Parenting must evolve as culture changes around children

September 3, 2026 - 11:24

A few days ago, a young person at home asked me a simple question: why would the police shame people? It came amid the growing public debate over how people dress at entertainment spots and how authorities respond. The question caught me off guard, not because it was hard, but because it showed how much the world has changed since I was that age. Kids today see everything. They watch arguments unfold online, hear adults argue about rules, and form their own ideas long before we sit down to explain things.

That moment reminded me that parenting is not a fixed set of rules handed down once and left alone. It has to move with the times. The way we were raised, the fears our parents had, the manners they taught us, they all made sense in their era. But children now grow up in a different culture. They face new pressures, new forms of public judgment, and new questions about fairness and authority. If we keep parenting the way our grandparents did, we risk losing the connection with our kids.

What does that mean in practice? It means listening more and assuming less. It means not brushing off a child's question about why a police officer would mock someone's clothing, but instead talking through it honestly. It means admitting when we do not know the answer, and then figuring it out together. Culture changes fast, and children are often the first to feel it. Our job is not to shield them from every shift, but to help them make sense of it with kindness and clear thinking.

Parenting that refuses to adapt becomes a wall. Parenting that grows with the child becomes a bridge. The young person who asked me that question did not need a lecture. They needed a conversation. And that is exactly what we had.