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As millennials become parents, the family dynamic is completely shifting again.
The first shift happened when millennials were kids and, for the first time, they became “the boss.” The "baby on board" generation was the rising sun of their parents.
So what happens when the boss child becomes a parent? They want to give their kids what their parents gave them, while maintaining command. So we find a new dynamic: "We're in this together,” where "me time" means spending time with the kids while still pursuing their own passions.
Ask millennial parents what they do with their kids, and 60% say, "I don't only think about kid-specific activities." Forty percent of dads say, "I have no problem with people bringing kids to bars."
Ten percent of millennial moms agree; the rest think Dad's nuts.
In a recent project, I experienced firsthand millennials waiting for a workshop, with 40 people sitting silently, all looking at their mobile devices. I thought this was a little creepy — but we've all seen this "separate togetherness," a central tenet of the millennial parent dynamic.
Watch TV, Rather than Go Online
Yet it’s ironic that the digital generation, the original "digital natives," are pretty anti-digital parents. Because they're concerned about digital disconnection, they view TV as the “good screen.” TV has always been that screen everybody wants to hate when it comes to children, but now parents are so concerned about the digital environment that TV is now OK.
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Source: MediaPost Communications
