How Parenting is Different After 3 Generations of Parenting Experience

Parenting Doesn't Change as Much as You Might Think it Does

I am one of four kids in a family that had a SAHM and a working dad. I am a mother of 2 and had to be a working mom, and now a SAHGM (stay at home grand mother) of 2 with one on the way! I have lived 3 phases of the parenting life and I have found that while times do change making parenting skills and requirements have to change and be different, it doesn't always mean things have to change and be different. It is all in how you look at a parenting issue that determines how you, as a parent, handle it with your children.

When I was a kid in the 1960's we didn't have a TV or a radio. It wasn't because Dad couldn't afford one, it as because he thought there were more important things to do with our time than sit in front of the "one eyed monster". At the time, we (I had 2 older brothers and 1 younger sister) thought he was the worst father ever! We were embarrassed when we had to tell our friends we didn't watch popular TV shows and I even was laughed at by my 4th grade teacher when I was the only student to raise my hand answering her question "Who doesn't have a television?". I always thought "I'm not going to do that to my kids!" Once a mother myself, I realized that there were more important things to do than watch TV. All us siblings have a lot of other talents.. Sewing, crafts, music, cooking and baking, and other talents not to many kids had then, nor did they have when my kids were in school. And kids these days - it is back to being laughed at if they don't watch the current popular show or teen idol. A TV is nothing much more than a babysitter. What is viewed is certainly what makes the difference. But my kids know how to cook, do crafts, use their imaginations and even READ a book! And all because they did things other than watch TV. While I always believed I would make parenting different for my kids, I have to admit... Dad was right on this one.