*Spoilers about Netflix’s Ginny & Georgia Seasons 1 & 2 ahead!*
Every family has their own unique way of living and interacting with one another. Certain circumstances can switch up family dynamics, such as a family member going through a struggle or a change in financial status. The way families are created and composed varies and the types of families we see are always changing.
No matter the type of family, communication is key to establishing a healthy relationship. Sometimes this communication can come naturally while other times families may need some help from an outside source and possibly choose to attend marriage and family therapy. One television show that exhibits family dynamics is the Netflix hit Ginny & Georgia.
Anchor Therapy is a counseling center in Hoboken, NJ with mental health therapists specialized in helping children, teens, adults, and couples with anxiety, depression, relationship issues, trauma, life transitions, and more. Anchor Therapy is accepting new clients and is now providing in-person sessions and teletherapy sessions to residents of New Jersey, New York, Florida, North Carolina, and Utah.
Different Types of Families can Include:
Single parent households
Nuclear households
Extended families
Childless families
Step families
Grandparent families
Polyamouros families
Racially diverse families
Culturally diverse families
Who is Ginny?
Ginny is a teenage girl that finds herself having to navigate a new town and high school. Ginny experiences cultural differences being black while living with her white mother and brother while attending a predominantly white school. She also deals with puberty and body image issues. Ginny finds herself struggling with anxiety and self harming which eventually leads to her seeking a black female therapist. On top of all this, her once-perfect relationship with her mother begins to fail.
Who is Georgia?
Georgia is a mother of two that has been widowed and divorced multiple times. She is often chasing a better lifestyle for herself and kids. Whenever things seem to be going her way it all seems to come crashing down. Things have never been easy for Georgia. She was born into a physically and sexually abusive household with parents that struggled with substance abuse.
She then ran away from home at a young age and fell in love. She then became pregnant with Ginny and her first love began to fall apart due to the reality of being young parents. Zion, Ginny’s dad, stayed in her life but often traveled. Even though Georgia and Zion were co parenting, the single Georgia constantly was in and out of relationships with toxic men. With the odds stacked against her, she still worked her hardest to protect her kids. The question is- was it the secrets she kept from her children that led to the demise of their relationship?
What is Netflix’s show Ginny and Georgia about?
Ginny and Georgia premiered for its second season on January 5, 2023 after a successful first season in 2021. The show follows the chaotic life of a divorced mother, Georgia, who is navigating her newly single life after being recently widowed when her ex-husband died from an unexpected heart attack. Georgia is a mother to her teen daughter, Ginny, and nine year old son Austin. Georgia and her husband Zion had Ginny at a young age with little family support which led to a rough start. Georgia did her best to support her children when her and Zion separated which led her to make hard decisions.
These decisions often put Georgia in harm's way and forced her to make decisions she felt were to protect her family. While struggling on the streets to support her family, Georgia found joining a gang that offered her protection and they treated her as one of their own. From this gang affiliation, Georgia learned when to run, scam, and get by in this chaotic and crazy world. Fast forward from Georgia skating by, she has now landed her family in a new shiny neighborhood in pursuit of a fresh start. However, Georgia’s past relationships and antics she tried to conceal from her children all begin to come to light.
Georgia’s secrets reveal themselves with the help of a public investigator, leading to Ginny’s changing perception of her once-perfect mother. Ginny does not know how to confront her mother about her past and begins to conceal this information. Ginny begins coping in unhealthy ways and keeps the secrets she has about her mother inside. With all this piling up, Ginny shuts out her friends and family, self harms, and experiences panic attacks.
What is the mother-daughter dynamic in Ginny and Georgia?
Some people grow up with healthy relationships between themselves and their mothers while others grow up with no relationship at all. The relationship a girl has with her mother can direct how she develops and have an effect on her life as a young woman.
A parent’s influence has a massive effect on a child’s development. It can affect a child’s:
Emotions
Social skills
Physical growth
Cognitive development
Independence
In Ginny and Georgia’s case, they formed a great attachment style when she was younger since Georgia was Ginny’s primary caregiver and never left her side. Even with this solid foundation, the cracks in Ginny and Georgia's relationship started to show as Ginny started to become a young adult. Even though this show is fictional, it still reflects the various aspects that make up a family relationship.
It is important to note the difference between privacy and keeping unhealthy secrets from each other. Ginny feels the need to keep her romantic relationships from her mother since she knows Georgia will interfere in order to protect her daughter. Overall, Ginny finds her wanting her relationships to be more private. Keeping a secret may be Ginny hiding her self harm and panic attacks from her mother. Georgia soon discovers this when she violates Ginny’s privacy and reads her journal.
Georgia has a right to her privacy as well since she wishes to conceal her mother's drug abuse or rough past so she can come off more appealing and put together in the public's eye. However, she hides the reasons her family is constantly moving and how her past relationships fell to pieces. These secrets were not minor since, involving disappearances and death which were often covered up by the gang Georgia grew up in. For this reason, it is important to establish trust and boundaries between a daughter and mother. In every family dynamic respect and trust are fundamental in having a healthy relationship. For a daughter to share how she is truly feeling, it is paramount for her to feel her mother is hearing her and can respect what she is saying.
Ginny developing into a young adult
When a girl is going into adulthood a lot is changing in their lives. Minus the typical puberty talk and discussions about “our bodies changing” other ideas pile on in high school. With the introduction of boys, who likes who, and new friendships forming, there are more serious ideas that can come to light. Ginny lacked a sense of belonging since she normally lived in white neighborhoods and lived with her white mother and younger brother.
Even when attending her new high school, the other black girls explained to Ginny she was “white washed” which is a term that describes black people that have adapted to the white culture versus embracing their own. Ginny also never formed friendships or had romantic connections since she moved around so much. Now that her family seems to be staying put with Georgia being newly engaged, Ginny is forming relationships she has never experienced before. She has to navigate the typical popular girl group she was invited to join and a potential new boyfriend. With this to consider, it also is crucial to note the outside circumstances Ginny is dealing with and concealing in her family life.
Austin’s Family Dynamic Struggles
Austin, Ginny’s half-brother, is somewhat a forgotten character in the show but the family dynamic shows through his actions. Austin and Ginny have different fathers. Austin’s father is in jail for fraud and embezzlement and was arrested when Austin was young. To keep in touch with his father Austin would write letters to his father which he expected his mom would send out.
While snooping through his mother’s closet, Austin found all the letters he thought his father was receiving. Georgia had never sent the letters and had been keeping them all these years. Austin is only nine and does not understand why his mother was never sending the letters, so he begins acting out. He skips classes and even ends up starting a physical fight at school where he stabbed another classmate with a pencil in a fit of rage. These behavioral issues stem from Austin feeling unheard by his mother and his emotions not being recognized. If you are looking to support your child’s emotions, check out our blog “3 Ways to Help Your Child Express and Manage Their Emotions.”
How Family Counseling Can Help
Family counseling can help in numerous ways. Anchor therapy takes its own initiative in family counseling and works towards improving communication and resolving problems within the family unit. Families can choose to attend therapy for various reasons other than their struggle to properly communicate.
Some common reasons why people seek family counseling include:
Behavioral issues
Financial circumstances
Injury or illness
Whatever the reason is for attending family therapy, there will be a therapy plan created to cater to every family and their unique situation. Family therapy at Anchor Therapy strives to help a family become its healthiest unit.
The role of comparison in Ginny and Georgia
Ginny constantly compares her family dynamic to those around her. This is unhealthy for Ginny since her family dynamic differs from those around her. Ginny grew up in poverty in a mixed race family while being in a divided household. Her parents were teenagers when they were born and were constantly moving to make ends meet. It is important to recognize that every family starts differently. Some families have more stable and well paying jobs or do not have to deal with racial and cultural diversity. In addition, individuals that make up a family are different. Each person has their own desires and needs while they also have their own hardships. These individual issues are also a factor into family dynamics.
How do I stop comparison in my own family?
Make time for bonding
Making time for each other is important. It may sound cliche but mother-daughter dates are a great way to establish time together.
Some ideas for a mother-daughter date can include:
A scheduled brunch together
Movie night
Going to the spa together
In the show, Georgia tries to keep up with family traditions that they shared together when Ginny was younger. They attend community events together and Georgia often visits Ginny while she works. When Ginny and Georgia participated in these activities they were able to open up a little more to each other or attempt to communicate how they were feeling. Even though some of these bonding experiences were forced by Georgia, the effort was still there.
2. Attend individual therapy
Choosing to go to therapy can be a difficult decision, especially if you are working to get the whole family on board. A start can be you recognizing that you want to participate in therapy. This could be the beginning for you to work on your own communication skills to open up more to your families.
Ginny takes this initiative when she reveals to her father she was harming herself and explains the difficulties she is having with her mother. Ginny’s therapy sessions are helping her learn how to deal more with her emotions and explain to her mom how her actions affect her. Towards the end of season two, Georgia joins in on one of Ginny’s therapy sessions. Now that Ginny is more comfortable with expressing her emotions she is able to finally tell her mother how she truly feels. Being in this space with a therapist that can mediate the conversation and help further explain thoughts or emotions someone might not be able to explain themselves. The individual's choice to go to therapy can extend to the family and, eventually, encourage the whole family to get on board.
3. Strengthen your relationship with your daughter
If you are looking to strengthen the bond between you and your daughter, below are some questions you can ask. These questions are open ended and are not the typical question of, “How was school today?” which most kids just brush off with the simple answer, “Good.”
Questions to ask your daughter:
“What do you enjoy doing with me?”
“What causes you to lose sleep?”
“Who's your best friend? Tell me about them.”
“What’s one area in which I can support you?”
4. Focus on your own self-care and mental health
Before a mother begins to work on and strengthen her relationship with her kids it is urgent to self-reflect.
Questions to ask yourself as a mom:
Is it easy to talk with your daughter?
What are your hopes for her romantic relationships?
How would you describe your emotional connection with your daughter?
Whenever you’re about to ask her a question, pause and ask yourself, “Is this something she can answer in one word or some other short response?”
Do you have a good sense of the role faith plays in your daughter’s life?
Clearly, Ginny and Georgia have a lot to unpack to fix their relationship. The move towards building back their relationship is seen in season two as Ginny finally starts to share what she has been struggling with. In order to make change, someone needs to make the first step and state how they are feeling. It is important to have boundaries established and to distinguish the difference between privacy and secrets. These boundaries can include respecting each other's private property or items they value. For instance, this could be not reading a private journal or snooping through each other's rooms. All families go through individual hardships and that is why there are so many different counseling forms of therapy to cater to family and individual issues.
Sophia Richmond
is an undergraduate student at the University of Delaware studying Human Services with a concentration in Administration and Family Policy. Sophia wants to continue her education and attend graduate school, hoping to work with teens struggling with self esteem, mental health, and eating disorders. She also has an interest in social media and hopes to grow her resume in that area.
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