By: Mark McCrindle
There is a dramatic shift occurring in society. You may not feel it, but this rising tide is lifting all ships.
It’s not a noisy wave crashing on the shore that will come and go. This trend is like a rising tide that is slowly but surely impacting every part of society from workplaces, schools, community groups and businesses that market to parents.
A new generation of emerging parents has arrived on the scene. It feels like an American WWE wrestling battle, where there’s already 3-4 wrestlers in the ring battling it out for the title of best parent, and we’re announcing, in a booming, overly confident voice, the new entrant into the competition. It is a surprise entrant who has different parenting styles, skills, mantras, strengths, and expectations. Their special signature move will be something akin to an AI generated holiday list of activities for keeping kids entertained while parents are busy at work. Parents of the past would have desperately sought this out, or purchased it in a book, whereas Gen Z will prompt AI platforms to make the list in seconds with great ease and confidence.
The emerging generation of parents will be increasingly Generation Z and Generation Y, rather than Gen Y and Gen X. We’ve explored the characteristics of these new generations of parents and what it means for schools in our latest guide, Engaging the Next Generation of Parents.
In this article, we’ll explore the 5 mindsets this new generation of parents.
1. Work-Focused
Today’s new generation of parents are committed to work. In recent decades there has been a sharp rise in families with both parents working. Today three quarters of females in their family forming years (76.5%, ages 30-34) are working, which is twice what it was in 1971 (38%)[1]. This means they are career-minded, highly professional, yet time poor and feel may often feel rushed. Our latest survey found couple families with kids feel twice as rushed as couple families with no kids. The new generations of parents are moving fast, managing the dual responsibilities with skill and perhaps more stress than earlier generations of parents.
“Parents today are more like Formula 1 race car drivers stopping briefly to do a parenting pitstop before getting back into the career-life race with their baby or two strapped into their fast-paced race car, whereas just a generation ago parents were more like a suburban van slowly doing all the family drop offs for larger families. Parents just a decade or two ago were getting around to a select range of low-cost sports, arts, academic and social activities in a local community where the family belonged and found identity. Today’s Gen Z parents have a wide-range of professionally curated activities to assist in the development of their child socially, emotionally, academically and physically.” GEOFF BRAILEY, SOCIAL RESEARCHER
2. Financial Achievers
As a result of both partners increasingly participating in the workforce, today’s parents have achieved more financially before having children than previous generations of parents. The ability to have a child may be seen even as a sign of financial achievement despite the challenges of more expensive housing, larger university debt, greater cost of living challenges and significantly larger mortgages than earlier generations (that is, if parents have grasped at the elusive Australian property ladder). Aspiring parents may be delaying having children until their higher lifestyle expectations and financial security levels have been achieved. They may also delay having children until their career progresses or reaches a key milestone, or when savings, career packages and family support all align to create an opportunity to start a family.
3. Small Family, Fast Pace
Due to the costs of child care, affordability of housing and career challenges, parents are now having fewer children. In 2027, parents in their 30s, Gen Zs for the first time, will become the norm for being a first time parent. Having children later and having less children, at our current record low fertility rates means families will be smaller, allowing them to move faster through the stages of parenting. Although the new generation of parents will be later starters, they will also be quicker finishers to growing their family. That is, unless we see Gen Alpha and Gen Beta staying at home longer if housing affordability doesn’t change and young adults continue to complete longer university degrees, like their parents did.
4. Video Gamers Learners
A new generation of parents, particularly Gen Z and young Gen Y parents will have new communication expectations, preferences and favourite apps. For example, 48% of Gen Z use Tik Tok daily to learn new skills. Interestingly though, YouTube features in the top 3 way all generations learn new skills. This means that there isn’t one YouTube generation, every generation now enjoys learning via video. There’s a massive expectation of video communication for every organisation. While younger generations have grown up in an era of online gaming, Minecraft and Roblox, they now are expecting to learn parenting in a video format. Gen Z parents won’t say, ‘There’s no parenting manual or book’ like former generations, they’ll be searching on Tik Tok for parenting advice and looking for online courses.
Young parents are thinking, “Why read a book, why listen to an audio podcast. Just give me the video summary, and in short form too if possible.
The standard way of consuming content has shifted from traditional to digital methods in the last decade or two, and in the next decade we’ll see a large shift towards niche social communities like WhatsApp groups as well as video-first platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. Established organisations like schools, community volunteering groups and faith-based communities will need to re-evaluate their communication platform offerings for a new generation of parents. They’ll need to consider a transition plan to effectively engage a new generation of parents who simply expect digital first interactions and prefer bots and apps to live phone support.
5. Identity Consumers
Finally, today’s new generation of parents choose products for values alignment and ensure each purchase is increasingly an expression of their identity. Identify expression in purchasing is rising and purchasing power is influenced heavily through the alignment of the individual with the story, vision and value of a brand.
For example, when it comes to picking a school for their child, today’s parents said values alignment is the second highest priority for parents when selecting a school for their child, behind if it is a K-12 school. Today’s parents may have cost of living concerns, yet as parents with fewer children and with increasingly both parents working, it is their ability to select curated experiences and highly congruent values for their child that means parenting purchases will demonstrate their values, search for status in society and brand congruence to show their purpose in parenting.
As a new generation of parents enters the parenting space, the main takeaway that leaders need to consider is the rapid shift that is going to need to occur in communication. Parents are work focussed, feeling rushed and expecting communication from their preferred apps and platforms as they engage with a series of established organisations for the first time as new parents. A new wave of parent consumers is arriving, and many traditional organisations need to promptly develop new engagement and communication strategies to serve them. So, how can organisations prepare for this communication shift?
Lead with confidence as you make decisions because you’ve engaged with them on this journey of change. Be decisive, forward thinking and empathic as you pick your transition pathway to embracing communication with a
new generation of parents.
Listen to new parents. Chat with them informally, do formal focus groups to research their expectations, experiences and sentiment. You could ask questions to parents one or one or survey them on mass in your marketing to better understand who they are and what they need.
Learn what their preferences are and observe how they behave with different platforms.Check out the platforms they use and simply be on them as a user/member before you start building anything or casting vision for change to adopt these new platforms.
Article supplied with thanks to McCrindle.
About the Author: McCrindle are a team of researchers and communications specialists who discover insights, and tell the story of Australians – what we do, and who we are.
Feature image: Canva
