I love being a Gen X Mom. I’ll proudly admit I once got very excited about a new CD tower and spent hours organizing it by genre. Our generation had to deal with calling crushes on landlines and talking to their actual parents (remember how scary that was?). But recently, I’ve realized that we have it easier than our Gen Z kids.
They’re growing up on the internet, where every embarrassing moment is documented forever. They’re managing Snap streaks like it’s their job. And they went through middle school during a global pandemic. Their formative social years were spent indoors, staring at Zoom screens instead of passing notes in class. They missed milestones we took for granted.
As much as I love to defend our analog childhood, I see that Gen Z’s challenges are uniquely intense.
Translating Gen Z
This week on our podcast, we invited our 15-year-old son, PC, to join us to talk about Gen Z. He hosted a series of games where Penn and I got to re-live our “cool” Gen X childhood while PC judged us kindly in his cowboy hat. (Yes, he wore a cowboy hat for the entire recording. No, we didn’t question it.) We also took your voicemails for Ask A Gen Zer, where we asked PC a serious of questions that could be summarized as: “Are we still cool?” (Probably not.) He answered the hard-hitting questions of:
“What does low-key mean?” (And does it have anything to do with Loki?)
Is it cringe to dance with your hands in the air? (Only if you’re not his Dad.)
Can parents say ‘on blast’? (Apparently yes, but only if we don’t look around the room after for validation. Guilty.)
One of my favorite parts of this episode was watching PC navigate his role as the Gen Z rep while clearly knowing our actual audience: Gen X parents. He even said that if you’re a mom dancing in the car or ordering a Love Island phone case—you’re living your best life and he supports it. Was he pandering? Maybe a little. But honestly, I was eating it up. This kid is kind, thoughtful, and somehow optimistic despite growing up in a really weird time. And I see that same energy in his friends—and in your kids too.
Keep the Cringe
Yes, we do stuff to embarrass our kids. But you know what? I’m gonna keep doing it. Because if there’s one thing PC reminded me of this week, it’s that being “cringe” is just another way of being fully yourself. And while I may never understand what a Snap streak really means, I do know this: being yourself beats cool every time.
Listen to this week’s show and tell us what we missed!
