This article examines how a sample of first-time mothers in the UK constitute childhood in general, and their own children in particular, in and through their talk about the mundane practices of childcare. The data analysed are drawn from a longitudinal qualitative interview study that followed a sample of mothers from late pregnancy until their babies were 2 years old. The analysis explores links between mothers' representations of childhood and the actualities of their childrearing practices. The extent to which both the representations of childhood and the practices of individual mothers are consistent or contradictory, and change or remain constant over time, is also examined.
Alwin, D. (1990) ‘Historical Changes in Parental Orientations to Children’, in P. Adler (ed.) Sociological Studies of Child Development, Vol. 3, pp. 65–86. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.
2.
Apple, R.D. (1995) ‘Constructing Mothers; Scientific Motherhood in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries’, Social History of Medicine8(2): 161–178.
3.
Aries, P. (1962) Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family LifenNew York: Vintage Books.
4.
Bernard, J. (1975) The Future of Parenthood: The New Role of MothersLondon: Calder and Boyers.
5.
Cunningham, H. (1991) The Children of the Poor: Representations of Childhood since the Seventeenth Century. Oxford: Blackwell.
6.
Cunningham, H. (1995) Children and Childhood in Western Society since 1500Harlow: Longman.
7.
Duncan, S. and R. Edwards (1999) Lone Mothers, Paid Work and Gendered Moral Rationalities. London: Macmillan.
8.
Emerson, R.M. (1983) Contemporary Field Research: A Collection of ReadingsProspect Heights, IL: Waveland.
9.
Everingham, C. (1994) Motherhood and ModernityBuckingham: Open University Press.
10.
Glaser, B.G. and A.L. Strauss (1967) The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
11.
Glenn, E.N. (1994) ‘Social Constructions of Mothering: A Thematic Overview’, in E.N. Glenn, G. Chang and L.R. Forcey (eds) Mothering, pp. 1–29. New York: Routledge.
12.
Goffman, E. (1963) The Presentation of Self in Everyday LifeGarden City, NY: Anchor Books.
13.
Hays, S. (1996) The Cultural Contradictions of MotherhoodNew Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
14.
Hendrick, H. (1997) ‘Constructions and Reconstructions of British Childhood: An Interpretative Survey, 1800 to the Present’, in A. James and A. Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood, pp. 35–59. London: Falmer Press.
15.
Hill Collins, P. (1990) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness and the Politics of EmpowermentBoston, MA: Unwin Hyman.
16.
James, A., C. Jenks and A. Prout (1998) Theorizing ChildhoodCambridge: Polity Press.
17.
Jenks, C. (1996) ChildhoodLondon: Routledge.
18.
Lawler, S. (1999) ‘Children Need But Mothers Only Want: The Power of “Needs Talk” in the Constitution of Childhood’, in J. Seymour and P. Bagguley (eds) Relating Intimacies: Power and Resistance, pp. 64–99. Basingstoke: Macmillan.
19.
Lawler, S. (2000) Mothering the Self: Mothers, Daughters, SubjectsLondon: Routledge.
20.
McHugh, P. (1970) ‘A Common-Sense Conception of Deviance’, in J.D. Douglas (ed.) Deviance and Respectability: The Social Construction of Moral Meanings, pp. 61–88. New York: Basic Books.
21.
Miller, T. (2005) Making Sense of Motherhood: A Narrative ApproachCambridge: Cambridge University Press.
22.
Murcott, A. (1993) ‘Purity and Pollution: Body Management and the Social Place of Infancy’, in D. Morgan and S. Scott (eds) Body Matters: Essays on the Sociology of the Body, pp. 122–134London: Falmer Press.
23.
Murphy, E.A. (1999) ‘ “Breast is Best”: Infant Feeding and Maternal Deviance’, Sociology of Health and Illness21(2): 187–208.
24.
Murphy, E.A. (2000) ‘Risk, Responsibility and Rhetoric in Infant Feeding’, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography29(3): 291–325.
25.
Murphy, E. (2003) ‘Expertise and Forms of Knowledge in the Government of Families’, The Sociological Review51(4): 433–462.
26.
Murphy, E. (2004a) ‘Anticipatory Accounts’, Symbolic Interaction27(2): 129–154.
27.
Murphy, E. (2004b) ‘Risk, Maternal Ideologies and Infant Feeding’, in L. Williams and J. Germov (eds) The Social Appetite: an Introduction to the Sociology of Food and Nutrition, 2nd edn, pp. 200–219. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
28.
Murphy, E.A. and R. Dingwall (2003) Qualitative Methods and Health Policy ResearchNew York: Aldine.
29.
Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1980) Classification of Occupations 1980London: HMSO.
30.
Pollock, L. (1983) Forgotten ChildrenCambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
Ribbens, J. (1994) Mothers and their Children: A Feminist Sociology of ChildrearingLondon: Sage.
32.
Ribbens McCarthy, J., R. Edwards and V. Gillies (2000) Parenting and Step-Parenting: Contemporary Moral Tales, Occasional Paper 4. Oxford: Centre for Family and Household Research, Oxford Brookes University.
33.
Robertson, P. (1976) ‘Home as a Nest: Middle Class Childhood in Nineteenth-Century Europe,’ in L. de Mause (ed.) The History of Childhood, pp. 407–431. London: Souvenir Press.
34.
Rose, N. (1996) ‘Identity, Genealogy, History’, in S. Hall and P. du Gay (eds) Questions of Cultural Identity, pp. 128–150London: Sage.
35.
Schutz, A. (1954) ‘Concept and Theory Formation in the Social Sciences’, Journal of Philosophy51: 257–273.
36.
Shorter, E. (1976) The Making of the Modern FamilyLondon: Collins.
37.
Stainton Rogers, W. (2001) ‘Constructing Childhood: Constructing Child Concern’, in P. Foley, J. Roche and S. Tucker (eds) Children in Society: Contemporary Theory, Policy and Practice, pp. 26–33Basingstoke: Palgrave.
38.
Stainton Rogers, R. and W. Stainton Rogers (1992) Stories of Childhood: Shifting Agendas of Child ConcernHemel Hempstead: Harvester/Wheatsheaf.
39.
Steedman, C. (1990) Childhood, Culture and Class in Britain: Margaret McMillan 1860–1931London: Virago.
40.
Stone, L. (1977) The Family, Sex and Marriage in England 1500–1800. London: Weidenfield and Nicolson.
41.
Urwin, C. (1985) ‘Constructing Motherhood: The Persuasion of Normal Development’, in C. Steedman, C. Unwin and V. Walkerdine (eds) Language, Gender and Childhood, pp. 164–202. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
42.
Woodhead, M. (1997) ‘Psychology and the Cultural Construction of Children's Needs’, in A. James and A. Prout (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood, 2nd edn, pp. 63–76. London: Falmer Press.
