Every parental generation deals with its own challenges. Last century’s debate over how many hours a child should work has become today’s agonizing about how many hours of screen time is appropriate. Appropriately, this generation now has a web series to capture the era’s most pressing parental issues, or at least make us laugh about them.

Millennial Parents, from filmmakers Jake Greene and Natalie Irby, follows young parents Annie (Laura Eichhorn) and Kurt (Lea Coco) as they struggle with such deep questions as: “Is Outkast’s ‘So Fresh, So Clean’ an appropriate lullaby if sung out of nostalgia?”

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“Parents today feel pressure from friends and social media to stay cool and connected,” explains Greene, who draws inspiration from his experience as a father of two kids under the age of 3. “We can’t just tap out of pop culture like preceding generations did. As a result of trying to hang on to their youth, a lot of new parents move from cool older brother to creepy uncle without recognizing the shift.”

No children are actually seen in the show, which refreshingly captures the fact that, although your entire life may change when you become a parent, you’re still a person in your own right.

Asked about the choice to leave the kids off-camera, Green says, “I used to work with a guy who edited horror movies, and he told me that the biggest mistake filmmakers make is to ‘show the monsters,’ because the moment you do, the movie becomes all about them.”

Irby adds, “There’s no way I’d be willing to wrangle babies on-set.”


The Tangled Web We Watch is our column on what’s worth watching online. You can watch Millennial Parents at MillennialParents.com. Read Stephanie Carrie’s full interview with Jake Greene and Natalie Irby about creating the show on her blog, tangledwebwewatch.com.

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