Heather C Heather C is a married, mom of three: big sis Lily and identical twins Natalie and Sophia. She has been guest blogging for Mumbling Mommy since February of 2012 and began working as a Social Media Editor in 2014. After nearly a decade in banking, she now works part time at a doctor's office specializing in breastfeeding medicine and spends the rest of her days in her Midwest home as zookeeper/stay-at-home-mom. Heather C is also a runner, hiker, yogi, bike rider and more. She reads when she finds more than a few minutes to herself and she hosts a lot of pajama dance parties in her kitchen. In her spare time, she's the co-leader for her daughter's Girl Scout troop and an active member of the school's Parent-Teacher Committee as well as a certified postpartum doula.

Looking back at this year, I’ve compiled a list of parenting trends, both good and bad. What’s next for parenting? That, I don’t know, but I’m sure we will all be inevitably doing it wrong. Here are a few of the past year’s parenting trends:

Parenting Trends

  • Skull theory: This one was quite new to me given that I wasn’t pregnant this year, but I did get a little taste of it late in 2013 when my brother shared an early ultrasound picture of my niece with me and said that they were expecting a boy. Like I said, my NIECE managed to prove that maybe there really isn’t a lot of merit to the skull theory. If you want to read about it though or play along yourself, I suppose there is no harm. Don’t make any bets, though.
  • Half birthdays: I talked a little about this as a solution to busy December birthdays, but many parents take this quite a bit further and celebrate both real birthdays and half birthdays with full celebrations. Many bakeries even sell half a birthday cake to help party it out. Do we not already have enough reasons to give gifts and sweets to kids?
  • Baby teeth jewelry: No comment. I just can’t.
  • Surprise gender babies: This is a trend I’d love to see continue. We kept the gender a surprise for my first pregnancy (but didn’t for the second) and after having both experiences, I 100% prefer the surprise. I often hear people say there is no way they could wait, but with new FDA warnings regarding ultrasounds and the reality that 4 to 5 months really isn’t that long to wait past that 20 week mark anyway, maybe this is something to keep in mind next time you are growing a babe.
  • Child led parenting: There are a lot of “rules” on how to parent and how not to. We’ve seen helicopter parenting, attachment parenting, and authoritative parenting. I’ve even written about hypocritical parenting before. With a generation entering adulthood reliant on text messaging and social media and swarming with feelings of entitlement, it is no surprise that parents are trying to somehow get it right. Do what feels natural here, though. And don’t treat everything you read like it’s a new religion.

What trends did you notice this year? Any you’d like to see disappear in 2015? Leave us a comment or share with us on Facebook and Twitter. Happy New Year!

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