Almost everywhere in the world, there is a trend of declining birth rates. More and more people are limiting themselves to having one, at most two children, while many consciously choose a child-free path.
Much of this can be explained by the fact that, despite all the technological progress and overall increase in living standards, parenting is actually becoming a greater burden than it was before.
The publication Yourtango provides a number of vivid examples of how parenting today has become more difficult than in the 1980s. And although the author of the publication examines these changes in the context of the United States, it is notable that almost all the same trends persist in the European context.
Of course, our parents in the Soviet era undoubtedly had it harder without some of the things we have today that were already available in the West back then (diapers, washing machines, accessible baby food, etc.). But in other aspects, especially regarding social changes, we are remarkably similar to Americans with their problems.
So, here are 9 reasons why, according to the authors of Yourtango, raising children in the 1980s was easier than today.
Much Simpler Life Schedule for Children
Modern children have extremely busy schedules, and many experts are concerned about this. Excessive academic loads affect children's emotional well-being.
At the same time, in the 80s, children had more free time for "unstructured play" – playing tag, swings, and jumping rope, etc. Such games helped children learn to take risks and manage their emotions. They learned social skills by interacting with other children and resolving conflicts on their own.
No Pressure on Parents from Social Media
Today, parents can easily receive a lot of criticism for "improper" parenting in response to almost any family-related post on social media. Strangers are quick to tell parents how to dress their child, what to feed them, how to organize their free time, etc.
In the 1980s, almost no outsiders could peek into the inner world of a family.
Less Need to Control Their Children
Modern children have less autonomy than their parents had in their childhood. Children in the 1980s walked to school unsupervised, navigated the city using public transport, and went to the store on their own for their mothers.
While it cannot be said that all of this has become completely unrealistic today, in many described situations, parents still have to control their children more. Especially younger ones. Particularly in large cities.
More Help from Society
In the 80s, it was common for grandparents to help raise children. It was a common occurrence for one mother to watch a group of children from several families one day, while another did so the next. It was also easier to get advice from a more experienced mother.
Today, such mutual assistance has significantly decreased, meaning that modern parents bear a greater burden. Today, young mothers can seek advice on social media, but, as mentioned, they often face a flood of criticism in response from strangers.
Fewer Reasons for Stress
As Yourtango writes, modern parents have to raise children in an extremely stressful era, where "political and economic uncertainty looms over us." This contrasts sharply with the significantly calmer 1980s.
Here it is obvious that for our parents today, this contrast is much more noticeable than for Americans. Our parents in the 1980s lived, albeit during a gradual decline of the USSR, still within an information bubble of Soviet propaganda that convinced them their country was the best and richest. And although this was far from the truth, it positively influenced the psychological state of parents. And, of course, this cannot be compared to our time of full-scale war and economic turmoil, the truth of which is not hidden from us today.
"Screen Time" Was Easier to Control
Over the past 40 years, technology has radically impacted people's daily lives. In the 1980s, parents found it relatively easy to control the amount of time children spent in front of screens. In Soviet realities especially – when there was at best one television for the family, and for most of the day, there was nothing interesting on.
Modern parents have to put in more effort to control how much time a child spends in front of a screen and what content they consume. Modern children watch little television, but they have smartphones, computers, and gaming consoles.
Raising Children Cost Much Less
Another example where trends in the USA and Ukraine turned out to be absolutely identical. The increase in the cost of raising children over these decades is impressive.
And surveys show that young people directly cite a lack of money as one of the reasons they do not want to have children.
Parents Had More Free Time
For both the USA and Ukraine, the trend of an actual increase in the number of working hours per week turned out to be the same. The situation has changed significantly over several decades. Forty years ago, few worked two jobs, while today this is a common occurrence. Moreover, today it has become nearly impossible to find a job with a classic 40-hour workweek in many professions.
And add to this the aforementioned circumstances that force parents to spend more time caring for children instead of their own rest.
Parents Saw a Bright Future for Their Children
And here the situation in Ukraine and the USA is paradoxically identical, despite all the differences between our countries and the circumstances in which they exist. In both the USA of the 1980s and in post-Soviet Ukraine, most parents were convinced that their children would definitely live in a better world than they did.
Today, however, most parents do not have such confidence. Statistics show that new generations in the West are, on average, becoming slightly poorer than their parents.
