Why is traditional parenting becoming less and less popular?

Question

What's the problem with the traditional "old school" ways of parenting? If it got the job done in previous generations, why change it?

Answer 1

the problem is defining traditional in a multicultural country. if we stick with WASP traditions then there is the question of how protestant; go to church every sunday or just holidays, women work or not, alcohol ok or not and you can go on for days with the many permutations of traditional. then you have all of the other geographic traditions ;southern, northern, western, eastern. not to mention jewish, irish, latin etc. in short YOUR traditions may be traditional for your family or area but not for mine. raise your kids the way YOU want to and don't worry about what others say i guess is the best course.

Answer 2

We use it in our home.  Traditional parenting to us means using consequences when they are needed, having a good line of communication with our children, teaching them, loving them and raising them to respect themselves and others.  We have a list of house rules and next to each rule is the consequence for breaking the rule.  We use several disciplinary techniques and yes one tool we use is spanking.  We praise good behavior with a "great job" or a "hey, thanks for behaving".  We spend a lot of time building trust with our children.  My toddler is a wonderful, sweet little boy and my daughter will be the same way.  We find this style of parenting to be the most effective.  We raise our children based on the Bible and the advice from our parents and grandparents when needed.  We don't buy into the new "expert" research because it's a lot of hype.  

Some of the changes over the years I will embrace, like talking more openly with your children and encouraging them to show their emotions and express themselves in a respectful manner.  I like those changes.  But the positive reinforcement only technique and using only "natural" consequences or rewards for discipline I do not agree with.  Sometimes the consequences will not be as nature intended and we will not give rewards for behavior that should be expected anyhow.  And negative behavior gets a negative consequence.  It's cause and effect.

My parents were raised with "traditional" parenting as were their parents and their parents before them.  They raised me the same way.  We have a good open relationship and I trust them and respect them.  My husband was raised the same way and he also trusts, loves, and respects his parents very much.  We don't plan on changing a thing about our parenting but we will learn and grow as the days go by.  I'm open minded to a lot of ideas, but I will not engage in the new age, permissive parenting.

Answer 3

Because everyone thinks what their parents, grandparents, great grandparents, etc did was wrong and this new generation of parents knows everything.

Edit: I got spanked, and there was nothing secret about it.

Answer 4

Because there are new and better ways of raising children.

Do you listen to LP's or CD's?

Need I say more.. you get the drift!

Answer 5

no idea. i'm a young mother and i was mostly raised by my grandparents and that's exactly how i plan on raising my children.

Answer 6

what do you mean traditional parenting?

you meaning spanking or letting you kids go where ever they want for hours on end

its because times change and methods must change with it

Answer 7

I'm guessing by traditional you mean a more authoritarian approach.  I actually have wondered about that myself, and as my 13 year old wanted more independence, I looked up parenting styles and found some interesting answers.  

It seems pretty clear that things are different now.  Kids are different, the world is different.  Kids have to be able to make decisions about things instead of just listening like we did when we were growing up.  They will be exposed to a lot more than we were and they have to know how to deal with it without looking blindly to authority.

Authoritative parenting is being touted as being a good blend of setting limits with your kids' input, so they understand your reasoning and encouraging them to take responsibility for their actions.

Answer 8

I think that it partly has more to do with the government and the difference in regulations from the past to the present.  Back in the day, spanking your child was perfectly acceptable and was even performed by teachers in school.  Now-a-days, in some states, if you spank your child...even a slap on the hand, you can end up in jail.  Children are also more spoiled.  They are not taught the same valuable lessons, like hard work as was taught many years ago.  

Answer 9

i think alot of it ties back to the hippie generation. People are afraid to spank their children anymore because there are so many liberal fruit cakes that consider spanking abuse. Short answer is Literalistic ideas being pushed onto parenting. When I was a kid I was spanked and grounded when I did something bad... I plan on raising my kids the same way.

Answer 10

With the modern world of convenience and immediate gratification, parenting has changed also.  I don't agree with some of the changes, but some of them are good.  I think that trying to understand your children and talking with them instead of down to them is a positive change.  But I think that a lot that has been lost is for the negative.  Children don't expect to have to wait for anything anymore--the whole instant gratification thing (whatever happened to saving their own money from the chores they do at home to buy a bicycle or waiting until Christmas or birthday for that coveted toy?).  

Parents aren't teaching these values because they're too busy with their own lives and getting their kids too busy by involving them in all sorts of extra-curricular activities from a young age on to give them a "leg up".  They don't realize that teaching them the value of money, the value of hard work, and the value of patience far outweigh whether or not that child can throw a curve ball by the time they are 8 or slam dunk a basketball by the time they are 12 or read by the time they are 4.

Answer 11

ummm there was a lot of hush hush stuff going on whith the "traditional way" people just didnt talk about.  I think a lot of it is still used but - really depends on what you call traditional.  Im tough on my kids (which is what I think you mean by traditional), but in my mom's generation, most of them were beat with belts and I wont do that.  Im not into the new-age parenting - like on-demand parenting, but dont find it wrong either, just new ways to parent.

Traditional parenting didnt really work for everyone, I see MANY s***w ups that were parented "traditionally too)

Answer 12

Well, if by "traditional" you mean cry-it-out, crib sleeping, formula feeding, disposable diaper using parenting, I think that is becoming less popular because people are migrating towards the even more "traditional" values of co-sleeping, baby-wearing, breastfeeding more "natural" methods our ancestors had to use before all these fancy things and methods were invented.  Why?  because we know it's better for our kids because that's how nature intended it.

Answer 13

What do you mean by "old school" parenting? Are you talking about spanking, kids-should-be-seen-and-not-heard, sending kids out to play all day with little supervision from a fairly young age and just expecting them home for dinner, putting them in a playpen for huge stretches, fathers being barely involved with their kids' upbringing at all?

Sometimes the job got done in previous generations, and sometimes it didn't.  Sometimes it does now, and sometimes it doesn't.  Some traditional methods are a good idea, some aren't, and some really depend on the kid they're being used on.  Ditto for newer parenting trends.  My parents and their parents, who have plenty of stories to tell about the trouble they got into as kids, would laugh heartily at the idea that misbehaving kids are a new phenomenon.