Summer House is not deep television. And yet here I am, watching it deeply.
There’s something about Summer House specifically — more than other Bravo shows — that hits different for moms. I’ve thought about this more than I probably should have, and here’s my theory:
It’s grief TV. Stay with me.
Summer House is a show about a group of young adults living out the kind of freedom that most of us — once kids enter the picture — don’t experience anymore. Long weekends. No real responsibilities. Days that belong entirely to yourself. A social life that doesn’t require a babysitter and a negotiated schedule.
We don’t watch it because we want to be 28 again (well, maybe a little). We watch it because there’s something healing about letting yourself miss what you had — the lightness, the simplicity, the life before it got complicated in all the ways that also made it richer.
And then you close your laptop and your kid pads in for a glass of water and you feel it: this is better. Harder and bigger and better.
“That’s not escape. That’s self-care.”
Here’s what I think the Bravo obsession is really about at its core: we are women who do a lot. We manage enormous amounts of complexity — emotional, logistical, relational. And sometimes we need 42 minutes of someone else’s drama to decompress. To laugh. To feel feelings that aren’t our own feelings for a moment.
I stand by this. Completely.
— Christa, Founder of Mommish
