Like sands through the hourglass, time's nearly up for soap operas | THE MOM STOP

It was rare that my mother was at home during the weekdays when I was growing up, since she worked full time. But when we were all home during the week, around lunchtime she’d turn on the television and watch “All My Children.”

It was “her” soap. I don’t remember much about the storyline other than, as a kid, being bored while not being able to watch anything else. But the opening, with its cheesy upbeat elevator music and giant book that closes — still sticks out in my mind.

It was sometime in high school that I discovered soap operas for myself. Not "All My Children," but "Days of Our Lives." It was during the season when one character, Dr. Marlena Evans, was possessed by the devil in 1995 that I got wrapped up in watching. I’d spend my morning at the neighborhood pool, then walk home for lunch and watch “Days of Our Lives.” Later, when I started working as a hostess at a local Italian restaurant, we’d watch “Days” over the small TV that hung over one of the booths, with the sound turned down but the closed captions switched on so I could still follow along from a distance.

In college, I had a TV-VCR combo and I tried to plan my class schedule around making it back to my dorm in time to watch “Days.” Sometimes, I’d stop by the sorority house for lunch and watch it with other girls on the giant sectional couch in the basement. But if I couldn’t make it in front of a TV, I was sure to use my dorm room VCR to record the show when I was in class.

Years later, when we had a DVR, I no longer recorded the show but I was still able to go home for lunch most days, to eat and to watch before I had to head back to work. During my maternity leaves with each of my three kids, I’d sit in the recliner in our living room, rocking a sleeping baby or nursing, with “Days” on TV.

Although it’s been several years since I watched the show at lunch, I still recorded the episodes on the DVR and would watch them late at night when the kids had gone to bed, catching up on what had been going on in Salem. Even if it had been a while since I had watched, it never took too long to catch back up, since the storylines move slowly in soap operas and characters often stay the same for decades.

But this summer, somewhere in the midst of raising three school-age kids, working full time and going on summer vacation, I stopped watching "Days." I hadn’t watched it as regularly, and it just seems like there’s never enough time to do the things I need to do around the house or with my kids’ busy schedules.

And so last week, I decided to turn it on for the first time in a couple of months. Only it wasn’t under my most recent recorded shows on the DVR. In fact, I couldn’t find it anywhere, except on NBC’s streaming app. It was then that I sat in shock as I Googled and found out why — “Days of Our Lives” is no longer on TV. It’s still being filmed, but instead can only be watched on the Peacock app and only with a subscription.

It’s the end of an era.

I can only imagine the shock for the older watchers — admittedly there are probably many — who don’t have a smart TV or have never quite got the grasp of streaming shows. After 56 years on NBC, the show is no longer on the air.

It’s a sign of the times. Will I “stream” the show instead? I guess we’ll see. But life lately has shown that it’s probably more likely that my life and priorities have moved on from “Days.” At least, for now.

Lydia Seabol Avant writes The Mom Stop for The Tuscaloosa News. Reach her at momstopcolumn@gmail.com.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Last 'Days'? Soap opera fans face brave new world | THE MOM STOP