We Were Raised by Working Parents. Now We're Expected to Be Everywhere.

The standard being applied to millennial parents right now is one that didn't exist when we were growing up.

And I think most of us feel that pressure without fully being able to name it.

What Changed

When I was a child, both parents working was normal. That was just the reality of the household. What wasn't part of the conversation was availability and presence in the way it is today.

My parents worked. They were often busy. There was no expectation that they would be reachable by message within minutes, or that working from home meant they were somehow always on hand.

That was fine. That was just how it was.

Millennial parents have inherited a completely different set of rules. The expectation now is constant availability. Connected via phone. Present in the house. Visible to your children throughout the day if you're working from home. Responsive. Engaged.

The Post-COVID Shift

Working from home accelerated this. When the world moved indoors, the boundaries between work time and family time dissolved in a way that many of us are still trying to reckon with.

Suddenly being at home meant being available. Physically present in the building translated, in the minds of children especially, into being accessible. And in many ways, it did create more connection.

But it also created a new pressure. The pressure to be both fully at work and fully a parent at the same time. In the same building. Often in the same hour.

That is not how our parents operated. And we are still figuring out whether it is actually sustainable.

The Honest Truth

But I think we need to be honest about what we are asking of ourselves.

We grew up in households where working parents were respected for their work. Where being busy was understood, not resented. Where presence was measured in quality, not constant quantity.

We are now holding ourselves to a standard that did not exist. One shaped by chat messages and remote working policies and a cultural conversation about parenting that has shifted dramatically in a single generation.

That is not a reason to lower our standards as parents. It is a reason to be a little more honest about the weight of what we are carrying.

And a little more compassionate with ourselves when we do not get it perfectly right every day.

Do you feel the gap between how you were raised and what is expected of you as a parent now? I would genuinely like to know how others are navigating it.

#founder #millennialparenting #buildingabusiness