The Outnumbered Post

The latest series of 'Outnumbered' on BBC1 has been immensely enjoyable, and is probably the best series so far in my opinion. This is quite unusual for a TV show – most get worse as time goes on: writers run out of ideas, actors move on and the audience expects more of the same (but still expect things to be fresh and different, if you know what I mean).

For me, I've found the previous couple of series and one-off specials to be a bit mediocre but now the show seems to have found its groove again and is on great form. What, I think, has helped the Brockman family is the fact that the children have now firmly entered the teenage years. Admitedly, the eldest, Jake, has been a teen for a few years but now all three of the Brockman offspring are in that age bracket it seems to have provided the much-needed spark to re-ignite the show.

Outnumbered's Brockman family – before the teenage years

Before, when the kids were pre-teen, it felt like they were saying stuff kids that age would probably never say (they were talking a bit too much like smart-alec grown-ups). Now, as they are growing up, they seem to be behaving more like actual teenagers (who are usually adept at catching out their bewildered parents over all sorts of things). Thankfully, the writers have steered clear of perhaps the darker elements of growing up at such an age – I mean, it is a comedy after all.

Whilst I do find it funny and entertaining, the life of the Brockmans does succeed in terrifying me about what lies ahead for me as a parent. I've always had a bit of a wistful notion that once the kids had passed the eight or nine mark, being a parent wouldn't be quite so befuddling and exhausting.

Watching Outnumbered just goes to show that, no matter how old your kids are, it's always befuddling and exhausting – just in different ways...