I 'Netflix-cheat' on my partner - here's how it affects our relationship

While we obviously have shows in common that we want to watch together — ”Orange is the New Black,” “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt,” and “Jessica Jones” among them — my love of Netflix binge watching often leads me to browse through various categories and discover new shows, movies, or documentaries that I didn’t know existed and end up loving.

For example, she’s never seen “Dear White People,” while I watched the series at the gym every morning for 10 days and fell in love. Same goes for “Lost in Space.”

If this happens while my partner is working or not at home, I power on without her and our viewing habits end up seriously diverging. Luckily, we’re both cool with that.

That puts both of us squarely in the 32% of Netflix cheaters who don’t feel guilty about it, according the Netflix survey.

Netflix lets each viewer build their own profile, but my partner and I have never felt the need for that. My cheating often leads to my watching many more shows than she does.

She can see my recently viewed programs when she logs in, and it’s vaguely embarrassing when she sees that I’ve been powering through “Shut Ins: Britain’s Fattest People” all week.

Because I write about TV and entertainment for a living, it’s essentially part of my job to be in the know when it comes to the latest shows and movies (or at least a way to rationalize my binge watching).

Netflix cheating on my partner means that I’m often ahead of the curve when it comes to knowing about the latest viewing crazes, because my partner hasn’t watched them yet.

“Uh, what do you mean you haven’t watched every episode of ‘The Rain’ yet?” I ask, a mere 48 hours after it was released.

While we still love watching Netflix together, the fact that we often do so separately means that we spend more time away from the screen, doing active things together. Whether it’s taking the dog on long walks or cooking dinner together, we always make quality time a priority.

At the end of the day, entertainment is just a small part of our lives. Besides, there’s only so much bonding you can do in front of the TV.