Parenting evolves with the times, and each new generation of parents faces a new set of challenges that their parents would not have considered possible when they started having kids. Millennial parents are just the latest generation of parents who will face their own struggles with parenthood, but there’s a good chance that their day to day challenges will influence the decisions they make with regards to their children. Having kids is a big responsibility in any age, but here are just a few of the unique challenges that millennial parents will have to face.
Finances
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that millennials in America now number 75.4 million, and have overtaken Baby Boomers as America’s largest generation. Yet they are also a generation least likely to own property due to crippling debt and relatively low income. Money shouldn’t be everything when it comes to having kids, but unfortunately they are a big drain on financial resources. If you don’t feel like you’re financially secure enough to pay rent and bills on an apartment, you may want to wait on kids until you have more funds in the bank; the estimated cost of raising a child now is about $241,080. That said, no one wants to wait too long to have kids if they really want them. Some people are capable of raising children on tight funds, but it depends entirely on the individual, and the support they receive from their own family.
Balancing careers and parenthood
Women in particular might feel pressured into going back to work before they are ready for fear of falling behind at work, missing out on opportunities, or losing their job altogether. Fathers might also prefer to stay home with their children instead of returning to work, but there still isn’t as much support available for stay at home dads, either from society, or in the form of paternity leave. This is a vastly different situation to our grandparents’ time, when women were expected to stay home with the children and their husbands went to earn a living. But millennials are trying to balance their identity as parents with their identities as people.
Technology
Now that Facebook is the easiest, most instant way of announcing engagements, marriages, and pregnancies, it is now an age where young children are living under the watchful eye of social media even before they are born. While most parents now recognize that technology is a part of everyday life, they do still worry about their kids exploring the internet unsupervised at a young age. Fortunately, there are safe ways to get your children into technology, and there are ways to limit who can see pictures of your children on your social media page, but it all comes down to individual parenting. Some parents don’t see a problem getting kids into technology as soon as possible, believing that it will aid in learning and keep them occupied, while others would prefer to limit their iPad time and encourage other activities.
