This article presents the findings of a secondary analysis of data from 30 interviews with parents who are raising children with chronic health conditions. Using Giddens’s structuration theory, the social and institutional conditions that shape special-needs parenting are examined. The conditions include professional attitudes, categorical allocation of services, lack of information, poor service coordination, school access challenges, societal perceptions of disability, responsibility debates, the feminization of family care giving, public reliance of family care, and the status of everyday parenting. Illustrations of how these issues affect families’everyday lives are provided along with a discussion of the implications for child-and family-friendly services and public policy and for social action.
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