- A woman said she’s afraid to have kids, “especially boys,” after watching the Netflix show Adolescence.
- She detailed her feelings about becoming a mom one day in a post on the U.K.-based Mumsnet forum.
- The Netflix series delves into the pressures that young men face in a world of toxic masculinity and social media.
A woman says she’s afraid to have kids after watching the Netflix show Adolescence.
In a post on the U.K.-based forum Mumsnet, the woman wrote that she is “scared about having kids, especially boys, after watching Adolescence on Netflix,” referring to the drama series that delves into the pressures that young men face in a world of toxic masculinity and social media.
Detailing that she just watched the series and it left her terrified, the forum user further explained, “Seeing what teenagers, especially boys, go through in today’s world — social media, peer pressure, mental health struggles — makes me wonder how anyone navigates parenting without constant fear.”
“Am I overthinking or do others feel the same?” she asked others on the community website.
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In the comments section of the post, some users completely understood the woman’s trepidation.
“I completely agree,” wrote one person. “I have two [daughters] and one [son] and I feel like I have a handle on what the girls need and I can guide them through adolescence. But I don’t feel I know how to navigate my son growing up. It really scares me. It’s like a world I don’t really understand now.”
Others, however, said they believe successful parenting isn’t as complicated as the woman may think.
“Stopping your child being awful is fairly easy. Lay good foundations, instill good values, spend lots of time with them. Encourage them into decent hobbies and teach them to think critically,” said one user.
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“I think it’s a scary world with the social media influences for both boys and girls,” another commenter said. “However, if you ensure you have consistent, age appropriate boundaries and interact with your child as much as possible, then I think you will likely be okay.”
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Adolescence, a four-part Netflix miniseries, delves into the themes while following a family, whose world changes after their 13-year-old son is arrested for murdering a schoolmate.
In a recent interview with Tudum, Netflix’s official content site, series star and co-creator Stephen Graham said one of the show’s “core aims” was to ask: “What is happening to our young men these days, and what are the pressures they face from their peers, from the internet, and from social media?”
And while the show isn’t based on a true story, Graham explained that it was based on a composite of real-life events.
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“There was an incident where a young boy [allegedly] stabbed a girl,” Graham told the outlet. “It shocked me. I was thinking, ‘What’s going on? What’s happening in society, where a boy stabs a girl to death? What’s the inciting incident here?’ And then it happened again, and it happened again, and it happened again. I really just wanted to shine a light on it, and ask, ‘Why is this happening today? What’s going on? How have we come to this?’ ”
Adolescence is available to stream on Netflix.
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