Teens Reveal the TV Shows They Actually Want to Watch With Their Parents
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Parents of teens know the struggle of getting their kids out of their rooms and into the living room for some family time.
Agreeing on what to watch is never easy, so to narrow things down, we asked real teens about what shows they actually enjoyed watching with their parents. These members of our SheKnows Teen Council told us which shows made family time more fun and which shows they prefer to keep for themselves. Hopefully, your teen will agree!
“This is mainly with my mom, but I watched Gilmore Girls with my mom,” says 17-year-old Greta. The quintessential mom-and-daughter TV series follows single mom, Lorelai, and her teen daughter, Rory, and is a totally heartwarming watch, according to Greta. It streams on Netflix and Hulu.
A newer equivalent, also beloved by our teens, is Netflix’s original series, Ginny & Georgia, another show about a mom and her teen daughter but with a murder-mystery twist.
Greta and Olivia, also 17, both watched Max’s The White Lotus with their families, a critically acclaimed comedy-drama that is probably best suited to older teens. The anthology series is a social satire that follows wealthy characters staying at a luxury resort where drama ensues. Each season leads to a mysterious death.
Olivia and 17-year-old Kaya find that their dads favor “more serious shows.” For Kaya that means watching a lot of war documentaries, but Olivia and her dad have bonded over drama hits like Max’s Succession and The Penguin. With her mom, Olivia enjoys sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld, and Saved by the Bell.
To lighten the tone after those war documentaries, Kaya and her mom love Sex and the City.
16-year-old Anais watches sitcoms Modern Family and Schitt’s Creek with her family, but with just her mom and sister, she loves Never Have I Ever. The Netflix comedy-drama series follows a first-generation Indian-American teenager dealing with the death of her father and the trials of life as a high-schooler.
But there are also plenty of shows that the teens prefer to keep for themselves. As hard as it might be for parents to hear, our teens admitted they definitely don’t want their parents in the room for some of their favorite shows.
While Greta and her mom watch Gilmore Girls together, Kaya says that’s more of a solo activity for her. “It’s like my comfort show,” she explains. “And when I watch stuff with my mom. I have to wait for her because she’s busy.”
For Olivia, Never Have I Ever and Ginny & Georgia are best enjoyed alone. “I would like to watch those alone just because my mom has a lot of questions and it’s kind of annoying,” she says. “It’s hard to coordinate watching things with your family. I just want to sit on my bed and, like, watch things on my laptop.”
Greta agrees, “Especially like light-hearted shows, usually I prefer to watch on my own.” Hear that, parents, your teen just wants alone time to keep their favorite comedies to themselves.
Before you go, click here to see a parent’s guide to all the biggest teen shows of the summer.