Small language tweaks
A lot of the time, making family and parenting content more inclusive is as simple as considering your word choices. Instead of always defaulting to saying ‘mums and dads’, referring to ‘parents’ where applicable is automatically more inclusive. The same goes wording that reflects the fact not all couples are ‘she’ and ‘him’ ,or ‘husband’ and ‘wife’.
Include guardians and carers
Parenting can also go beyond mums and dads. There are thousands of family set-ups where other close relatives or adults have stepped into guardianship and caring roles for youngsters – and they are also eager to read parenting content. Guides and advice pieces make up a significant chunk of parenting and family editorial, so including carers and guardians in this type of content is often as simple as saying something like: So, what do parents and guardians need to know about X, Y, Z?
How can you make parenting and family content more inclusive?
Diverse voices
Following on from the previous points about language, making family and parenting content more diverse and inclusive isn’t just about covering topics that are markedly diverse in their nature. After all, a lot of the time, discussion points that crop up for parents and families are universal – it’s about executing them in a way that doesn’t exclude diverse communities. Mixing up your sources and voices with the experts, case studies and celebrities featured, so that they reflect a more diverse range of communities and backgrounds, is helpful here.
Society has come a long way since the days of 2.4 children and ‘nuclear’ family units being the only model of family that are generally recognised. There are now so many more single-parent households, divorced or separated co-parents, blended families, LGBTQ+ and same-sex couples with children. There’s also a rich diversity of cultures, sometimes multiple generations sharing homes, and an ever-growing ageing population (which may mean handy childcare support for some families, or additional caring duties for others). Keeping this in mind when crafting ideas opens up opportunities to create family and parenting content that reflects the world we live in, in a more authentic way, and fosters engagement with more diverse audiences too. Families come in all shapes and sizes
ABI JACKSON DEPUTY LIFESTYLE EDITOR, PA MEDIA
Family and parenting are key areas within lifestyle content, with a huge – and often very engaged – audience to tap into and a wealth of trends, themes and talking points to explore. These are also topics where it’s very easy to fall into clichés and stereotypes, however. And, whether we’re consciously aware of it or not, assumptions and biases around demographics and family set- ups can easily creep in. So, how can we continue to make family and parenting content more inclusive and diverse? Here are some things to think about…
Be mindful of stereotypes
Times have changed - and imagery used in family and parenting content needs to keep up. Using imagery that continuously perpetuates clichéd stereotypes around family roles and dynamics can look dated and out of touch (and possibly quite annoying!). For example, not always using photos of women in content relating to housework and childcare, or men when you mention DIY jobs and family finances.
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