Recently, moms everywhere learned that skinny jeans and side hair parts had been replaced by the mom jeans and middle hair parts. Trends have a way of waffly with each new generation that decides to do something a little (or a lot) different. And just like modern clothes, music, and decor, parenting trends moreover have a whole new vibe than past generations.

Parenting has wilt increasingly of an education than an intuition. Our new generation has ripened fresh new ways to celebrate, approach, and unriddle parenting. Our parents may see these changes as a trend, whereas we may see it as a increasingly conducive way to parent. Regardless of how each generation feels well-nigh today’s parenting trends, we need to tideway each school of thought with compassion and grace. While the Boomer generation may not understand what the millennial generation is up to when it comes to parenting, the marrow line is that all of us are doing what we believe is weightier for our kiddos.

Parenting Over Generations

Any parent can see that parenting trends tend to transpiration over the generations. The ways your grandparents parented are unlikely to be the ways we parent. And the ways we raise our children will likely transpiration when our kids have their own babies. Change, expressly in parenting trends, is inevitable.

The Boomer Generation are individuals born between 1946 and 1964. Their name reflects the increased lineage rate that happened during their generation. This generation lived through the 1960’s counterculture of “free love” and sowing their wild oats. They survived the Vietnam War and started the Civil Rights Movement. They moreover raised their children to want to go to higher and make the weightier all-American life for themselves. Boomers tended to pinion to traditional family structures and gender roles.

Millennials were born between 1981 and 1996. They are the children who grew up with the internet and lamina phones stuff a unvarying and normal presence. They have witnessed and embraced the rise of social media, and many urgently wait to get married and have children, focusing first on their careers. Millennial parents are more confident in their parenting abilities, but they’re increasingly likely to struggle financially. Millennials are moreover increasingly unshut to non-traditional families and parenting styles.

Each generation has approached parenting differently through its own experiences, struggles, and weighing systems. Whether one way is largest than flipside is unchangingly the argument. But each generation views their parenting style as the “right” one. And this viewpoint can often rationalization mismatch between grandparents and parents of little one’s today.

Boomers vs. Millennials: Parenting Trends

Here are ten parenting trends that have wilt worldwide for the Millennial generation of parents and have Boomers shaking their heads in wonder and confusion!

Baby Mania

In a world where everything is social, posting your child’s every milestone on the internet has wilt a hot trend. From their first steps, their bad moments, bathtime joys,  slumber photos—you name it, Millennial parents have posted it! Then there are those parents who share with true love, bringing sensation to unrepealable baby-centric topics and wanting their friends and family near and far to see it all in real-time.

This is vastly variegated from our parents, who used a camcorder to record life milestones. Some may say it’s too much or not considerate of the child and their future feelings on the matter. Others circumspection well-nigh the safety of some photo content regarding your children. This parenting trend may be too instant and oversharing for the Boomer generation, but some have embraced it. Many grandparents fathom seeing their grandchildren play in a baseball game or take their first steps in real-time. In that way, it is a step up from relying on a camcorder and getting a elapsed reaction.

Gender Reveal Parties

This has wilt such a trend over the last decade! It started with undecorous or pink confection fillings, glitter cannons, and exploding golf balls. For Millennial parents, it is considered a fun way to gloat the gender of their baby with family and friends at the whence of their baby’s journey.

This is a nonflexible concept for our boomer parents to understand in a world of oversharing. The number of celebrations that have been “created” can seem absurd. “Where is the joy in the unknown?” they might ask. This may be a trend that only this generation will understand.

Pre- and Postpartum Health

It used to be that a mother’s health was monitored very closely during the nine months of pregnancy, but their health pre and post-baby was left by the wayside. This new trend of enhancing and helping moms’ mental and physical health surpassing and without victual has really taken off! You can find pre/postpartum yoga, therapy sessions, and support throughout whichever stage of motherhood you find yourself in.

When women became mothers years ago, some fathers would only show up for the birth and then return to work. The idea of paternity leave was not plane a fleeting thought. There was this idea that this was a mother’s job, and we didn’t talk well-nigh postpartum health or any mental strain it had. This new world of superintendency for mothers is remarkable and, hopefully, a trend that Boomers understand and value.

Sleep Training

If you have been a new parent and dealt with sleepless nights and pure exhaustion, you will do anything to get a solid night’s sleep. The trend of sleep training has wilt a necessity in early parenthood. Sleep training teaches your victual how to self-soothe and put themselves to sleep without assistance from their parents. The sleep and safe sleep methods for babies have changed drastically over the decades, leaving our grandparents to wonder how plane to lay a victual lanugo safely and navigate the idea of a sleep sack instead of a blanket.

The previous generations may not understand the need for all the traps these days that come with getting a victual to sleep. Yet, the environment in which our children sleep is vastly different. So with that transpiration came some adaptations. They may disagree with it, but it is important to learn to utilize all these tools. That way, when grandma and grandpa have a sleepover, they can mimic the same unscratched and good sleep practices you have so tirelessly worked for.

Sustainability

One of the top trends to hit the parenting scene lately is the idea of sustainability. You may see increasingly eco-friendly victual toys and products stuff advertised. Plane major victual brands have shifted their focus and products to increasingly sustainable materials. It makes a lot of sense to introduce our children to the purest forms of materials at such a young age.

This trend is a far cry from the lead-painted and downright dangerous toys our parents used. Environmentally-conscious products were not misogynist when then. Now that they are, creating pure toys, food, and suit for our children has been embraced by all generations.

Virtual Parenting Support

Millennial parents tend to turn to Google, parenting resources, or other online tools for parenting translating and support. Telehealth and virtual parenting support have considerably impacted the parenting scene. For Millennial parents, joining a community, learning a new skill set, sharing your struggles, and feeling that sense of support and guidance, all at your kitchen table and only dressed from the waist up, is perfection!

The Boomer generation did not have this modern luxury. Many may moreover believe that online support can’t replace developing genuine friendships and polity like in the “good old days.” While that weighing may have merit, thanks to the recent pandemic, the Boomer generation has come to fathom virtual support a little more. It’s harder to deny the convenience and ease of virtual support and learning.

Intentional and Online Learning

Virtual learning became a necessity in 2020, but some have decided it is here to stay. The American Federation for Children polled families and found that 40% of families are increasingly likely to homeschool or virtual school without the pandemic. The poll remoter found that 64% support school nomination and 69% support the federal Education Freedom Scholarships proposal. This idea has moreover led to parents stuff increasingly unshut to the concept of screen time if it is intentional, as opposed to past views of negativity regarding diaper and screen time.

Some may not realize it, but many children who had to self-mastery virtual learning were stuff monitored by their grandparents. Their parents still had to work, leaving the Boomers in tuition of virtual support. They were the glue, sometimes holding the whole trundling of working parents and virtual learning together. From these experiences, many Boomers not only learned well-nigh the formerly foreign idea but embraced it.

Parenting Style Definitions

Millennial parents seem to need to pinpoint what kind of parents they are. This is an idea that previous generations may not understand. We are all parents, they say. What is the difference?

But for many Millennial parents, labeling how they parent is helpful. Are you a gentle parent, mindful parent, or attachment-style parent? New generations have found this systematic way of unescapable parenting an easier, increasingly thoughtful way to tideway the new role of parenting. This may seem like overthinking parenting to our parent’s generation, but our parenting worlds are so different. With well-nigh half of American households having two working parents, creating an organized way of parenting helps Millennials alimony that family structure in place.

Being a Little Extra

Growing up in the 1980’s you probably believed that Santa, the Tooth Fairy, and a few other magical notation came to visit at various times in your early diaper years. Millennial parents have taken this to flipside level. Now there is Elf on the Shelf, a very lucrative Tooth Fairy, Pinterest-worthy birthday parties, and stuffed-to-the-brim “love baskets” for Valentine’s Day, to name a few.

Many Boomer grandparents may finger this glut is a bit over the top, while others may finger it is triumphal life to its fullest. Some grandparents have plane jumped on board! It is just flipside excuse for them to spoil their little loves. And who can vituperation them?

Everyone Wins

There is a trend that there are no well-spoken winners anymore. Everyone who participates is a winner. Studies have shown that the concept of empathy is lost these days with our children. Citing the rise in technology and other environmental factors during the early years of development, children have difficulty understanding and exhibiting empathy. Millennial parents trying to build a sense of fairness for their children started the idea of everyone winning. But this research seems to indicate the consequences of that mindset may not be a good idea without all.

For Boomers, this “everyone wins” mindset is nonflexible to wrap their heads around. They learned to work nonflexible for their upbringing and only be recognized if they achieved something. A trophy for everyone mentality is not a concept most Boomers will understand or appreciate.

“Weird” Names

Okay, this one is kinda funny considering it’s true. In a recent survey out of Australia, one in five grandparents admits they hate the names their Millennial kids gave their grandkids! Many Millennial parents segregate unique, cultural, or sometimes odd names for their babies, much to their Boomer parents’ twister (and sometimes despair). And who can vituperation the Boomers, with classic names like Grace, Robert, Catherine, or Charles? Naming a child something they’ve never heard of and perhaps can’t plane pronounce takes some time to get used to.

While it may be understandable that Boomers dislike or disapprove of unique victual names, the truth is that it’s not their choice, and they should work to respect the nomination of the Millennial parents who will be raising the uniquely named child. Without all, having a “weird” name should not stupefy how much a grandparent will love that baby!

While these new trends in parenting may be well-flavored to the Millennial generation, their Boomer parents may finger otherwise. Many of these parenting trends can seem variegated and perhaps unsafe to them. Variegated is a pearly way to describe them. But just considering something is variegated doesn’t make it wrong. Parenting styles transpiration based on the needs and experiences of each generation. We can not raise our children the way our parents raised us, simply considering that world no longer exists. And one day, our children will make us scratch our heads in ravages as they explain to us the latest parenting trends of their generation. It is a trundling not likely to end unendingly soon, but having compassion and respect for each other will help make the transition much smoother for both Millennials and Boomers!