Reframing Motherhood: Unpacking the Intersection of Maternal Digital Engagements and Approaches to Manage Children's Disruptions

Abstract

The primary goal of this paper is to examine maternal digital engagements as a form of techno-social practice and the boundary maintenance strategies employed to navigate their children's interference during digital interactions. Despite the growing influence of social media usage in mothers’ daily lives, little attention has been given to the invisible emotional labor and adaptive digital labor they perform to minimize children's interference during their social media time. This study uses a social constructivist and interpretive philosophical approach, which is based on a qualitative case study design in the cultural context of Pakistan with educated homemakers. An interview guide was used for data collection from a sample size of 47 participants selected through purposive and snowball sampling methods. The data were analyzed using thematic analysis. This paper adds a nuanced contribution to the existing body of knowledge by unveiling four key maternal management strategies to prevent disruptions from their children, shedding light on the gendered complexities of motherhood, digital labor, and technoference in the digital era in the context of developing countries.