Parenting as a performance: Parents as consumers and (de)constructors of mythic parenting and childhood ideals

Abstract

The existing critical literature on constructions of childhood and parenthood is only beginning to listen to what parents have to say. As a result, parents may paradoxically be viewed as passive victims and therefore reduced to be the spectators of what is supposed to be their 'problem'. The present study analyses dominant parent advice texts in the Flemish community of Belgium, as well as the voices of parents on the Internet. The study confirms the tendencies noticed in critical literature: the tendency to individualize responsibilities and the focus on autonomy in the neoliberal era. In addition it unveils the double bind nature of autonomy in expert discourse. It also illustrates the performative agency of parents, as co-constructors of dominant discourse as well as contesting this discourse. In so doing, the study complements the existing vein of literature with the way in which parents think of and experience the dominant parenting discourse.

The ‘turn to parenting’: paradigm shift or work in progress?

“…Some even say child rearing in this perspective can be seen as "working on a product" (Geinger et al 2013;Hermanns 1992). In this perspective, the role of parents is to raise their children properly both on behalf of the children and on behalf of society.…”

“…Yet, the circumstances in which these rights have to be realized can differ economically, socially and historically (Bennet 1996;Reynaert et al 2009). Parenting support interventions encourage a familialistic approach, as it centres on the family as the main source for child well-being and less on conditions such as poverty, lack of social support networks and other matters related to the social context of the child (Geinger et al 2013;Gillies 2011;Ramaekers and Vandezande 2012;RMO 2012).…”

“…Even in the United States-which has not ratified the UNCRC-influences from the UNCRC can be found in family policy (Levesque 1996). Likewise, social investment approaches-that focus on social investments like lifelong learning and early childhood services as opposed to social protection measures (Jenson and Saint-Martin 2006)-have affected policy measures worldwide thereby drawing the attention towards human capital and skills, towards "an active society" and a concurrent emphasis on the healthy development of children (Geinger et al 2013;Jenson and SaintMartin 2006).…”

Subjects of, or subject to, policy reform? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of regulation and resistance in UK narratives of educational impacts of welfare cuts: The case of the ‘bedroom tax’

“…But, second, there is also a refusal to subscribe to the dominant discourse that renders less available the position of identifying as 'poor' (Shildrick & MacDonald, 2013), in part because it has been invested (by prevailing political discourse) with a corresponding affective load of shame (Youngmie, 2012;Chase & Walker, 2012). Third, this speaker is also refusing to identify as the canonical uncertain, doubtful, confessional mother/parent (pace Geinger et al, 2014), perhaps since she assesses that in this context expressing anxieties would warrant further unwanted scrutiny/intervention and pathologisation of 'family dynamics' (in particular of losing custody of children, which is a major underlying anxiety for all poor families, see also Donzelot et al,1979). Finally, and most importantly, there is a refusal of the singular voice 'I' and, instead, use of the collective first person voice, 'we'.…”

Essentialism in Spanish parents’ descriptions of their transnationally adopted teenagers

“…My analysis inspires questions about the possible relationship between essentialist parental beliefs and parenting practice, in both adoptive families and families more broadly. This is of particular relevance in the current moment, in which childrearing is influenced by neoliberal values that emphasize the social success of children and teens as future citizens and hold parents responsible for this outcome (Geinger et al, 2014). The research can also inform family and professional practices and public policies related to adoption.…”