Parenting in Iowa has changed a lot over the decades.
As a parent, it's much harder to craft that little nuclear family's cone of solitude. - Kyle Munson
“We have the luxury of giving lots and lots of time and energy to kids that our great-grandparents didn’t,” says Pamela Riney-Kehrberg of Iowa State University.
On this edition of Talk of Iowa, "Iowa Week: Then and Now" continues. Charity Nebbe talks with Riney-Kehrberg about parenting on Iowa farms in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Then a mother daughter duo and father son duo discuss the differences and similarities in parenting from the 1960s through today.
Kyle Munson says that with his son, he tries to emulate some of his own idyllic, peaceful childhood he had growing up in rural Pottawattamie County.
"Trying to find that peace in this very noisy world that we live in is a challenge," says Munson.
"My son just became a teenager and in the last year or so, it came time for him finally to have his own phone. That felt more momentous to me than when I was getting car keys as a kid to drive off the acreage on my own. Now kids are roaming at an earlier age by nature of technology."
Also joining the conversation is parenting expert Kim Greder, of Iowa State University extension.
This program originally aired on September 9, 2015.
