Motherhood in the empty nest - a lack of social recognition?

Abstract

This article explores a socially and sociologically unrecognised stage of motherhood when adult children leave the family home. Regarding family policies, social context, and individual attitudes towards this stage and reconfiguration of a mother's social role of a mother -there is still a notable gap in the research on family issues. Becoming a mother in an empty nest is an individual process following considerable life changes. Despite its importance, it appears to be treated with less validity than the experiences of mothers who are navigating through the early stages of motherhood. Therefore, this paper shows what happens in the lives of women whose role as mothers is being transformed. It complements research on the family life course by focusing on the reconfiguration of the maternal role and the experience of motherhood at the stage of an empty nest. The article is based on empirical material collected between 2019 and 2021 within a 36-month longitudinal qualitative study of individuals and couples in Poland whose adult children had left the family home.