Often, Pew found, that means more emotional engagement. About half They said they were raising their children differently than their own parents had raised them, and most said the main difference was how they showed love to their children and How to build relationships. In candid responses, they said they want to raise children who feel unconditionally supported by their parents. This meant less yelling, and more verbal affirmations, outward displays of affection and honest conversations about difficult topics.
“I didn’t have a safe place to express my feelings to be understood,” one mother, 32, told Pew. “I try to check in with my kids weekly to check in on how they’re doing. Even if they’ve had a good week, I find it’s important to remind them now. It is also good that you are there for them.
Becky Kennedy, a psychologist known as Dr. Becky who founded the parenting group good inside and wrote a book of the same name, said that this was common among the parents she worked with: “I think this generation knows that they need, and are allowed to go more and more, ‘It was a really pressing need.’ “
“Forever, parenting has been the only job in the world that we don’t get any training or support for. We’re just expected to do it,” she said. “This generation knows how important that is, and it feels difficult because they know how broken the system was for parents and they’re trying to fill that void.”
Another way it’s getting harder for parents, according to the survey, is a new set of concerns about children’s well-being. Parents usually have this kind of anxiety but the fear has changed over time. The so-called helicopter parents of the 1980s were mostly concerned with physical safety, such as kidnapping and teenage pregnancy. Those concerns remain, but have been superseded by people’s concerns. Mental health: Three-quarters of parents said they were worried their children would experience anxiety or depression or bullying.
Low-income parents and Hispanic parents, especially immigrants, were more likely to be concerned about potential violence, including across the board. Four in 10 Hispanic parents, and the same share of low-income parents, said they were extremely or very worried that their children would be shot, compared with one in 10 of high-income or white parents. Compared to parents.
