Quality nurseries have always worked hard to provide a caring and positive learning environment for the children in their care and to build relationships with parents which are based on trust and respect.
At Canopy Nurseries we talk about understanding the needs of today’s parents. To show what we mean by this, this Blog will examine certain aspects of modern life which impact young families and how they affect their needs and priorities.
Compared to previous generations, we are hitting key milestones later in our lives. This includes finishing full-time education, leaving home, getting married and having children. During our extended child-free years we have got used to working, working out and socialising, holidaying and sleeping when it suits us in a culture which prioritises self-care and wellbeing. This means that it can be more difficult to adapt to the practicalities of being a parent, prioritising your child’s care and needs over your own. Whilst every new parent will cope with this change in their own way, becoming a parent is commonly acknowledged to be more challenging and time-consuming than anticipated. If we factor in that many young families have a smaller support network as they tend to live farther away from their parents/extended families and are less likely to be closely connected to their neighbours and local community, adapting to this new way of life can become overwhelming.
Support and connection from the earliest stage helps new parents to adapt to their new way of life.
the traditional husband as the breadwinner and wife as home maker/carer arrangement may be considered too restrictive and old-fashioned in today’s world but it did achieve a clear division of labour so that husband and wife could work together efficiently as a team, each specialising in their clearly defined areas of responsibility. Today, with over 70% of Mums in employment, everyone is trying to do everything; managing careers and home lives, keeping fit and healthy as well as maintaining relationships and personal passions. As a result, it is more difficult to manage our time to fit in everything we wish to achieve.
Speed and efficiency are vital and effective technology at their fingertips to help parents to manage their lives is a base line expectation.
It seems unthinkable that in past decades parents would let their children go out for the day completely unsupervised with no way of contacting them. Today
we are far more aware of the dangers which could be present in our communities and environment and so our culture has become more protective of children. As a result, we keep our children closer to us and supervise their lives in more detail. Whilst our children’s immediate physical safety is paramount, this mindset extends to an awareness that the experiences that children have in their early years set the foundations for their lives so there is also increased parental anxiety about getting the balance right across all areas of their child’s life.
Parents assess security systems and prioritise the most robust protections to ensure that their children are safe. At the same time, they wish to give their children opportunities to build their independence and resilience so that they will thrive in this changing world. (see next Blog!)
Technology and media provides a plethora of information and advice for every aspect of our lives. Whilst this can be helpful and motivating, it can also foster feelings of dissatisfaction and guilt as we are bombarded by images, stories and opinions which can seem to push the narrative that others are achieving more and we and our children should be striving harder to excel in every aspect of our lives.
Parents benefit from building trusted face to face relationships where honest and open communication focuses on reassuring good parents that they are doing well and should trust their own judgement.
The most dramatic long-term change in our cost of living has been the relative price of housing which has doubled from nearly 4 times the average salary in 1970 to almost 8 times the average salary today. This means that it now takes two people’s salaries to be able to afford to buy a house. Inflation rates since 2022, particularly in food and energy prices, have further squeezed household budgets. This requires both parents to work to afford basic amenities such as housing, food and energy and fosters a need for excellent value for money.
Spurred on by the pandemic, work and home life across multiple professions is becoming more interchangeable as flexible working practices become normalised and technology facilitates remote working. This is more likely to be viewed positively by parents as it releases time from commuting and enables parents to work more flexibly around their children. The knock on effect is that parents will want to see this degree of choice and flexibility reflected across all areas of their lives.
There have also been many other positive changes in society which help young families (such as improved healthcare services, increased parental leave, funded childcare hours, safeguarding legislation, time and labour-saving products and services, technological advances, baby classes and parenting groups etc) but modern life continues to change at an ever-faster rate which results in new and changing challenges.
In conclusion, parents’ decisions are driven by their practical needs, for security, speed, efficiency, flexibility and value for money, together with their emotional needs, for trust, reassurance, support and connection. Canopy Nurseries work to provide a nursery experience which extends beyond more traditional boundaries to deliver across all of these needs, bringing more harmony to the busy lives of our parents.
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