Here's How Parenting Will Completely Change After 2020

It's no secret that 2020 did a number on most of us. The year changed so many things, from how a lot of us work to what we eat and even to how we parent our kids. After all, if there's one lesson we can take from 2020, it's that it's really important to take nothing for granted. 

It seems like a lot of parents are thinking along these lines, and that the ways we parent our children, and even the ways we identify as parents, are changing for the better. There are quite a few shifts underway. Pure Wow posits that one big way parenting will change in 2021 is that we will begin to have "more honest conversations" about moms who work outside the home. While moms have been arguing for more flexible workplaces as long as they've been part of the workforce, most companies haven't been willing to budge — that is, until COVID-19 forced them to. Now, many are hoping more flexible work environments will be permanent.

Katya Libin and Amri Kibbler, the co-founders of HeyMama, explain, "We've seen so many moms point to the ways companies have met their employees where they are in 2020— proof they can do the exact same thing in 2021 and beyond as we come out of the pandemic."

It turns out our collective experiences last year may have altered a huge parenting battleground: screen time! Tech lifestyle expert Carley Knobloch believes that screen intention will be everything in 2021. "For example, if it's for school, it's a necessary evil. If it's for connecting with friends and relatives, that feeds the soul and helps kids get through this terrible time."

In other words, the whys involved in screen time will become just as important as the how longs — for most of 2020 and probably most of 2021, screens are how our kids will connect with their friends and loved ones. They're just part of the package now. Bye, screen time guilt!

Ultimately, how parenting changes and what impact that has on our children may come down to parenting quality. In "It's Okay To Be A Different Kind Of Parent During The Pandemic" on The Atlantic, Psychologist Irwin Sander explained, "The quality of parenting is what ... differentiates those [children] who do well versus those who don't do well. In a sense, that's a very optimistic message. Because it indicates the power of parenting."