A TikTok influencer’s frustration over millennial parenting styles that purportedly lead to undisciplined children has recently gone viral.
A disruptive incident: Alanna
Dinh, who rose to fame for her fashion and lip sync content, took to TikTok to express her frustrations with millennial parents, highlighting what she perceives as a lack of discipline and education in their children. In her now-viral post, she recalled an incident at her medical receptionist job when whom she believed was a millennial mother seemingly dismissed her child’s disruptive behavior.
“I was working my medical receptionist job the other day, and this woman walks in. You can tell she’s a millennial. She’s like 34. She has a yoga mat in one hand and her four-year-old in the other. Her Satan spawn walked up to the counter, and I was like, ‘Hi.’ And there’s a bunch of business cards just stacked up on the counter… And the kid knocks them all over and starts mixing up all the different business cards on the floor of the office.”
Dinh said she expected the mother to correct her child’s behavior. But to her surprise, the woman simply laughed it off and said, “Isn’t she so cute?”
Parenting tips: Dinh said she would have reacted differently if it was her kid who caused the mess.
“I would have yelled at it and then cleaned up the mess it made and then made it apologize to the receptionist,” she said in her video. “And I know millennials with children are going to hate this because they’re the most self-righteous people on the planet.”
Dinh ended her video by expressing concerns about educational gaps she has observed in millennial-raised children and calling for a focus on teaching manners.
“When I was in second grade, I was getting assigned by my teachers at least 100- to 150-page books. Me and my classmates, your kid cannot read basic words or spell basic words. And you’re cool with that. That is crazy to me. If you’re not gonna teach them how to read, that’s fine…but at least please teach them some manners. And honestly, millennials, please gain some yourselves because as someone who has had a lot of jobs in her day serving you people is genuinely one of the most insufferable things I’ve ever had to do. Thank you.”
Millennials as parents: Millennials, now numbering over 22 million parents in the U.S., face a unique set of challenges and expectations in raising their children. This generation, regarded as digital natives, is navigating parenthood in a world with intensive online scrutiny.
The rise of social media platforms, while providing a space for sharing parenting experiences, exposes parents to judgment and criticism, leading to conflicts within online parenting communities. A survey by parenting resource BabyCenter revealed that nearly 80% of millennial mothers feel the need to be the “perfect mom,” a percentage higher than previous generations.
Commenters react: Dinh’s rant, which has since been viewed over 6.7 million times, has attracted comments from users sharing their experiences and opinions on millennial parenting.
“I’m 20 and work in childcare. The amount of ‘Are you gonna do something?’ stares I give millennial parents in public is exhausting,” one TikTok user wrote.
“My mother is a millennial (teen pregnancy). I’m an adult at this point and my Gen Alpha siblings are basically feral,” another shared.
“My parents are millennials, I’m Gen Z, and my sis is Gen Alpha. I’m constantly having to get onto her about manners cause my parents won’t,” chimed one user.
“I think it’s that us millennials [who] decided to ‘break generational trauma’ by going WAY TOO FAR the other way,” explained another.
