Parenting, in general, has sparked a lot of funny social media posts. But parenting kids who belong in Gen Z? That's a different animal entirely. Made up of kids who were born between 1997 and 2015, this means that those of us who have kids as young as kindergarteners and as old as their mid-20s know what it's like to have to level with a generation that is convinced we're lame and out of touch, even as millennials. Oh, wait — that's how every generation ever felt about their parents!
Gen Z kids are technology fluent, obsessed with all things TikTok, and they probably have way cooler toys than we ever did — plus, they're a bit snarkier than we were at that age. That means that, as their parents, we end up being the butt of their jokes more often than not, and now that they have phones with cameras and internet access in their hands at all times, some of our most embarrassing moments end up being filmed for eternity. Hey, thanks, kids!
There are a lot of things to love about this sensitive, caring generation who is fighting for a better tomorrow, too, though, but sometimes, it can be a little rough. Feeling the pain of parenting a Gen Z kid? These tweets are proof that no one is going through this alone.
The Need for a Notebook
Every generation of kids feels their emotions strongly (especially teenagers), but Gen Z seems to take it to the next level. At one point or another, we've all heard our kids tell us they emotionally need us to buy them something, whether that something happens to be a notebook or not.
Upper Class AirPods
Sure, our kids have way cooler tech than we did when we were their age — heck, even now, because we're spending all our money on them. If only they didn't also feel the need to constantly rub it in our faces, though. Who do they think paid for those AirPods?
The Online Learning Challenge
Over the past year, many parents have had to adjust to homeschooling and distance learning, often while working from home ourselves. Has anyone else really realized that they could not pass elementary school math if they tried to do it today?
Stress Snacking
While we're on the topic of distance learning, let's just all agree that we all cope with the stress in different ways. For some of us, that's eating a lot of snack foods, and we can't blame any mom who's been reaching for the chips a little more often these days.
Figuring Out the Apps
Feeling stupid doesn't just stop at digital learning, y'all. There's also the wide collection of apps that are required just to be able to communicate with our children's teachers, who may or may not respond when we try to email them the regular way.
The Pain of YouTube
Even when we give our kids screen time so we can get things done around the house, they don't always take the hint — sometimes, they want to show us the video they're watching. Trust us, they're not all winners, no matter how funny our kids might think they are.
Mom Jokes
Kids have rolled their eyes at their parents' lame jokes since the beginning of time, but when parenting Gen Z, the jokes have changed. Even ones that keep up with the times make our kids so tired of us, but hey — it's our job.
Stealing Our Clothes
The cycle of fashion never ends, and that means that what we wore as teenagers is officially back in style. That also means that, though our kids were only recently making fun of what we were wearing in our childhood photos, they now want to borrow it because suddenly, it's cool again.
Too Many Games
Between Minecraft, Fortnite, Among Us, and the many other games our kids are playing, it can be hard to keep up with them all. And when our kids expect us to have an intimate knowledge of these games anyway, well — we'll just have to accept them thinking we're uncool for yet another reason.
No Privacy
We've all seen our kids turn into FBI agents when it comes time to conceal whatever it is they're doing on their phones, but the same rules don't ever seem to apply to our phones, do they? If our phone is in our kid's hands, we can just go ahead and accept that they're going to read our text messages.
Quality Time
As our kids get older, the chances of them spending quality time with us go up if we're willing to meet them where they and their interests are at — and for a lot of us, that means pretending to be amused by the endless memes they want to show us. At least some of them are funny, though.
Kids Hate Change
It's not just swing sets this applies to, either. It's toys, both indoors and outdoors, books, clothing — anything that represents part of their childhood cannot be replaced or thrown out, no matter how many years they have acted like they absolutely do not care about it.
Thanks a Lot, TikTok
Something else that is suddenly cool to our kids: the music we listened to when we were their age, and it's all because it went viral on TikTok, seemingly out of nowhere. It doesn't mean they'll think we are cool, though, because we are still too old for them to believe we even like TikTok.
Now Recording
There are so many things that were once commonplace for us that our kids will never understand. Talking on a house phone, recording using something called tape, listening to music on a CD, rewinding videos before we could watch them again — the list goes on and on.
Lazy Parenting
With all the technology that is currently at our fingertips, it's never been easier to let Netflix babysit our kids. We all do it sometimes, so there's no sense in beating ourselves up for it when we're a present parent the rest of the time. What else are iPads and YouTube for?
No Cellphones, Just Vibes
This tweet pretty much nails it. At one point or another, our kids are going to talk about "vibing" — if it hasn't happened yet, it's definitely going to. It's our job to just nod and pretend like we know what they're talking about.
TikTok Stardom
With how often our kids are recording something, it would be impossible not to interrupt them at some point. Fortunately, we can have a bit of fun with it, because yes, sometimes we do walk in front of their phones on purpose.
Discord Games
Here's one of the best parts of parenting Gen Z: The creative things they come up with, and all the times they make us laugh. Sure, they give us a run for our money most of the time, but there are those moments where we're just proud to be their parents.
So Uncool
For as long as there have been teenagers, there have been teenagers who think their parents aren't cool. Now, they just have new ways to insult us, like this tweet demonstrates. Like we don't already know we're not cool!
Goodbye, Skinny Jeans
Gen Z has a lot of opinions about what we can and cannot wear, and sorry, everyone: Skinny jeans and side parts are officially out. That doesn't mean we're suddenly going to change our look, but it does give our kids more fuel to mock us.
