Let’s get this out of the way: parenting is hard. No matter how many books you read and seminars you attend, the responsibilities of being parents can swallow you whole. But that doesn’t mean you cannot do a good job of being a parent. While no parent is perfect, the resources available today will make you create a method that fits into the core values that you want your kids to bring into adulthood.
Between juggling work and managing the household such as the electrical installation condition reports, being a parent is nerve-wracking, stressful, and a bit depressing. But every time you look at your kids’ smiles, you begin to think about what ways you can help them grow up in a more stable and happier environment. That’s why you probably came across the concept of modern parenting.
There are typically four parenting methods: authoritarian, permissive, uninvolved, and authoritative. But in today’s modern world, there is another method that combined the best of these parenting styles. That’s modern parenting. It’s the evolvement of the parenting styles of your great-grandparents, grandparents, and parents to fit into this new generation.
Every Family Is Unique
Modern parents know that every family is unique and that they enjoy being different. They are not confined within the social norms and parameters. They know that some families are unconventional—some children come from single-parent households, co-parenting, and same-sex partner households. Modern parents don’t mind these the way your grandparents and even parents minded such unconventionality. They don’t follow a “script” when it comes to parenting. They act the way they do because they know it’s what’s best for their children.
Ignoring What Doesn’t Work
As a parent, you received a lot of advice from your friends, parents, and relatives. Modern parenting means not letting these influence how you raise your children. Sure, you may try one or two methods but if they don’t work with your kids, you also have no problem ignoring them. You want to try different styles and methods with your kids, regardless if they worked with you or not when your parents were raising you. Modern parents only use their parents’ techniques if they are working for their kids.
Use of Science and Proven Data
Thanks to the availability of data, blogs, parenting books, journals, and other resources, parents are more well-informed right now. They use these various data to guide the way they will raise their children. They want to gather as much information as they can because they will use this so their kids will grow up happy and well-adjusted.
Close Relationships with Children
Modern parents are much closer to their kids than parents were before. They understand now that they are more than just parents. They are friends, too. In modern parenting, parents are willing to spend more time with their kids for their social and emotional development. They also love solving problems with them, hanging out with them, and doing errands with them. This close bond will carry over to when the kids are all grown up.
The Misconceptions About Modern Parenting
But there are also misconceptions about modern parenting. Some people jump into conclusions about what this method is. If you read about it from its critics, modern parenting sounds like an excuse to be lazy parents. It’s not. It’s not about letting kids grow up with bad values because their parents were so busy with work. Modern parenting is not about letting the kids grow up without parental guidance. It’s not, as some people like to say, “parenting by TV.”
While some see modern parenting as completely opposed to how your parents raised you, that doesn’t mean you hate or abhor the way you grew up. Unless your parents were abusive, they probably did right in raising you because some of the methods you’re now using stem from their ways. There are still a few strategies that you are now incorporating into your parenting style.
Another misconception about modern parenting is the amount of time parents spend with their kids. Just because modern parents work doesn’t mean they don’t spend time with their kids. In fact, some studies pointed out that today’s parents spend more time with their children than the previous generations. Modern parenting is all about getting to know what works for your children. And unless you spend time with them, you’ll never know if your methods are effective.
There is no perfect formula on how to raise your kids. Every child is different. What works for your children may not work for others. Modern parenting is all about striking the right balance between old and new methods.
