A major new study by the Australian Institute of Family Studies, Parenting-21, investigates how ordinary parents in ordinary Australian families are going about the task of bringing up children who are going to live the major part of their lives in the 21st century. This article sets the context of Parenting-21. The development of the project was influenced by consideration of outcomes from previous investigations of parents' ideas on parenting and child rearing. It involves studying the relationships between parental beliefs, ideas and understanding about the nature of children and childhood, and their child rearing practices, and focuses on the rearing of children from infancy to middle childhood. The study is part of an international network of projects known as the International Parents, Schools and Child Research Consortium.