Millennial mom and Gen Alpha daughter share amusing differences in their vocabulary

If you are a millennial or baby boomer who knows the meaning of words like 'sigma' and understands what 'no cap' means, know that you are already ahead of the pop culture curve. This slang is heavily used by Generation Alpha, who are people born between 2010 and 2024, the generation that literally grew up in the digital age and is not familiar with the time before the internet. If you are a parent to a Gen Alpha then you certainly don't want to be using outdated terms in a social setting. This is probably why a mother named Karen Wazen, known as @karenwazen on TikTok, makes an effort to understand what slang her daughter prefers over the popular phrases most of us use in our daily conversations. 

In a short video clip, the mother-daughter duo takes viewers through a set of vocabulary. In the video, the mom lists a few words and the daughter is seen dropping the Gen Alpha alternative to those same words. "Suspicious," says the mum to which the daughter says, "sus" followed by "Honestly", to which the daughter says, "For real." The daughter goes on to drop many terms like, "period" for "that's it," and "flexing" for the term "showing off." She covered more popular Gen Alpha terms like "shook" for "shocked" as well as "excure me" for "excuse me." She also lists slang like, "rizz" which is an alternative for "charm, and "slay" which can be used instead of "cool." The daughter also goes on to share that "sigma" can be used instead of "good."

Lastly, the mom says, "did well," and the second daughter who was in the background of the video the entire time, shouts from behind, "ate it!" Although many enjoyed the video, many took to the video to talk about how most of this slang was more Gen Z than Gen Alpha. "So y'all are just pretending like us Gen Z didn't create modern vocabulary," wrote @Iluvattention. @Lmendes13 commented, "I love the 'ate it' from the other child!"

It's not easy for older generations to decode the everchanging slang curated by Gen Z and younger generations. Many a time, baby boomers and even millennials who were kids just a few years ago can't help but feel puzzled when the younger cohorts start talking. In another video posted by @jalyn.ruszin on TikTok, a daughter documents her mother as she makes her guess the meaning of some Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang. "Alright Mom, what do you think 'rizz' means?" she says in the video. The mom's response shocked her daughter. "WWE character," she replies. 

She then goes on to ask, "What do you think 'Cap' means?" The mother quickly asks if it means that somebody is lying. Many found the video hilarious and took to the comment section to express their thoughts, "Our generation our here creating new languages," wrote @myyoung4ever, while @fatema_reads said, "I’m a 21 gen z and idk what these new slang words are,"

You can follow Karen Wazen (@karenwazen), for more fun content, on TikTok.