Believe it or not, the scientific connotation of good and bad parenting is a discovery. Raising children has become a challenging task for millennials in the United States. This has been attributed to the complex and multifaceted nature of parenting in the modern world that requires millennials are forced to navigate a series of issues to raise healthy and well-adjusted children.
Societal Parenting Standards
Scapegoating is a common theme among millennials, who are always under pressure to get the best for themselves and their children. This is like the race against time when the societal standard for raising kids revolves around having the best sleepers, the cutest kids, the smartest kids, the earliest toilet trained, and so on. These are a series of challenges and distractions that millennials often have to overcome, which result in them making rash decisions and feeling guilty when they fail to attain these set levels.
Balancing Family and Career
Millennials are torn between parenting and professional responsibilities. We are in an age where focusing on one often leads to total neglect of the other; this dilemma is tough for millennials to handle. The changing demand of today’s parenting requires a full commitment. It is evident in their gift-giving level, how they care for kids at home and while going to school, being there for their school activities, spending time together, preparing meals, etc. Millennials struggle to carve out time from their packed work schedule to oversee these important parenting aspects.
Parenting Style
There are many types of parenting methods, ranging from authoritarian and authoritative to the laissez-faire style of parenting. Children are said to be vacuum-filled without any experience. They will come with a series of thought-provoking demands and questions that will put their parents in a yes or no position. The choice parenting style millennials choose determines their handling of this situation. There’s no perfect parenting style; everyone has advantages and disadvantages, which constantly worries millennials about choosing one.
Economic Downturn
The constant struggle to give their children the best of the best education and other developmental strides is a major challenge that millennials often have to contend with. This should have been a walk in the park for them, but the present state of the American economy and the world is a significant obstacle. The rising education cost has worsened the strides for most millennials who are pressured to pay through their nose before getting the best education for their children.
Information Overload
Millennials are exposed to excessive amounts of information about the proper way to handle their kids. This is a double-edged phenomenon that has an element of goodness and flaws. Millennials are much more educated than the previous generation, but most times, this leads to information overload, where they are torn between right and wrong information. The truth is that there is no right or wrong style of parenting; children are not trained with textbooks. What works for one child won’t work for the other. Excessive and conflicting information has compounded their misery because they cannot filter out the best out of the garbage being churned out.
Mental Health Struggle
It’s a toxic world with economic crises, wars, political polarization, climate change, pandemics, etc. These problems have taken their toll on the millennials, who are often depressed and unable to shake off their anxiety. Imagine how distorted mental health would be in a child’s upbringing. This thought, coupled with the burden of parenting, causes toxicity on another level, which has serious consequences for the child.
Diverse Family Structure
The evolution of family dynamics from the traditional nuclear family structure to the single-parent household, blended families, and other types has a significant effect on the overall parenting experience of millennials. This shifting dynamics is a major struggle thanks to the differing perspectives and the changes it brought in the face of the harsh economic realities. Parenting in this situation is challenging because two parents’ shared responsibilities are placed on one.
Health and Nutrition
Health and nutrition are two of the most vital components of child care. Any form of imbalance in diet and nutrition seriously impacts the child’s health, ranging from stunted growth, constipation, or change in bowel habits, and they are more susceptible to a series of long-term Welty issues. The millennial generation is wallowing in the pool of processed food and unhealthy food options that make their parenting experience compared to the past generations who had it easier to instill healthy eating in their children
Safety Concern
The rapidly changing world is riddled with many physical and online safety risks that require vigilance and communication. Millennials are saddled with the responsibility of guiding their children against maltreatment, burns, drowning, falling, lead poisoning, and others. Injuries from falls are the leading cause of death among children under the age of 4 in the United States. The safety concern is another consideration that has placed an additional burden on the millennials.
Time Constraint
Millennials struggle to create enough time to bond with their children amidst ever-increasing work demands and busy schedules. This is the everyday life of millennials in the United States, who are required to satisfy the long hours demanded of their work, depriving them of the opportunity to build a good rapport with their children.
Aging Parents
Millennials responsible for the well-being of their aging parents often face different kinds of parenting challenges. Millennials are already facing the consequences of the detailed recession, soaring inflation, economic collapse, and the toxic United States political landscape. On top of these, caring for both their children and aging parents is an emotionally and financially demanding task that requires reinforced commitment and financial obligations.
Education Choices
Choosing from the various brands of education like homeschooling, online learning platforms, and traditional government schools is a challenging prospect for millennials who are struggling to make these choices for their children. Each of the education choices has its inherent strengths and weaknesses. Navigating through the pools of options to select the one that perfectly fits the demands and needs of their children is a challenging process that often worsens their parenting experience.
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