Parenting Then and Now

Parenting then and now is very different. In our last blog we discussed parenting today versus the past and this is a continuation of that post. What all do you think has changed dramatically about parenting then and now?

I challenge you to unplug from all your electronics and social media for one day, let alone one week, and see how parents lived in the past. You can learn a lot from this process. Similar to health blogs talking about eliminating toxins in your body, we encourage you to eliminate social media toxins from your life for a while and see what happens. Children seemed more creative in the past as they had to come up with things to play outside when they were bored.

There is nothing better than sitting down, connecting and bonding with your children without cell phones making a noise every five minutes. Talk with your children face to face.

We all want to give our kids the best childhood ever. Some of us want our kids to have the childhood you never had. There are no right or wrong answers really. Over the past decades, there has been both positive and negative aspects. Overall, the goal is to help your children learn, grow, and give back to society.

Meal Changes

Growing up working for my parents in their family owned business of making oversize casket for the morbidly obese, it made me think about how people even got to this point. Decades ago, parents made meals at home as fast food was not an option or encouraged. Today, with our lives being more busy it is just easier to go through the McDonald’s drive through. We do not pay attention to our food, until a disease comes along affecting our health. We would drink straight from the water hose and not think twice about it, in the past. Parents today versus the past are concerned about what is in their water to the point that we now buy bottled water.

Homework

Parenting then and now has changed a lot. There was also less homework decades ago. Parenting today versus the past seems to be more focused on doing more homework than ever after school. With more access to information online however, it is easier to complete a project without having to go to the library.

The different roles in parenting has impacted our philosophy of parenting today versus the past and may be due to the changing structure of family and the economy.

We would spend hours on the corded phone (with the cord wrapped around us) for hours talking to our friends. Today, kids just text back and forth quickly talking to each other. You would go to the movie rental place to find a great movie to watch versus today, you can just watch a movie over the internet.

Photos

As far as parenting then and now, today parents take photos and print them directly from their phone or upload them to social media to share. In the past, parents would take photos of their children, would have to take the film to the store to develop, then put them in your photo album or a shoe box. I encourage you to go back to this time and save your most favorite photos, by printing them off and saving them in a Baby, Wedding, or “Any Occasion” DIY Time Capsule. Then, in the future (maybe 20, 30, or 50 years from now) open the time capsule and reminisce over these photos, their stories, and other significant treasures you save in your time capsule. Get one of these time capsules here.

Car Trips

In the past we had to play games like, “I Spy” in the car for long trips to keep us entertained for hours. Today, kids can watch movies or play games on their phones for entertainment. It may make it easier as a parent for your children to have these many resources at their fingertips in the car, but has it affected our communication and bonding time of talking about how things are going at school, or what they like doing with their friends?

Would you rather be a parent decades ago, or today? Why? Comment below.