If you would like to make the most out of your parenting and ensure that you are taking advantage of the latest innovation, while embedding traditional values in your family life, you will have to know how the roles of mothers have changed over the decades. There is nothing wrong with the changes, but you might want to consider teaching some of the values and skills to your kids that you were introduced to. Passing on traditions is a good way of engaging with your past and family history.
Mothers Working Full Time
Today, most of the women are not only needed to work full time, but they are also keen on building a career. Some say that women have to work harder than men to get to the same point in their work life, and that is why taking time off to have kids is sometimes difficult. An increasing number of women make a decision to have kids later in life. Thanks to the latest technology, there are now ways of giving birth to healthy babies over 40, according to fertility news, and many celebrities have done so.
The Role of Career In Women’s Lives
It is not only the fact that women work full time that has reduced the number of kids per family. It is also the fact that building a career is higher on female professionals’ priority lists. It is more challenging to bring up kids and build a career at the same time unless you have a supportive family or partner who is ready to jump in to help you out. This doesn’t mean that families don’t want kids; it is just that they cannot necessarily fit them in their lives.
Childcare
Unlike a few decades ago, childcare is widely available for families with small kids. You don’t have to pay for a babysitter; there are plenty of nurseries out there that will offer affordable options. This means that women don’t have to stay home for years looking after their kids unless they want to or they can afford to. However, some women feel guilty about missing the first years of their children, and they are torn between family and work. Housewives in the 50s didn’t have this problem, as families could live off one salary.
The Role of Education
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One of the main goals of parents today is putting their kids through higher education. It can be expensive to fund your child’s college course, and it is important that you get them to take responsibility for their future. You should get them to find a part-time job as soon as they can, so they can pay for their driving lessons, car, and some of their courses. As kids usually fly the next much later in life, families will have to support them through their early years.
Lack of Skills among Teenagers
It is hard to get kids to be interested in traditional and practical skills. It is, however, important that you empower them to manage their money, cook for themselves, and learn to fix things. For example, in the last century, mothers passed on the skills of dressmaking to their daughters, and they could start a new life and home on a budget. Today, it is all about saving time and convenience. Most kids don’t really know where the food on the table comes from, not to mention how to use a washing machine or fix an appliance at home. These skills should be taught in school, but there are too many other subjects to learn that kids just miss out.
Kids Are More Independent
While teenagers rely on their parents’ financial support for longer, they are also more independent when it comes to making their decisions. With the abundance of information, kids will feel like they know things better and fail to listen to older people. This is a real challenge for today’s parents. You will find it much harder to control a teenager’s communication or even ground them than ever before. Mobile communication has changed families forever.
The Lack of Respect for Skilled Work
If there is one thing that has disappeared from today’s society, it is the value of honest skilled work. Most parents wish their kids had a well-paid job and did well in school. This means that many of them will end up in college and hate every minute of it, just to land in a well paid, but boring or stressful job. The standards have changed, and an increasing number of parents push their underachieving kids through college, hoping that this will give them a better chance in life. While mothers have to be protective, they should also be realistic about what is best for their kids.
The Disappearance of Traditional Families
Mothers can no longer rely on family support and trust their marriage to last forever. Families fall out, divorce rates are going up, and traditional families are rarer than ever. With the increase of same-sex marriages, as well as parents who don’t live together or are not married, there are no real standards for how a family should look like. There are no role models, and the influence of the church is weaker than ever.
Weaker Family Values
When it comes to family values, there are no standards anymore. Respect is rare, and there are certain boundaries that no longer exist. People don’t consider family ties stronger than those created at work or friendships. This means that there is often a lack of support from the extended family, and single mothers suffer in particular. If you would like to bring up happy and healthy kids, you will need to create clear standards of behavior and expect a certain level of respect from every member of the family.
Some say that bringing up kids today is harder than ever. There are certain challenges today’s parents, in particular, mothers face, but it is possible to overcome them.
