Between careful and crazy: the emotion work of feeding the family in an industrialized food system

MacKendrick, Norah; Pristavec, Teja

doi:10.1080/15528014.2019.1620588

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 49 publications

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“…Emotion work is the private manifestation of emotional labour, which Hochschild refers to as the efforts required to “ induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others ” [ 94 ] (p. 7). Since then, food work has been more directly approached as emotion work [ 97 ] but it is usually the food provisioning and preparation that are associated with feeling efforts. There is still a dearth of studies that examine this aspect.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Children should be taken into consideration when studying family food practices because of the impact children can have on food choices [ 46 , 84 , 87 ]. A process of reverse socialization can take place, where children provide food knowledge to parents and other family members [ 97 , 115 ]. Maurice has shown, however, how the influence of children on family food practices is also socially situated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Beyond the Normative Family Meal Promotion: A Narrative Review of Qualitative Results about Ordinary Domestic Commensality

Moal

Michaud

Hartwick-Pflaum

et al. 2021

IJERPH

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There exists a normative representation of family meals in contemporary Western societies which is promoted as imperative through public health programs, larger discourses and by some studies in the nutritional and public health research fields. Family meals, also called domestic commensality, are represented as convivial events and are associated with positive health and wellbeing outcomes but there is minimal evidence to show they are beneficial for family members and it is not known which aspect of the family meal could be responsible for these alleged benefits. This normative family meal image is based on a representation of the family as a peaceful unit exempt from external constraints. This narrative literature review of qualitative studies of family meals seeks to put forward the underlying premises of this representation and compare it with reports about actual practices. The results emphasize that eating together is still practiced and remains valued by family members, which is in contrast to discourses lamenting the decline of the family meal. However, the valorisation and recurrence of family meals depends on class, gender and cultural positions. There is a gap between the norm of healthy or convivial and achievable family meals, which can reinforce the so-called “mental load” and “emotion work” of those in charge of feeding the family and heighten inequalities within the household. In fact, there are many challenges to family meals which originate from external constraints or are inherent aspects of family life. The results from this review suggest that we should focus on family meals by taking into account the food work surrounding it and focussing on the interactional aspects of family meals. Ethnographic methods allow the researcher to observe the diversities and complexities of commensality as well as family dynamics and, in doing so, could provide more realistic representations of eating within the family.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beyond the Normative Family Meal Promotion: A Narrative Review of Qualitative Results about Ordinary Domestic Commensality

Moal

Michaud

Hartwick-Pflaum

et al. 2021

IJERPH

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…MacKendrick 2013; Cairns, Johnson, and Oleschuk 2018;Cook 2009;DeVault 1991;Harman and Cappellini 2015;Mackendrick 2018;MacKendrick and Pristavec 2019;Patico 2020). Studies of parents of children with severe food allergies also identify tensions between keeping children safe, preserving food-related rituals, and providing nutritious diets for children (Stjerna et al 2014;Pitchforth et al, 2011).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, our contribution to the emotion work literature is also methodological. Existing studies of parental emotion work rely on interviews (Clarke 2006;Watt 2017;Cairns, Johnston, and MacKendrick 2013;MacKendrick and Pristavec 2019) or ethnography (Chin 2000). However, rather than drawing out the experiences of individual parents, our data collection demonstrates media depictions of childrearing, with gendered emotion work as a key feature.…”

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confidence: 99%

The joy of foodwork: allergies, gendered foodwork and emotion work in parenting advice, 1991–2020

Muñoz

Quirke

2021

Food, Culture & Society

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At a time when child health is receiving considerable attention, child feeding practices are under intense scrutiny as the site for developing healthy habits and preventing childhood illness. Previous scholars of foodwork detail the various types of labor involved in feeding children, purchasing foods, researching foods, preparing appealing meals, and managing emotions around these activities. Less scholarly attention has been given to the advice directed at parents -mothers in particular -about feeding children. Our study examines parenting advice on general feeding and feeding children with food allergies published between 1991 and 2020 in a Canadian mainstream parenting magazine. We build on Arlie Hochschild's concepts of emotion work and feeling rules, demonstrating that magazines instruct parents to manage emotions to create pleasurable eating experiences for children. We conclude with implications for studies of foodwork, emotion work and childrearing.

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“…Chapters 4, 6, and 7 found that mothers experienced value conflicts related to health versus the food provided by the fathers. Fathers have an increasing role in the food provision, including the snack provision (Khandpur et al, 2014;Khandpur et al, 2016;Litchford et al, 2020), but still do less than mothers (Hook, 2010;Pulley et al, 2014;Berge et al, 2016;Mackendrick and Pristavec, 2019;Rahill et al, 2020;Jansen et al, 2020). In addition, while mothers try to provide a healthy diet to their children (Carnell et al, 2011;Mehta et al, 2019), some studies revealed that fathers are less concerned or able to arrange a healthy diet (Tanner et al, 2014;Thullen et al, 2016;Fielding-Singh, 2017), which could be the reason for the value conflicts experienced by the mother.…”

Section: Influence Of Others On the Snacks Providedmentioning

confidence: 99%

As a mother, I prefer to give a healthy snack, however... : Mothers’ considerations and value conflicts while providing snacks to their 2-7-year-old children

Damen¹

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Between careful and crazy: the emotion work of feeding the family in an industrialized food system

Cited by 25 publications

References 49 publications

Beyond the Normative Family Meal Promotion: A Narrative Review of Qualitative Results about Ordinary Domestic Commensality

Beyond the Normative Family Meal Promotion: A Narrative Review of Qualitative Results about Ordinary Domestic Commensality

The joy of foodwork: allergies, gendered foodwork and emotion work in parenting advice, 1991–2020

As a mother, I prefer to give a healthy snack, however... : Mothers’ considerations and value conflicts while providing snacks to their 2-7-year-old children

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