindness, perhaps the greatest purpose of our lives. Why not live passionately when there’s so much happiness potentially waiting in the wings?
