A mother’s love knows no bounds: Exploring ‘good mother’ expectations for mothers involved with children’s services due to their partner violence

Abstract

This article considers the ideology surrounding ‘good mother’ expectations for mothers from British, lower socio-economic classes who have involvement from children’s services due to their (ex) partners’ violent behaviour. What was expected from ‘good mothers’ historically and currently is considered, before specific attention is paid to the expectations set for mothers who are known to children’s services. The research aims were to understand what these mothers themselves consider a ‘good mother’ to be. Fifteen mothers from the UK who had had involvement with Children’s Services were interviewed; all participants defined themselves as working class and their ages ranged from 20 to 48. The majority of participants defined their ethnicity as white, with two participants choosing ‘mixed’. Data were reviewed thematically and five main themes arose. This article explores that, whilst some mothers feel able to re-work the expectations placed on them to make them fit with their daily lives, this was not true for the majority of the participants within this study.