Home > Life > School Age > How Miranda And Charlotte’s Experience Of Parenting Gen Z Children Provides Us With A Guide For The Modern Teen years. Post author By The Mum Club Post date 8 February 2022 How Miranda And Charlotte’s Experience Of Parenting Gen Z Children Provides Us With A Guide For The Modern Teen years. The Mum Club8 February 2022 Sex & The City reboot ‘And Just Like That’ is definitely this year’s TV marmite. The series arrived on our screens in late December to much fanfare, only to be lambasted by fans and critics alike amid accusations of it being ‘tone deaf’, ‘awkward’ and ‘cringey’. In the reboot, we catch up with Carrie, Miranda and Charlotte (with Samantha having relocated to the UK) as they navigate life in their 50s, and wade through the challenges that come with middle age. The show opened with the shocker of Big (Carrie’s hubby and love of her life) unexpectedly passing away, which threw us all off course, and inadvertently highlighted the overarching theme of this reboot – change. While many seem to be disappointed that the show has tempered its comedic verve and instead seems preoccupied with weighty subjects such as death, illness and ageing, this is the stark reality of experiencing the privilege of getting older: life will throw you curve balls, and some of them will be downright tragic. While the pursuits the ladies were famed for when the series first aired in the late ‘90s like clubbing, daily brunching and designer shoe shopping would certainly make a distraction from all that’s going on in the world, in truth, these things often disappear down our list of life priorities as the years tick by. One aspect of And Just Like That worthy of discussion is how Miranda and Charlotte navigate motherhood as their gen Z children embark on the tricky teenage years. In the true tradition of Sex & The City, the series doesn’t shy away from tackling controversial subjects head-on, and in the reboot we catch up with the show’s offspring who are certainly not the cutesy kids we remember from the films. The teen years have always been looked to with trepidation in parenting. This stage of a child’s development is never romanticised in a way that the baby, toddler or infant stages are. It’s not only down to the hormonal changes that are associated with the teenage years – moodiness, reluctance to interact with adults, emotional outbursts. But it’s the realisation that your baby is emerging into an adult human and starting to form their own identity and views of the world. And for this reason, we’re grateful to Charlotte and Miranda for providing us with the following moments of TV gold, as they dealt with a few prickly mother and teen situations with humour, compassion and grace. (Warning: major spoilers ahead for those who’ve yet to see the series) Miranda dealing with her horny teen boy In the first few episodes of And Just Like That we are reintroduced to Miranda and Steve’s son Brady who is now a teenager, and whew, to say he’s embracing those horny teen hormones full throttle (pun intended) is a mild understatement. Brady has zero discretion or sense of propriety as he frequently engages in loud, unrestrained sex with his girlfriend much to his parents’ dismay and embarrassment. And it didn’t stop there. There was also the TMI confession from Miranda that she had stepped on one of lothario Brad’s used condoms (eww), not to mention his wildly inappropriate snog fest with his girlfriend at Charlotte’s daughter’s music recital. His mother’s gentle requests for him to perhaps show a little courtesy are met with curt accusations of ‘sex shaming’. Due to society being more openly sexualised, the prevalence of porn, and the sex positivity movement, gen Z definitely appear to be more comfortable expressing their sexuality with their parents in comparison to previous generations. One can’t help but sympathise with Miranda and Steve though, because surely no parent alive wants to see or hear about their child’s sexploits. Charlotte and tampon-gate And speaking of cringey, Charlotte wasn’t spared from her awkward mother/child moment when her daughter got her period, struggled to insert a tampon and requested her mother take a hands-on approach in helping her… literally. Charlotte, the formerly prudish and now sexual liberated mama, would’ve once been aghast at even the suggestion of having to talk about a woman’s sexual organs, much less in such a graphic and intimate way. But not only did she provide her daughter with encouragement and very clear instructions on the insertion process, but she did it in such a supporting way and used it as an opportunity to form a deeper bond. But we agree with Charlotte on her refusal to insert – as mums, even we have to draw the line somewhere. Generation Z breaking societal boundaries Generation Z have come of age at a time where there have been unprecedented reforms and shifts in society when it comes to gender, identity and sexuality. Consequently, they are more likely than previous generations to repeal social conventions and embrace concepts like gender fluidity and gender-neutral pronouns. During the series, both Miranda and Charlotte were confronted with this revolutionary new world, like when Charlotte’s daughter Rock announced they were nonbinary and in the case of Miranda, when she embarked on a passionately intense relationship with the controversial character Che Diaz, a young, gregarious, nonbinary comedian and podcaster. The Mum Club8 February 2022 ← What To Wear This Week → Our Round Up Of The Best Restaurant Dinner Kits
