By Valerie Milano
Los Angeles, CA (The Hollywood Times) 8/02/23 – Every parent has one thing in common with every other parent: They once were single! Beyond that, the experience of parenting can have any one of a myriad of outcomes. For many, it is a blissful walk-through life, with those occasional frantic episodes that just occur, like last-minute changes to family plans, disappointments, scrapes and bruises, and even broken hearts.
But for some others, having kids invokes lifestyle changes that are, frankly, just unacceptable. And for them, parenthood is a constant tug of war between being a parent and yearning for “the good life,”
This is the premise of the CW’s hit comedy Children Ruin Everything, a half hour that follows parents Astrid (Meaghan Rath, “Being Human,” “Hawaii Five-0”) and James (Aaron Abrams, “Blindspot,” “Hannibal”), as they raise their two young children in the city, while struggling to hold onto their pre-kid life.
At first blush, this show looks like a negative indictment on parenting. But according to the show’s executive producer, it celebrates the thing that make parenthood special – being together and raising a family with love. Kurt Smeaton, who is also the show’s creator, said he wanted to make a show that shows that despite the apparent losses of the freedom of the single life, there are things singles cannot fathom.
“These are parents who love their kids, who love raising them, and love being together,” Smeaton said in an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Times. Smeaton said the show is really an answer to a study he read that showed childless singles were happier than those who were married and had kids.
Click below for our exclusive interview with Kurt Smeaton, EP
“They have more money, more sleep, more time,” he said of the singles in the study. “But i felt there was something missing from that study … something intangible. Yeah, you do lose all those things, but there are these beautiful and hilarious moments you can’t get anywhere else.”
The show also features some supporting characters who, on th surface, seem quite unlikeable. But Smeaton said he doesn’t intend for anyone to be unlikable, just representative of the realities of what happens to relationships once you have children.
“There are challenging moments when people outside your family make judgements, or they somehow make you feel like you’re not doing a good job,” said Smeaton, himself the father of three, including a newly minted teenager. “I definitely wanted that to be part of the show, because I think that is definitely part of parenting.”
But ultimately, he said, the show is not just about what you lose, but what you gain. “The time you get to spend together as a family, introducing kids to new foods, kids developing their tastes, that culinary journey … that can be really fun, that can be interesting, that can be incredibly frustrating, that can be funny, ” Smeaton said. “That’s a ripe place to start telling stories.”
Another fertile topic is one that Astrid dives into whenever she sees someone with a baby – expanding the family unit. For her, maybe children don’t, in fact, ruin anything. She’s about to return to her career but finds her mind drifting toward thoughts of having a third child.
Smeaton said for some couples, it’ a matter of planning. They decide how many kids to have, and they execute that plan. But for others, it is emotional.
“They forget, somehow, the diapers,” he said with chuckle.
But as it happens, children have a way of changing the relationship between parents, too. Smeaton said that is one of the driving forces in the show – the questions about what the things are we used to have that have now been altered forever by kids. Things like intimacy between the parental partners.
“Sometimes it is difficult to have intimacy, even when the kids aren’t there,” he said. “There are so many things to accomplish, and you just don’t make time for yourselves. I think that is a really common pitfall for couples, who really focus on the kids and don’t take care f their relationship.”
But Smeaton sees hope for Astrid and James as the series develops.
“This couple makes time for each other, they love each other, they support each other, and they are both parents,” he said, noting that neither present dominates the parenting environment. “They are a great team. They have a great relationship that is aspirational, and I do believe we’ll see as the show moves on, that they make time for that relationship.”
Children Ruin Everything airs Mondays at 8:30 p.m., Eastern and Pacific time, on the CW.
