*No real spoilers below. But I understand if you want to get caught up on the show before reading on.

Last night was the series finale of the NBC family drama Parenthood. The finale was the 104th episode. I’ve watched them all. I’ve mentioned in this space before that I watch a LOT of television. While more of my consumption comes during the daytime than it used to, I still watch plenty of stuff in primetime. And I have my guilty pleasures. I’ve been known to take a deep dive into a marathon of Real Housewives. But only the OGs from the OC! OK, I watch more Bravo than I publicly admit. Heck, I even watched Bridezillas on weekends when it was on the air.

I don’t consider Parenthood to be one of those shows. I’m not embarrassed that I watch it every week. Even if it isn’t the type of show that my buddies and I talk about around a table of beers. Parenthood is the type of show that guys can get away with watching, assuming that they watch with their wives. My wife doesn’t really like the show (the style of dialogue drives her crazy), but I press on!

I was first drawn to Parenthood because Director Ron Howard was involved in getting the show on the air. I like Ron Howard, so I gave it chance. Most of the actors were familiar (I’ve known Peter Krause (Adam) since he was Andrea Zuckerman’s love interest, Jay Thurman, on Beverly Hills 90210!). Jason Katims, who is an Executive Producer and writer for the show, came from Friday Night Lights. FNL is among my favorite shows, so sprinkle in some guest stars from Dillon (Minka Kelly!) and I was hooked. And yes, that was the great Jason Street as Amber’s future husband in the closing montage.

It is hard to explain why I ended up liking this show as much as I did. Could be because I come from a family of four kids. Without knowing the exact age range of the Braverman kids, I would say the Fogarty kids are fairly close in age. Complete with the youngest sister as a successful lawyer. Our parents are probably the same age as Zeek and Camille. While we didn’t grow up in Berkeley, Ca, and we aren’t anywhere near as dramatic as a group, there is enough there to relate too. I imagine most of the audience of this show can relate to it one way or another. The realities of families growing bigger and growing older is real for everyone. Which is why almost everyone probably cries once or twice per show. Becoming a parent during the run of the show certainly enhanced my perspective as a viewer.

I watch most of my prime time shows on DVR. Sometimes a day late or even a week late. I watch Parenthood live almost every week. Sitting through commercials is the highest compliment I can give a show these days! It’s the show I look forward to watching most each week, and I’ll miss it now that it’s gone.

The final season was a bit of a mess. Like Friday Night Lights before it, Parenthood was nearly cancelled after almost every season. This final season, season 6, was only 13 episodes. The shortest since the first season. Most of the first 10 episodes alternated the series stars so that some weeks we didn’t see half the cast. Clearly a cost savings compromise that gave the show a chance to tie up loose ends and for fans to say goodbye. The finale was solid and accomplished those goals. I’m always a sucker for epilogues and showing us the future as a show ends.

There was plenty that I didn’t love about the show over the years. Just about anything with Kristina was ridiculous. I didn’t like all of the characters, but as a whole it worked for me. This last season was largely predictable, implausible and a little bit sappy. But I didn’t care. I grew up on network TV dramas and am afraid that Parenthood may be among the last true family dramas we see on our networks.

Don’t worry about me though. As the Bravermans sail off into the sunset, plenty of my shows are returning. USA Network’s fun lawyer drama Suits started up again this week. So did The Americans, a truly excellent show on FX. And as a Breaking Bad fan, I’ve already set the DVR to record all things related to Better Call Saul starting next month.

As good as those shows are, and hopefully will be, there will always be a hole in my TV schedule where Parenthood lived. I’ll come up with something on Thursday nights, maybe I’ll go back to watching live sports….

Cam waiting for swim class to start

When I was in college I would do whatever I could to schedule most of my classes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Most semesters I, like millions of other college students, got my Fridays off. Most of the time I managed to keep my Mondays pretty light. As my college career moved along, I even managed to avoid the early morning classes, knowing that I wasn’t very likely to wake up early and brave the Syracuse winter as often as I should. By my senior year I pretty much had a 3.5 day weekend and a 3.5 day school week. Looking back 15 years later, that was incredible. And ridiculous. But it worked.

I’m now using those expert scheduling abilities with my son. We have a lot of potential activities to get involved in and if we’re not careful, the whole week could get away from us. Starting after the holidays we added two weekly activities to our standing Storytime commitment.

When scheduling these activities, only one thing really matters: Nap time. Cam is on a fairly regular schedule when it comes to naps. He still takes two, hourish-long naps every day. One late morning, and one mid-late afternoon. So like I did in college, sleep was the number one priority when I picked the times for his activities.

We started by eliminating Mondays and Fridays. A few reasons for this. First, at some point I’d like to have a semi-regular day or two where I interact with other (kid free) adults. Grab lunch with some buddies or head down to Bethesda to visit family. That’s hard to do when you are tied up most of the morning and then worried about naps and meals. Having a couple clean days every week seemed to make the most sense. It also allows us not to eat money if we are traveling and have to miss a class or two. Smartly these classes charge by either a “session” or by the month. Either way, if you miss, you aren’t getting a refund.

We like our Storytime slot on Wednesdays at 10. So that was our foundation to plan around. We wanted to get him into a music class and a swim class starting this month. Lucky for us, Meadowbrook pool (now owned by Michael Phelps) is just down the street. The Music Together class, which came highly recommended, is within just a couple miles as well. Having classes close to home is important. Getting home quickly for that nap makes all the difference. I’m still working on my car to crib nap transfer, so I prefer keeping him awake until we get home.

I’m a veteran of Storytime by now. We’ve been going just about every week (since its free, you can only sign up a week at a time) since we got settled back in October. I know what to expect every Wednesday at 10. I know the songs and the other kids and parents. I also know how much Cameron enjoys going each week. Starting new classes come with new fears, regardless of age.

Let’s start with our music class. This was supposed to start last Tuesday, but the weather cancelled our first class. We showed up this Tuesday and after getting a little lost (Daddy didn’t do enough research on WHERE within this huge building the class was) we got settled. This class is pretty serious business. We have take-home CDs, DVDs, and music books. Like homework! If Storytime makes you feel a little silly when belting out nursery rhymes, music class takes it to whole different level. The level of goofiness is something I wasn’t, and still am not, prepared for. Lots of singing and dancing and things. Most of the kids and parents were repeat customers, so us Fogarty boys had a bit of a deer-in-headlights look. Cam appears to be very musical already. Loves hearing music and clapping and making noise with things. I think this will work out well for him overall. The first class was a little rough. It was a 9:30am start, that was slightly delayed. It runs 45 mins, and since Cam woke up earlier than usual on Tuesday and never fell back asleep, it was a photo finish to pack up and leave before a giant meltdown. When we had to give up the instruments one by one, he was losing it. Which is a little out of character. Hopefully next week goes a bit more smoothly.

Swim class is something I was looking forward to. I think all kids should start swimming as young as possible. Our first class (I’m in the pool with him) was at 9:30am last Thursday. It should be noted that particular day was the coldest day of the year so far. It was something like 12 degrees when we left our house. I probably lost my Father of the Year award just by leaving the house. In fact no other kids showed up, so we had a one-on-one for our first thirty-minute class which was nice. Other than one uncomfortable trip underwater, he did great. I’m not really worried about him liking swimming. He’s proven comfortable in the water and will do great in this class. My concern is the logistics of changing him before and after the class. Especially in this cold weather. So far I put his rash guard and suit on at home and cover him with sweat pants, jackets and socks. That seems to work fine. But the after class change is still very much a work in progress. As is the concern that he will poop in his suit in the pool. He has one of these built in diaper suits. All the reviews rave about it, but nobody seems to address how it handles if he has a bad accident. I hope I never find out! If I do, it will get its own blog entry! Post-swim lesson means getting out of wet clothes and into something dry and warm for the ride home/nap. This is something I can do at home with my eyes closed. But in public (in this case the locker room) the stress level rises as he squirms and fusses as I try and use the awkwardly placed changing table. It’s a fight, which at times I appear to be losing. But we manage to make it home unscathed.

The middle of our week is now packed, just like my glory days. If only my 22-year-old self could see me now! I’m looking forward to our Fridays off. If anyone is ever free for lunch, let me know……