A Gen X mother on TikTok has struck a nerve with a video that opens with a simple, pointed question: are you like this too? What follows, according to the video’s summary, is an unfiltered monologue about the day-to-day realities of parenting a teenager in the current cultural moment, delivered with the kind of dry, self-aware humor that has made her account a magnet for other Gen X women navigating the same terrain.
@theunaverse22 Are you like this?!😂 Gen X moms be like…#over50creator #wegotthis #genxwomen #womensupportingwomen #winningstreak
♬ original sound – SAHM | Laukau
“Are you like this?!” she asks in her caption, punctuating the question with a laughing emoji before adding, “Gen X moms be like.” The hashtags she used, including #over50creator, #wegotthis, and #genxwomen, place the video squarely within a growing wave of content made by and for a generation of mothers who came of age without smartphones, social media, or constant digital surveillance of their own teenage years, and who are now raising kids for whom none of that has ever not existed.
The appeal of the video lies in its candor. Rather than offering polished parenting advice or a curated highlight reel, the creator leans into the messier, more honest side of raising a teenager today, the exhaustion, the contradictions, the moments of not quite knowing whether you’re being too strict or not strict enough. Gen X parents occupy a particular cultural position: they were often raised with minimal supervision, sent outside until the streetlights came on, and left to sort out their own conflicts, and now find themselves parenting in an era defined by curated childhoods, constant connectivity, and a level of scrutiny around parenting choices that simply didn’t exist when they were teens themselves.
That gap between how she was raised and how she’s raising her own teenager appears to be the engine driving the humor in her monologue. There’s a particular flavor of exasperation that comes from realizing your own teenager is dealing with pressures, technology, and social dynamics that simply didn’t exist in your own adolescence, layered on top of all the universal teenage stuff, the mood swings, the eye-rolls, the sudden need for independence, that hasn’t changed at all across generations.
Her use of “#wegotthis” alongside the more comedic elements of the video suggests the piece isn’t purely a complaint, but something closer to solidarity. It reads as a wink to other mothers in her position: yes, this is hard, yes, it’s different from anything our own parents dealt with, and yes, we’re going to get through it, probably with a healthy dose of humor and more than a little disbelief at what passes for normal teenage life now.
Content like this has found a real audience recently, as more women over 50 turn to platforms like TikTok not to chase trends built for a younger demographic, but to speak directly and unapologetically to people their own age going through the same life stage. The #over50creator tag speaks to that shift, a growing corner of the platform where midlife women are building community around exactly the kind of shared, generationally specific experiences this video captures.
What ultimately drove the video’s reach likely isn’t a single dramatic revelation but the accumulation of small, relatable observations, the kind of “it’s not just me” moments that make viewers stop scrolling because they’ve thought the exact same thing themselves, usually while standing in their teenager’s doorway wondering when, exactly, parenting got this complicated.
Parenting Teens Across Generational Divides
Every generation of parents has had to bridge the gap between how they were raised and the very different world their own kids are growing up in, and that gap can feel especially wide for parents raising teenagers in an age of smartphones and social media. Experts generally encourage parents to resist comparing their teen’s experience too directly to their own adolescence, since the tools, pressures, and social landscape have genuinely changed, even if the underlying developmental needs of teenagers, for independence, identity, and belonging, have not. Staying curious rather than judgmental about a teen’s digital world, while still holding firm boundaries, tends to work better than either strict control or total permissiveness. And finding community with other parents navigating the same stage, whether online or in person, can make the whole stretch feel a lot less isolating.
