Note: When I originally wrote this I thought Parents Magazine was still a published magazine. Upon doing further research I learned Parents Magazine’s last printed issue was released April 2022. Since then it has transitioned to a digital-only format.
Parents Magazine, one of the leading publications for parents, has shown itself to be a biased outlet that stifles conversation and creates an illusion of parents. Kind of weird when it is supposed to be helping parents.
On June 6, 2022, Parents Magazine posted a number of slides explaining gender terms on its Instagram account. When briefing over responses to the post, I initially only saw hearts, thumbs up and comments like, “I love this!” I assumed its followers were, to the greater extent, fully supportive of the content.
I returned to the post 10 minutes later and saw a number of newly posted responses challenging the content. The responses were not vulgar as in containing swear words or insults, but were rather comments simply stating they did not agree with the content posted. There were also comments stating that some comments had been deleted by the account manager.
I returned to the post yet again at a later time, and sure enough the posts that challenged the content were no longer visible. The comments once again appeared to be fully supporting the post.
While Parents Magazine can control their social media accounts however they want, this type of conversation manipulation does not reflect well on it as being a publication seeking to help parents. Instead it appears to be a publication pushing its own priorities above concerns of parents.
First of all, deleting comments stifles conversation so parents cannot share their opinions and gain insight from one another. Secondly, this tactic also creates an illusion of parents by making it appear that all parents fully agree with the content published.
On a final note, the core point of the post is about accepting children for who they are. But how can children ultimately be accepted if a parent magazine can’t even allow parents to express themselves?
Keep in mind that whatever response you see to content on social media may not be an accurate depiction of actual response. Comments may have been deleted, like what Parents has opted to do.
I do not consider Parents Magazine being an ideal source of learning about parenting if it cannot address the diversity of thought among parents.
Lauren Ell was born and raised in Southern California. She was raised in what she calls a “secular” Christian household. She has been living in Sweden since 2016 with her Swedish partner, and gave birth to her first child in 2019.