How parenting has changed over the past 50 years

Parents are not married but live together

For couples who are going to have children in the future, marriage is no longer a prerequisite, as it once was. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center report, only 7% of parents were unmarried in 1968 but lived together. In 1997, this figure reached 20%, and by 2017 – 35%.

More and more children are being raised by single parents

Advances in reproductive technology today make it possible to have a child virtually without a partner, as a result of which more children are raised by one parent. The Pew Research Center reports that in 1960, only 9% of children were raised by a single parent. By 2013, this number had increased to 34%.

Modern parents have video monitors to watch their children

Baby monitors have been around since 1937, when Zenith Radio Nurse first hit the US market. Parents today have much more advanced options for supervising their babies. In addition to traditional audio monitors, you can buy video monitors that track children’s movements and the temperature in their bedrooms, as well as special monitoring devices that measure the baby’s breathing and heart rate while sleeping.

Less invasive ways to diagnose health problems before the baby is born

Fetal ultrasound has made it possible for parents-to-be to detect health problems before the baby is born and prepare accordingly. Although ultrasound technology has been used during pregnancy since the 1950s, it was not until 20 years later that it became a regular part of antenatal care. Most women today receive two ultrasounds during pregnancy.

Parents can find out the gender of their child before birth

Advances in ultrasound technology have made it easier than ever to determine the sex of a baby in the womb. However, according to Dr. Joseph Wu’s A Brief History of Ultrasound in Obstetrics and Gynecology, it was not until the 1990s that 20 weeks of ultrasound became a routine part of antenatal care.

Gender parties appeared

In the 1960s, people did not celebrate the upcoming birth of a child the way they do today. There were no blue M&M pies, no pink smoke cannons, no sign in the sky. In fact, according to a 2017 article published in the Journal of Gender Studies, it wasn’t until 2008 that the first such gender video was added to YouTube.

Children’s clothing has become more gender specific

Due to the 1970s trend towards unisex clothing and the lack of gender identification before the birth of children, they were dressed in yellow, green and gray colors. Today, there are more gender-sensitive clothing. In stores it is quite obvious which section of clothing is for girls and which for boys.

Children are adopted by same-sex couples

Same-sex adoption, which was virtually unheard of in the 1960s, became significantly more common in the following decades. However, this is a relatively recent trend. It wasn’t until 1997 that New Jersey became the first state in the United States to allow same-sex couples to jointly adopt a child.

More and more moms go to work

Moms make up more of the workforce today than they used to. In 1975, only 47% of mothers worked with a child. In 2014, this number reached 70%, according to statistics.

Strollers have become a status symbol

Although strollers were never cheap, until recently, parents didn’t shell out that much to buy them. In 2011, for example, Bugaboo introduced its donkey stroller, a model that retailed for $ 1500. And the three-piece CYBEX from Jeremy Scott travel system currently costs over $ 3100.

The age of moms has increased

The average age of mothers at the time of their first birth was 21 in the 1970s. And in 2016, the average age increased to 28 years. Now, at a time when overall fertility is declining, there is one group that is showing growth: mothers over 40.