What Today’s Parents Want Us to Know

Parents of young children are navigating no shortage of advice about how to raise them. What they may need more of is something simpler: time, trusted guidance, and support that fits the realities of family life.

That confidence and intentionality come through clearly in ZERO TO THREE’s new First Voice, National Parenting Survey findings. 85% of moms and 90% of dads say they feel confident as parents, while 53% say raising a child is more difficult than they expected. As one parent participating in the research put it, “They don’t need a perfect mom, they just need a present mom.”

Compared with parents’ own childhoods…

The 2026 research included a nationally representative survey of 1,400 parents of children ages one to five, supplemented by qualitative research and additional samples. It follows their similar national study supported by the Foundation in 2015. Together, the findings offer a picture of how parenting is changing and what families say they need to thrive.

Confidence and challenge can exist at the same time

Parents’ confidence doesn’t mean parenting feels easy. When asked what would help, parents pointed to needs that extend well beyond information alone, for example, 63% want universal free pre-K, 60% want clearer explanations of government and community programs and services, and 58% want paid parental leave.

A tension central to understanding the findings centers on how parents already bring knowledge, love, and intention to raising their children. Supporting them means recognizing those strengths while also addressing the conditions that can make family life harder.

ZERO TO THREE Senior Program Officer Rebecca Parlakian said one of the most striking findings was how actively parents are weighing the child-rearing information they encounter against the kind of family they want to build. Rather than simply following the advice around them, parents are deciding which approaches make sense for their children and their own values.

That filtering can include reconsidering the way they themselves were raised. Only one in three parents surveyed in 2026 said they looked to “the way my parents raised me” for parenting guidance, compared with seven in 10 parents in 2015.

For those working alongside families, Parlakian said that shift reinforces the importance of starting with parents’ own vision for their family: listening to what they want for their children, understanding what they’ve already tried, and helping them identify resources and approaches that fit their lives.

More than 10 years later

Comparing the 2015 and 2026 surveys provides a window into how parenting attitudes have changed. One notable shift is the proportion of parents who agree that “being a parent is my greatest challenge.” In 2015, 73% of parents agreed with that statement. In 2026, that number dropped to 56%. “We’re not quite sure what drove this change,” Parlakian said. “For example, do parents feel there are other, more significant challenges they are facing? Or is it about their own sense of confidence?”

The research also found a decline in parents’ acceptance of fear-based discipline. In 2015, 30% of parents agreed that “it’s okay if my child fears me as long as they behave.” In 2026, that had dropped to 23%. More than half of 2026 respondents also said they focus more on teaching and guiding rather than discipline alone.

Vroom contributed questions to the study and supported its development, building its work to support parent wellbeing and learning as parents decide which practices fit the families they are building. The findings point to a continued shift toward nurturing approaches that emphasize relationships and children’s social-emotional development. In focus groups, parents described wanting to raise children who are kind, smart, resilient, and helpful, while building strong relationships with them along the way.

Trusted information matters, too

In addition to structural support, parents also described the more immediate, everyday challenge of making sense of an overwhelming amount of information. Parents use an average of five sources for parenting advice, and 55% say there is so much information available that it is difficult to know whom to trust. Family remains important, with roughly half turning to their own mothers, while pediatricians, parenting websites, online search, social media, and newer tools such as AI are also part of the mix. As one parent explained, “You get input everywhere you turn, and you have to filter that and decide what you keep and what you push back out.”

For organizations working alongside families, the opportunity isn’t simply to give parents more information, but also to offer credible, useful information that respects parents’ judgment and can work within their lives.

Meeting parents in everyday moments

That idea has also shaped the Bezos Family Foundation’s work through Vroom, which was designed around everyday interactions between parents and young children, helping them understand the developmental value of what they may already be doing, be it laundry or going to the grocery store, rather than adding another task to the day. That approach reflects the realities parents shared in the survey. As one father put it, “It’s very difficult to be a father, it can be overwhelming, but it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

That kind of support addresses one piece of what parents told researchers they need, including clear, trustworthy information that can be put into practice. But information alone cannot create more hours in a day, make child care affordable, or guarantee paid leave. The First Voice findings underscore why strengthening families requires attention to both: the everyday tools that help parents act on what they already know and the broader systems and supports that give families room to thrive.

The findings also reinforce the importance of listening directly to parents as those broader systems are designed. That is increasingly visible across the early childhood field, including efforts where families help shape the systems meant to serve them. In Louisiana, for example, Geaux Far Louisiana centers parents and early childhood providers in decision-making about the state’s early childhood system.

“These findings reinforce that supporting families starts with listening and respecting the expertise that parents bring,” Bezos Family Foundation Managing Director, Early Childhood, Megan Wyatt said. “When we take our cues from families, we can better support the everyday moments that help children thrive and do the long-term work of strengthening the systems and networks they rely on.”

Parents know best what they want for their children. The research offers a clear invitation to everyone around them to listen to what parents say they need and build supports that make it easier for families to turn that intention into everyday life.