The year end is a time to look at the past twelve months with satisfaction and the coming 12 months with anticipation. It is inevitable that the happenings of the year that has passed will influence the happenings of the year about to arrive. When it comes to parenting, 2012 will see positive trends like the movement towards eco-friendliness, larger families and dramatic names for babies. Some negative trends like greater financial pressure on families, need for increased monitoring of activities and better familial bonding are also present in the horizon. Here are six parenting trends that may have a great influence in the year 2012.
1. Green people
More and more people have become sensitive to the fact that the world is on the brink of total environmental disaster, unless the way one lives and interacts with nature is improved. Thus, in 2012, you will definitely see more of recycling and reuse taking place in terms of toys, books, furniture and other stuff that you wish to get for your kids. Children will want healthier meals and more of organically grown stuff because they will be the ones being heavily advertised. This will mean greater expenses but also better health in terms of food consumption.
2. Filled and fulfilled nests
The financial meltdowns and general environment of unemployment that pervaded the entire world has resulted in more and more people returning home. The home will increasingly become a center of safety and security, irrespective of the age and gender of a person. In fact, more than 20 percent of the young adults between ages 25-35 agree to have lived in multi-generation households in the year 2009. This trend is going to rise definitely. Thus, there will be a move towards joint families rather than nuclear ones. Grandparents will rejoice at the prospect of seeing their grandchildren at home.
3. Old age woes
More people are working their youth and early adulthood out. This has resulted in later marriages and even later child-births. This means that the generation gap between the parents and children is ever-widening. The financial implications are not hard to see. More number of teens and those just starting a family will have to take care of their elderly parents. With the age difference between a father and a son crossing 30-35 years, it is not uncommon to have a youngster who will have to care for the parent even as he/she gets out of the college. Having to care for the elders, the couple put away their child-birth for future times when there are better financial conditions. This trend too is definitely going to increase in the coming years because it is a vicious cycle.
4. Rise of attachment-parenting
With the view of making life comfortable for the children, the modern parents try their best to ensure that they shield the children from all difficult circumstances. Many times, this does more harm than benefit because the child never learns to cope with the difficulties on his own. Nursing is often confused for nurturing by the parents and this will not be beneficial for the child in the long run. Pampering the child and not being strict is something that we are bound to see more of in the near future. With more and more clamor for the rights of independence and individuality, the parents will face hurdles in disciplining their own kids.
5. Keeping the tech-savvy kids safe
Technology as always is a double-edged sword. While it gives instant ways to keep in touch and do work off-site, it also gives the capability to stay in a family and yet not be a part of it. With so much time being spent on smartphones, tablets and others, the chances of children learning from parents via experience has fallen drastically. The parents are to blame too, for they are also stuck on their own gadgets. This has further increased the need for parenting almost bordering on policing. Protecting the children online, in social networks and from the virtual world will be the new responsibility that will take a lot of the parents’ time.
6. Hot and revolutionized baby names
Naming children has got more personalized and revolutionary just like the life in general. Fearsome names like Bear, Fox etc. are being adopted for the boys, while some popular girl names are being modified. Thus, Isabelle is now more popular as Arabelle. There also seems to be strong preference for the vowel A with more and more babies being named from it. The ‘A for Adjective’ also seems to have replaced the ‘N for Noun’ with names like Sunny, Royal etc. getting popular. Among the consonants, M is the hottest letter with more Mays and Millys arriving on the scene. Adding a ‘ley’ as in Finley or Kinley and an ‘ie’ as in Hattie or Addie has become the in-thing. 2012 is definitely going to see a rise in this revolution and a year from now, we may have even more exotic names.