🌸 Honoring Every Season of Motherhood: Top Parenting Trends Today

Here’s your fair dues warning: Mother’s Day is right around the corner. Seriously. Get thyself to the card aisle at the grocery store and prepare your pocketbook for over-priced flowers because the day is almost upon us.

There are things that are timeless about the career of mothering. The sleepless nights with a newborn. The sleepless nights with teenagers. The sleepless nights in general, the classic little black dress of the motherhood set.

And mothering also has its movements, its trends, it changes in course and returns to what’s tried-and-true and celebrations of innovations that enhance what is most often on most moms’ hearts: how do I love and raise these kids well?

As we celebrate Mother’s Day, take a look at what modern motherhood looks like today, from those first inklings that a baby is on the way to figuring out how to adapt your parenting with your adult children. Here are some of the top trends in all the seasons of motherhood today. 

🤰 Pregnancy and Early Parenting: Keep It Healthy, Keep It Simple

Holistic Prenatal Care: Pregnancy care in the past focused a whole lot on prenatal vitamins and once-a-month heart rate checks. Today, there’s a broader focus on keeping mom healthy and well with targeting stretching and strength training, and nutritional counseling that goes beyond relying on that singular morning prenatal vitamin. 

Minimalist Baby Prep: Gone are the days of baby registries that boasted hundreds of items, with every new gidget and gadget considered an essential. Today’s baby moms are keeping it simple, with items that can do double or triple duty, and by ditching expensive clutter that, sure, might be cool but isn’t going to get much use. Minimalistic is the name of the mom game these days, with less is more taking the lead. The focus is on intentional essentials and keeping environments calm and enriching instead of overwhelming. 

Mom’s Mental Wellness: That stats are compelling; 1 in 10 women deal with antepartum depression (meaning depression that occurs during pregnancy) and anywhere from 1 in 8 women up to 20% of women experience postpartum depression after giving birth. 1 It’s the most common complication in pregnancy and the most misdiagnosed. 2 As awareness surrounding these types of depression grow, more mothers are seeking mental well-being support. While there is still a long way to go, today’s medical providers specializing in pregnancy are being encouraged to become more proactive in looking for signs of these types of depression and making it part of their overall evaluations of pregnant and postpartum patients. 

🌸 Trending Tip: Joining a maternity group focused on overall wellness and emotional support could be a great way to take care of yourself before your baby arrives and after. 

💛 Mothering through Adoption and Foster Care

Building a family through adoption and foster care is a beautiful path to becoming a mom. If you’re a Member of Altrua HealthShare in certain states, you may have access to adoption cost sharing as part of your level of membership. If you’re not yet a Member of Altrua HealthShare or want to learn more about adoption cost sharing in the Altrua HealthShare community, contact a Member Services Representative at 1.877.709.1631.

In building your family through these avenues, you’ll likely find forms of the following trends in your experience today.

Significant Growth in Open Adoption and Connection: An average of 3% of U.S. families have an adopted child today, and 95% of domestic adoptions are considered open adoptions. 3 An open adoption means there is some level of contact and sharing of information about the child. Researchers today say that open adoption benefits the adopted child with a greater understanding and empathy for their birth parents, fewer emotional challenges, and better family dynamics with their adoptive family.  4

Support Networks: More than ever, adoptive and foster families find support and community through local and online communities. As more families are able to share their journeys and experiences, families built through adoption and foster care feel less isolated.

🌸 Trending Tip: If adoption or foster care is part of your mothering journey, local communities of similar families and faith-based group can help support and celebrate your family’s story. 

🧩 Momming the Toddler and Elementary-Age Kids: Flexible Structure and Emotional Smarts

Today’s approach to parenting kids in the toddler and early school ages isn’t draconian. And it isn’t a free-for-all. With more insight than ever before in the physical and emotional growth of kids, moms today are able to pull from the best of the research and customize what works best for their children and their families. There should be some structure, but not at the cost of taking advantage of important moments and developmental thresholds. And navigating the sometimes bewildering landscape of toddler tantrums and elementary angst can now be approached with greater emotional intelligence and empathy. 

Boundaries with Understanding: Have clear expectations with your children doesn’t have to be harsh or rigid. Today’s moms are setting good boundaries that are clear and loving while also helping equip their kids with language and tools for all their emotions, not just the convenient ones. 

Screen Time That Makes Sense: Today’s parents are focusing on teaching healthy habits when it comes to screens and technology, with an eye to the reality that kids today will need to be more tech-savvy than ever when it comes to the jobs market tomorrow. Intentional use of screens, with guidance and tools for staying safe, is a great way to model balance.

Family Check-Ins: While there is still plenty of talk with moms about potty training, helping kdis with homework, extracurricular activities and all the rest, there is also greater focus on conversations about the well-being of the family, the emotions family members may be feelings, and check-ins for how family life is working and feeling. 

🌸 Trending Tip: Make it a habit as part of your bedtime ritual with your kids to spend a few moments talking about what they’re grateful for, what was a challenge that day, what made for a good memory. These touchpoints reinforce the importance of emotional resilience and awareness. 

🎓 The Launching: Coaching Your Teens and Young Adults

While it’s certainly tempting to keep doing for your kids like you’ve always done, making the doctor’s appointments, running that extra load of laundry, filling out forms for classes, moms today know that a big part of the job is making sure teenagers and young adults know how to adult. That means that in a season of launching children, moms move from being the manager of their kids’ lives to being mentors. Adulting 101: Today’s moms are more aware than ever that they have to be intentional to impart basic adulting skills. The statistics over the past few years show that 57% of adult children ages 18-24 are still living at home. 34% of 18-34 year-olds are living with their parents. 5 This means that many of today’s parents are juggling households in which their children are adults but are depending on their parents for housing, utilities, and possible finances, groceries, etc. While families need to make their own decisions about living situations and finances, making sure your adult child knows how to manage their own life, even if they’re still living at home, is an important transition in young adulthood.

🥼REMINDER: If you’re currently on a family membership with Altrua HealthShare and your child is about to turn 23, they will need their own Altrua HealthShare membership. Or, if you’re helping your young adult child research what options they have for health care, make sure they know about Altrua HealthShare, where they can save up to 70% over traditional health insurance.

Real Conversations: Whereas generations of parents in the past may have been seen as either life experts or cautionary tales, many families today have developed family cultures that are far more open and honest in their communication and experiences. These can help establish greater connection and trust with young adult children, to appropriately and transparently share past experiences with failure, loss, confusion, growth, and apology.  

The Faith Journey: You can take your kids to church, have nightly Bible time, listen to worship music, and hold lots of conversations about faith. And then, when they’re older teenagers and young adults, they have to become responsible for their faith journey. Moms today know that they can’t ‘make’ their adult children walk out faith exactly the way they might prefer, but they position themselves as trusted mentors and advisors to their questions and concerns.

🌸 Trending Tip: Have open-ended, honoring conversations with your teens and young adults about their goals, dreams, and struggles. Leave the urge to give advice to the side and listen to understand and connect. 

🌿 Parenting Adult Children: The Invited Advisor

You may have beautiful friendships with your adult children. You may have adult children who are very independent, who you only get to see a few times a year. In all of it, you’re still their mom, whatever level of contact and interaction continues once they’re launched and on their own.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: They’re adults now, and for many moms today, that means being intentional to respect their adult kids’ independence and their choices. Wait to be invited into offering advice.

Grandma Gets a Glow-Up: Grandparenting today may look a whole lot different than the pattern you grew up with. Women are working further into their mature years. 6 And today’s parents may have new approaches with their parenting that are new to you. In all of it, work with your adult children to create your grandparent role, while hopefully being able to respectfully and lovingly contribute with your own experiences in parenting. 

I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.

II Timothy 1:5 ESV

🌸 Trending Tip: This stage is all about connection, not correction. Be a safe place to land and process as your adult children work through their initiation into parenting. 

Whatever your season as a mom, you’re blazing a new trail. Today’s parenting holds both the timeless joys and the modern challenges of connecting as a parent, holding the tension between encouragement and correction, and moving through the stages of your child’s development and launch. 

May your Mother’s Day be one in which your strength, love, and growth are celebrated and appreciated! 

Happy Mother’s Day from all of us at Altrua HealthShare! 🌸

  • 1 https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/conditions/post-natal-depression/overview/#:~:text=Depression%20during%20pregnancy,anxiety%2C%20panic%20attacks%20and%20psychosis.
    2 https://www.statnews.com/2023/06/26/i-felt-like-i-was-dying-how-women-with-postpartum-depression-fall-through-the-cracks-of-u-s-health-care/#:~:text=But%2050%25%20of%20women%20with%20postpartum%20depression%2C%20the%20most%20common%20complication%20of%20childbirth%2C%20go%20undiagnosed.%20In%20contrast%2C%2099%25%20of%20pregnant%20women%20are%20screened%20for%20gestational%20diabetes%20%E2%80%94%20a%20complication%20that%20occurs%20in%20less%20than%206%25%20of%20all%20pregnant%20women.
    3 https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-myths-facts/domestic-us-statistics/#:~:text=Today%2C%20approximately%2095%25%20of%20domestic,themselves%20and%20the%20adopted%20child.
    4 https://www.americanadoptions.com/blog/10-things-that-scientific-research-says-about-open-adoption/#:~:text=Openness%20allows%20them%20to%20better%20understand%20the,that%20aids%20in%20identity%20formation%2C%20and%20more.&text=Children%20who%20experience%20more%20open%20adoption%20communication,of%20alienation%20and%20better%20overall%20family%20functioning.
    5 https://nowbam.com/1-in-3-young-adults-still-live-with-their-parents/#:~:text=According%20to%20U.S.%20Census%20Bureau,coinciding%20with%20the%20Great%20Recession.
    6 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/americans-over-75-working-more-than-ever-who-are-they/#:~:text=About%2026%25%20of%20people%20between,75%2C%20according%20to%20census%20data.