Hello, Reader!

When I want to find out what parents are saying to one another about grandparents, I lurk online in places where parents are. Reddit parenting forums and TikTok provide a wealth of ideas for new content. One day, on a thread about how out of touch today’s grandparents are, I read a comment from a new mom. I don’t remember where I read it, but I remember the exact words:

“My mom didn’t even know what a wake window was!”

I could clearly hear the scorn and disbelief in that mom’s words. And I had to laugh: I didn’t know the term “wake window” when I became a grandparent, either. In fact, I only learned about it through my work at More Than Grand. (In case you aren’t familiar with the term yet, a wake window is the amount of time a baby can comfortably stay awake between naps.)

But here’s the thing—we may not have had a term for it, but we all knew approximately how long our babies could stay awake before they needed a nap. We weren’t tracking them with an app, but wake windows aren't new.

The same is true for so many of the current parenting terms: contact naps, co-regulation, cluster feeding…we did all of these things without having a label for them. Granted, there are a few aspects of raising a baby that are genuinely new to us, like baby-led weaning and tummy time. For the most part, however, today’s parents are just applying new labels to existing concepts.

Is it any wonder that we can seem confused because we don’t realize that a “contact nap” is really just holding a sleeping baby? It’s hard not to seem out of touch when all the vocabulary changes!

That’s one reason I try to help grandparents understand the importance of getting up to speed on modern parenting trends. When our adult children see us as out of touch, they are less likely to want our advice or assistance. Understanding the terms and concepts that they are familiar with can go a long way towards making them realize that we are ready to support them—and that they can trust us to do so.

​My latest blog post has a run-down of the most common new parenting terms to help you decode what the heck they are talking about. For more in depth insight into new parenting trends, and how to truly support parents, New Grandparent Essentials is invaluable.

Warm regards,
DeeDee

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DeeDee Moore | Founder, More Than Grand LLC | morethangrand.com

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