Lessons About Being a “Good Enough” Parent
(That I Learned from Watching Apple TV’s Shrinking)
I didn’t expect an Apple TV comedy about a grieving therapist to teach me so much about parenting — but Shrinking surprised me.
Beneath the humor and chaos, the show is really about this:
how messy, imperfect people try to love each other while carrying their own pain.
As a therapist, it reminded me of something we often forget:
You don’t have to be a perfect parent to be a good parent.
You just have to be good enough.
Here are a few lessons about “good enough” parenting that Shrinking gently offered.
1. Your kids don’t need you to be okay all the time.
Jimmy is clearly struggling. He’s grieving, reactive, numb, and often unsure what to say.
And yet… his daughter still needs him. Still loves him. Still stays connected.
This reflects something we see in real life too:
Kids don’t need emotionally perfect parents.
They need real parents who show up and keep trying.
Being honest about your struggles (without making them your child’s burden) models that emotions are survivable — and that people can still love and be loved while hurting.
2. Rupture is inevitable. Repair is what matters.
Jimmy messes up. A lot.
He crosses lines, avoids hard conversations, and sometimes reacts instead of responding.
But what makes the relationship healing is not that he never hurts his daughter — it’s that he comes back. He tries to repair. He listens. He apologizes. He adjusts.
This is what builds trust.
You don’t have to get it right the first time.
You just have to be willing to return and try again.
3. Your job is not to erase their pain.
One of the hardest parts of parenting is watching your child suffer and wanting to make it stop.
Shrinking shows how tempting it is to overcorrect, fix, or control in the name of love.
But being “good enough” doesn’t mean protecting your child from all pain.
It means helping them learn that pain can be felt, named, and survived.
We don’t raise resilient kids by removing discomfort.
We raise them by walking beside them through it.
4. You are allowed to be human.
The adults in Shrinking are flawed, awkward, reactive, and still deeply loving.
They make mistakes — and they grow.
That’s the point.
Being a good enough parent means:
You will mess up
You will lose your patience
You will say the wrong thing sometimes
And you will also:
Care
Repair
Try again
That is not failure.
That is relationship.
5. Connection grows in the imperfect moments.
Some of the most moving moments in the show aren’t polished or profound.
They’re messy, uncomfortable, and honest.
That’s where real connection lives.
Not in doing everything “right.”
But in being present, imperfect, and willing.
The Takeaway
You don’t have to be the parent you imagined you’d be.
You just have to be present enough, caring enough, and willing enough to keep showing up.
That’s what “good enough” means.
And sometimes, it turns out to be more than enough.
