Who’s your momma?

Reports research on Generation X and Generation Y mothers and shows how today’s US mothers differ from those of past generations, such as in being more family oriented and ethnically diverse; mothers are vital to marketers as they tend to “hold the purse‐strings”. Arranges mothers on a continuum of six categories, varying from the most permissive to the most restrictive in parenting style, and argues that children’s marketing needs to address the 58% of mothers who are restrictive. Points out that the central two categories, which include both “permissive” mothers who are responsive to their children’s requests and “restrictive” mothers who are concerned about the objective value of products, constitute almost half the total and are therefore vital for advertising messages.