Parent Time

As Today's Parent celebrates its 25th birthday, we thought it would be interesting to compare some of the hits and misses of 1984 and 2009. Also check out Our best parenting advice, Things every kid must do and Six spectacular birthday cakes.

1984	2009
FAMILY BASICS
Standard school lunch
Peanut butter and jam sandwich with juice box	Peanut-free anything and SIGG bottle of water
Popular names
A typical class has a Jennifer W., a Jennifer A., maybe even a Jennifer M.; ditto for the many Michaels	Ava bumps Emma (and Emily, Emilee, etc.) from the top spot; for boys, Ethan is number one
Family cars
Chrysler’s Dodge Caravan	Ford Flex
Maternity fashion
Think Cotton Ginny and loose sundresses with comfortable, relaxed hide-the-belly fit	Show your shape with a belly-hugging jersey dress or let it flow in a Diane von Furstenberg top
Tooth fairy visits
25 cents	toonie
Paid maternity leave
Just as your baby started to babble, government-funded leave ended at 15 weeks	A 12-month leave is the norm, and many fathers are staying home too
MEDIA
Celebrity parents
Charles and Diana	Brad and Angelina
Bedtime story
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Most annoying kids’ TV
Alvin and the Chipmunks	In the Night Garden
Hot kids’ music
Canada’s Sharon, Lois & Bram	Australia’s top-earning act, The Wiggles
TV family
The Cosby Show’s Huxtables	Family Guy’s Griffins
TOYS
Baby shower gift
One-way audio baby monitor	Flat-screen colour baby video monitor and portable audio parent unit
Hot doll
Cabbage Patch Kid	American Girl
ZEITGEIST
Media-fed parental fears
Latchkey kids, dog bites, broken arms, fallout from divorce, chemical weapons, the new crack epidemic	Online predators, video game addiction, school lockdowns, childhood obesity, bisphenol A bottles, global warming
Mom fitness
Feel the burn! Jane Fonda gets us to the gym in the aerobics revolution	Exhale om. We convert to yoga, led by stars, such as Shiva Rea
Fads
Care Bears, leg warmers, John Hughes movies, stonewash jeans, shoulder pads, Trivial Pursuit	Stylish baby slings, ironic baby onesies, stainless-steel sippy cups, StrollerFit, Kick Scooters, Wii, hybrid cars, Twitter
Escape fantasy woman
Daisy Duke of The Dukes of Hazzard	Tina Fey of 30 Rock
Escape fantasy man
Tom Selleck as the laid-back private investigator in Magnum, P.I.	Patrick Dempsey as Dr. Derek Shepherd, a.k.a. Dr. McDreamy, on Grey’s Anatomy
PLUS
Price of bread
$1.12	$2.44
Hit song
When Doves Cry by Prince and the Revolution	Poker Face by Lady GaGa
Hit movie
Ghostbusters	Monsters vs. Aliens
Must reading for moms-to-be
What to Expect When You’re Expecting	It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita (honest musings from a popular blogger)

Originally published in Today's Parent, October 2009