The 21st century has brought a shift in every aspect of life, especially for parents, have to face certain challenges in their parenting style. Parenting is now more a daunting task than a smooth one. As the world is progressing, the expectations for having an advanced life are also increasing. Traditional parenting was stuck to a simple life. It was all about having a child, raising him, providing food, giving necessary education and teaching morals of life. Modern parenting is more than having a child and feeding him. It also has to meet the certain challenges that exist in the 21st century.
A rapid shift in attaining the quality of life and inventions to attain it is creating fuss for parents to meet and exceed expectations of the society for their child. The instability has caused havoc and agony among the parents which are turning parenting into mental torment.
- Time Scarcity
- Work-Life Imbalance
- Lack of Moral Values in the Kids
- Lack of Emotional Bondage
- Expecting Kid to Ace in Study
- Child Abuse as an Emerging Challenge
- Imprudent Use of Tech-Gadget
Time Scarcity
Time scarcity is one of the prominent challenges in the 21st century. The world is running on the tick-tock of the clock so do the parents. The 24 hours of the day is not sufficient to juggle household chores, office work, babysitting and individual care. To survive the cutthroat competition, parents have taken part in this race. It is challenging for them to spare some quality time for their kids. The early age of the kids is the most demanding period. They need the attention of the parents for their personal experience.
According to research every 47 seconds, a child neglected.
Unable to manage the quality time with kids, causes serious negligence in child upbringing which in return causes permanent mental torment for parents.
Families are falling apart due to scarcity of time. Parents need to understand that they should manage time to not cause chaos in a child’s life. If they are unable to provide quality time then they should make their kids understand that they have some serious matters to resolve.
Work-Life Imbalance
The daunting task for the parents is to balance their personal life and career. In traditional parenting, the mother was supposed to babysit the child and the father was supposed to work. A switch from traditional parenting to modern parenting has caused the mothers to have a professional life as well.
The continuously changing and rising prices of commodities have made it difficult for the parents to meet their expenses. Both mother and father have to effortlessly work hard for the better future of their kids. Parents have to work double shifts as well to provide quality education to kids.
In all this run, they are collapsing in managing personal and professional life. For the future of their kids, they are deteriorating their present with their absence. Their absence in the life of the kids is the major reason for the inferiority complex that kids develop at an early age which stays with them forever. It is a major challenge for parents to figure out how they can adroitly manage personal and professional life.
Lack of Moral Values in the Kids
Moreover, technology has made the situation more worst. Due to negligence from parents, kids are getting addicted to modern technology. Mobile phones, tablets and laptops have provided the access to kids to the content of their choice. Their innocent brains may fall into the trap of unethical content. It may cause the kids to be alone and unproductive.
With the increasing preference for a nuclear family, the parents have failed in educating the fundamental moral values of life.
The 21st-century parents are more career-orientated which leads the child to lack moral values. The early teenager is the time when kids learn the basic moral values from parents. It is evident from the studies that the failure of mending moral life is the reason kids get involved in unethical activities and develop inappropriate behaviour. This is the reason why kids cannot distinguish between what is good and bad for them.
Lack of Emotional Bondage
One of the most horrific challenges in modern parenting is the lack of emotional bondage between a parent and a kid. When parents do not avail time for kids to cheer them up, celebrate their success and hear their stories it causes a chasm in their relationship. The kids may go astray to find attention from peers. The
parent’s lack of attention toward the kid deteriorates the growth of affection.
The study reveals nearly 40% of kids lack emotional bonds with parents.
Due to this kids do not share their personal space with parents rather they may develop a world of their own with no parental support inside. Parents must develop emotional bondage with kids so they can experience life with emotional support.
Expecting Kid to Ace in Study
One of the problems faced by the parents of school students is that the kid is expected to ace every aspect of student life. If they do not ace the exams they have to face bully from their fellows. The school going kid has to study for long hours a day to exceed the cutthroat competition.
The pressure of acing exams not only affects the mental health of a child but enforces the lack of interest in extracurricular activities as well. Proper time management is needed to reduce the pressure of studies.
Child Abuse as an Emerging Challenge
Child abuse is one of the emerging challenges for parents in the 21st century. Although it has remained in history for a long time it is prevailing more. Parents cannot entrust their children with anyone other than themselves.
Either a girl or a boy no one is safe from child abuse.
Parents need to check strictly the activities of their child. It could be a nightmare for the parents if their child becomes the victim of abuse. Such abuse left an imprint on the mental health of a child. Studies have revealed horrific statistics of child abuse.
According to research 90% of child abuse, victims are familiar with their abuser.
Imprudent Use of Tech-Gadget
It is widely known that only millennials have the true essence of childhood activity.
Generation Z has access to every tech gadget of the 21st century. Due to the unlimited access to gadgets parents are unaware of their kid’s activities. Moreover, the kids are more bound to the comfort of the sofa than to play outdoor games. Kids having their tablets have access to all the dark web which plays with their minds and parents are unaware of this. Research has shown that one in every five young people aged 10 to 17 is sexually approached or contacted online. The imprudent use of gadgets not only affects the mental health but also physical health as well. It affects their studies and sleeps cycle as well. It is a daunting challenge for parents to overcome. Parents need to keep checking and balancing the usage of tablets, mobile phones and laptops.
To sum up, everything that has been stated so far modern parenting has many challenges to overcome.
Modern parents have to look for every need of the child along with financial problems to save them from abuse, and bullying, help to ace exams, develop empathy and manage quality time for them. Not only kids but parents are also effecting by these challenges. All these challenges are prevailing a sense of late family planning. No matter how much the world is progressing but bore challenges as well.