Top 10 Parenting Trends That You Need to Know About


Parenting Trends

The Covid-19 pandemic changed different aspects of people’s lives, including parenting.  The new normal has introduced new parenting movements and styles.  Indeed bringing up a child is not easy because it’s equally exciting and daunting.

Dads are busy working, and creating a work-life balance is a challenge; the same applies to moms.  As a result, parents have turned to emerging technologies to keep their children busy during the lockdown.  This was the time when education, economy, and industries were severely affected.  At that time, both children and parents turned their homes into their battlegrounds.

The article will tell you about parenting trends that emerged during the pandemic and continued into 2022.

Top Parenting Trends For 2022

1.    Children’s Mental Health

The pandemic-induced situation confined parents and children to their homes.  Kids were forced to continue their education online, a style they were not accustomed to.  They were confined to the home and cut off from the regular outdoor environment.  This restricted their physical movement and mental navigation because their interaction with peers came to a standstill.  It was really hard for kids to cope with this new normal and not only those with challenging lives but even those from affluent neighborhoods and the happiest of homes.

Children have missed social interactions and major development milestones in the last 2 years.  The repercussions of lockdown on children are yet to be felt, but they will be in the years to come.  As a result, there is increased advocacy for children’s mental health.

Many local authorities and schools have partnered to support kids’ mental health even as teachers try to catch up on lost learning time.  Parents, on the other hand, are returning to pre-pandemic rules even as normal life returns.  For instance, they’re now reducing the screen time which children were plugged in during the pandemic.  They’re mindful of the time their kids spend on the internet or engaging with the digital world but without infringing on their privacy.

2.    Positive Parenting

A global health crisis was not something that people anticipated.  Parents were severely affected by the loss of employment, closure of schools, and extended lockdowns.  As a result, they flooded social media seeking support on how to raise their children during the isolation period.  Others went online to share their highs and lows of parenting.  This trend has continued post-Covid-19 as parents face and share the realities of raising kids at such a time.

Parents understand how awful it was and still is to work remotely and take care of a family.  They’re worried about the uncertainty of what 2022 will bring, such as a new coronavirus variant, more lockdowns, and more booster jabs.

Honest parenting is coming to the fore in 2022, and more parents are happy to see its impact on their children’s lives.

3.    Support from Virtual Groups

Social distancing and isolation during the health crisis reduced the spread of coronavirus but caused mental health issues.  Most parents took to digital platforms to seek assistance on how they could execute their parental roles positively.  The fact that parents could make a quick call with their doctor or child’s pediatrician, seek support from other parents on social networks or participate in an engaging conversation on virtual platforms or facilities helped them keep sanity during the health crisis.

Indeed many social media handles offered parents support to help them cope with new challenges caused by the pandemic.  There were many discussions on topics like mental health because of pandemic-induced stress.  The trend has continued post-Covid-19 era because, as mentioned above, the repercussions of the lockdown on children and their parents are still going on.

Further, instead of bloggers and content creators publishing unrealistic perfection levels, they’re now highlighting the vulnerable side of parenting.  They’re also holding discussions about miscarriages, the needs of special children, how to support special parents, etc.  In other words, like-minded parents visit social media to find solutions to similar issues they are all facing.

4.    Engagement in Outdoor Activities

Many families turned to indoor picnics, midnight feasts, building castles using Amazon boxes, and the like during the pandemic.  The good news is that the hospitality industry and socializing are back, even though it’s not 100% what it was before the pandemic.

Parents are organizing outdoor activities and vacations across the border in order to experience things beyond the TV room and kitchen.  Indeed indoor activities bring families together but attending outdoor events help children enjoy material gifts away from home.  Parents want children to enjoy the post-Covid era by visiting museums, national parks, wildlife reserves, resorts surrounded by lush greenery, and beaches or engaging in adventure sports.

5.    Balanced Parenting

For the last two years, Zoom calls were characterized by background noises from playing children.  Working parents spent a considerable amount of time with their children, which made them happy.  Indeed the layer-on home-schooling and parents working remotely was a lot of household- and child-management.

The return to normal life that people lost during the pandemic has changed a lot of things in the family.  However, parents seek parental benefits such as a hybrid working model or paternity leave.  The goal is to spend more time with their children as they did during the pandemic.

6.    Work-Life Balance for Dads

Truth be told, the global health pandemic was a nightmare for many people.  However, it was an unexpected gift to many fathers because it gave them ample time with their families, something they have always craved for.  Indeed new dads took advantage of the lockdown to establish a new approach to parenting.

Indeed fathers actively participated in raising kids during the Covid-19 pandemic.  They also managed more household responsibilities which was not possible pre-Covid.  The extra family time that men got thanks to lockdown served as an eye-opener in terms of childcare and managing household work.  Before that, it was mothers who took care of those responsibilities, but today both partners share them, which has made it less tiresome for women.

7.    Know Your Kids Better

Both parents and their kids had a rough time during the pandemic.  The uncertainty in the changing world was and is still a real struggle for today’s children.  Indeed during the two years, clinically elevated depression and anxiety symptoms nearly doubled among children during the isolation and social distancing months.

As a result, the advocacy of kids’ social and mental health has been on the rise.  It’s an important parenting practice for parents to know their children.  They can do that by engaging them more in conversations as opposed to gifting them.

8.    Gender-neutral Parenting

Although this trend has been around for a decade, more and more parents have picked it up.  In fact, millennial parents don’t want to put their kids in predefined boxes of society.  Instead, these parents want their kids to experience, experiment, or express themselves without conforming to any gender roles.

Gender-neutral parenting promotes kids’ self-esteem and self-awareness instead of labeling them wheels or heels and blue and pink as they grow up.  Putting children into rigid gender binaries is detrimental to kids and the idea of an inclusive society.

9.    Experience is Better than Material Gifts

Parenting in the post-Covid era is geared towards teaching children to prioritize experience over tangible or material goods.  An experience is better because it reminds them of the time they spent either working, cooking, or playing together.  Such times curate a memorable experience for everybody in the family.

Further, experiences remind your children that you will be there for them, and your time is the biggest reward compared to material gifts like toys.  Parents train their children that bonding is the priority and they’re part of the parenting process.

10. It’s Safe to Use the Internet

Internet usage increased during the pandemic because physical schooling was halted, and education transitioned to virtual classes.  In fact, almost every aspect of life was switched virtually.

Most students attended their classes online via videoconferencing apps during the pandemic.  So a bigger percentage of their interaction was confined to the internet.  While it’s hard to eliminate the use of the internet, parents are alert to avoid any misuse or unsafe use by their kids.  The new parenting trend entails making the internet a safe place for children and, at the same time, understanding their needs.