To wonder how people will parent in 30 years...

[Oakenbeach]

I’m mid-40s and remember when smacking, even in school, was accepted, back seat belts were optional, let alone car seats, and bike helmets just didn’t exist.... it got me thinking where we’ll be in 30 years or so if things continue as they are. I’m thinking:

It will be mandatory for children to wear safety helmets and an assortment of pads when taking part in any physical activity at school. Parents who don’t dress their kids to go out will run the risk of zealots reporting them to SS

It will be expected that you supervise your children up and down stairs until the age of at least 12.

Chocolate and sweets will be treated like tobacco is today.... sharing a mouthful of cake with their children will be a safeguarding matter

Telling your child to do anything, even calmly, will be decried as abusive by many, as “you’d never tell an adult to do anything!”. Asking politely, whatever the circumstances, will be the only acceptable way to get a child to do anything. Teachers will risk the sack if they don’t.

Well, they won't be able to be overly permissive and massively overprotective .

I reckon they'll be a bit less paranoid actually, but of course they'll do some things differently. Just recently a study has come out and said we use too much sunscreen and it's adverse to health.

I also wonder if they'll be as bothered by really early bedtimes and not leaving kids on their own until they're 50 . Doubt it.

Hmmm, this is a very interesting and difficult question to answer.

I am 29 and was very coddled as a child (no real discipline) but I believe I've grown into a very sensible and mature adult (bit rubbish at housework though.)

I think parenting will still be a mixed bag, as it's always been.

I can imagine that the parents of the future will either be even MORE addicted to technology, or that there will be a huge backlash. It will be seen as embarrassing/outdated or even abusive to post pictures of children online. We might catch up with ways to safeguard children from sexting and online abuse - we might become better at policing the internet.

I agree that less children will be born in Western countries, it will continue to become too expensive for families with moderate incomes to have children.

I believe there will be a mix of very religious styles parenting versus atheist/technology led parenting (to reflect population change.)

I think there could be a huge backlash from all the gender neutral talk, perhaps people will fall back into being very traditional for children (personally I don't think that's a good thing, but I also think the gender neutral stuff has become a bit of a parody of itself.)

I don't think kids of the future will get to see as much nature or as many beautiful animals sadly.

Interesting about the use of too much sunscreen.

I wish we had a like button. Crate training