There are many sitcoms that focus on family life on TV past and present. However, not every family sitcom gives a fair look at the ups and downs that parents enjoy and are challenged with. In recent years, audiences have become much more comfortable watching parenthood portrayed as less than joyous on occasion.
Parenthood is a rich area for laughs and tears, making for some of the best sitcoms. It’s worth giving some representation to parents who aren’t always picture perfect and have the best time with their kids. Sitcoms help audiences make light of some of the most difficult situations in life, loving one’s children but not always loving being a parent is definitely one of those situations.
Breeders (2020)
Breeders is an English sitcom about couple, Paul (Martin Freeman) and Ally (Daisy Haggard), through their personal battles to become reluctant parents. Even though they both love their two children, they are both faced with their own baggage to unpack, Paul with his anger and Ally with her history of depression. They struggle with how to be the best parents they possibly can, while also facing the struggle of how to be happy with themselves as people.
Breeders delves deep into a variety of challenging topics surrounding parenting and marriage. The show offers some incredibly intense moments, but plenty of levity by finding the hope and love in it all. It sheds light on the complexity of your own trauma and how it ultimately affects parents and their children.
Workin’ Moms (2017)
The Canadian comedy revolves around a group of moms in Toronto as they juggle motherhood, relationships and their careers. Each of the women faces their own particular set of challenges and pushes the envelope of what is expected of a “good mother”. They find themselves in a collection of wacky scenarios and must rely on each other to help them out of their sticky life circumstances.
The characters unashamedly focus on themselves as women and refuse to be shamed for having their own lives outside of their children.Working momsaims to portray the balancing act that mothers often experience and when they cannot achieve everything they set out to do. The show tells working moms that it’s okay to not be okay all the time.
The Letdown (2016)
The disappointmentAn Australian sitcom, gives the audience a look at Audrey’s (Alison Bell) new mom bubbles as she and her partner adjust to parenthood. Audrey slowly begins to live her life as she used to, but now as a mother, things are not turning out as she had hoped. She realizes her life is drastically different now with her daughter and must cultivate a new life that works for her and her family.
The show gives insight into the struggles of a new mother as she loses herself to motherhood and has to find where she belongs again. The disappointment are responsible for all the facets of one’s life, they are changed after having a child and the shift that happens for a new mother or father. The comedy allows the joy and fear of new parenthood to take center stage.
Catastrophe (2015)
Catastrophe starting with Rob (Rob Delaney) and Sharon (Sharon Horgan) with a brief stint in London turning into an unplanned pregnancy and impending marriage. The couple must adjust to their new lives as parents and spouses, which are not without friction. Rob and Sharon are both challenging individuals trying to raise their family the best they can.
Catastrophe focuses on how parenting builds and damages a marriage. Rob and Sharon also have plenty of their own demons to contend with as they try to make family life work. The show finds levity in life’s darkest moments of alcoholism, post-pardom and familial death.
Children ruin everything (2020)
The aptly named Canadian comedy, Children ruin everything, is about a young family and their daily struggles to provide for their two children. The couple tries to reconcile the fun-loving adults they once were and the tired parents they are now. Their career ambitions were also pushed to the forefront for the benefit of their family.
Children ruin everything gives voice to the lament of young parents still trying to be their cool selves in the midst of children. The comedy also has a lot of fun with the chaos that young children bring to a household. The program tries to find the good times in the struggle and celebrates that the bad days will one day disappear.
The duchess (2020)
Katherine (Katherine Ryan) is a single mother living abroad in London with her young daughter. Katherine is fiercely protective of the life she and her daughter have made for themselves while navigating her own love life and relationship with her daughter’s father. She struggles with the desire to have another child and how it will work within her family dynamic.
The duchess focuses on Katherine’s desire to be an unconventional parent and to build a nice life for her daughter. Something the show does differently is show the joy that can come with single parenthood. Katherine formulates her family on her terms and is not concerned with what parenting is supposed to look like.
Close enough (2020)
Josh (JG Quintel) and Emily (Gabrielle Walsh) is a married couple with a child who live with their divorced friends in a surreal animated world. Josh and Emily struggle to enter their thirties and try to maintain their youth. They have to balance parenthood while also living a life they enjoy.
As wild as the predicament in Close enough are, they also touch on the financial problems that come with having children. Josh and Emily always do their best to make ends meet while giving their daughter a good childhood. The show becomes knowledgeable about these serious topics while also remaining absolutely silly.
Mother (2013)
anna faris is a single mother, Christie, who struggles to hold on to her sobriety while her alcoholic mother, Bonnie (Allison Janney), re-enters her life. The two women must relearn to live side by side and be the best they can be for Christie’s children. Christie and Bonnie are both incredibly critical of each other and who is the better parent.
Mother shows how parenting is a lifelong process, even into adulthood it is important to have an understanding of one’s parents. Christie and Bonnie try to unpack and account for their actions and the generational struggle they both face. The comedy looks at what is inherited from one’s parents and to what extent they are responsible for their demons.
Modern Family (2009)
The long-running American sitcom, Modern Family, follows the relationships within one large family and the three families within it. Each family unit has their own separate and unique set of problems, but at the end of the day come together to support each other as one. The show explains the need to rely on the support of others to raise a family.
Modern Family depicts three different family models: nuclear, blended and adopted under the umbrella of one extended family. The show beautifully shows each family’s own challenges in raising their children and how they must come together. The sitcom depicts all the complicated ways in which families intertwine and challenge each other.
Single parents (2018)
Single parents is about a group of single parents whose children are in the same class and come together to support each other. The group is there to help each other in their parenting struggles and to form a bigger family for themselves. Each of their parents has their own personal journey to becoming a single parent and their own bonds with their children.
In Single parents the unique challenges of single parenthood take center stage as the group creates a found family for themselves to address those challenges. The group individually try to maintain their own personal lives outside of their children while also being the most present parents they can be. The show also does a good job of portraying the closeness that comes from the relationship between a single parent and child.
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