This book explores the reflections and experiences of mothers of children aged 0-3 years that have attended universal parenting courses. Simmons considers the factors that motivated mothers to attend a universal parenting course and explore the wider experiences of early modern motherhood in the UK. She investigates participants' perceptions of benefits of attending a parenting course, different forms of parenting advice accessed by mothers, and how this provides an insight into the wider constructs and experiences of modern motherhood. Ultimately, the book considers, through a feminist post-structuralist lens, the social and cultural pressures within modern motherhood in relation to different levels of surveillance, and produces new knowledge for practice within the early years and health sectors in relation to the support currently offered to new mothers. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the sociology of education, gender studies, and childhood studies.

This book explores the reflections and experiences of mothers of children aged 0-3 years that have attended universal parenting courses. Simmons considers the factors that motivated mothers to attend a universal parenting course and explore the wider experiences of early modern motherhood in the UK. She investigates participants' perceptions of benefits of attending a parenting course, different forms of parenting advice accessed by mothers, and how this provides an insight into the wider constructs and experiences of modern motherhood. Ultimately, the book considers, through a feminist post-structuralist lens, the social and cultural pressures within modern motherhood in relation to different levels of surveillance, and produces new knowledge for practice within the early years and health sectors in relation to the support currently offered to new mothers. It will be of interest to students and scholars across the sociology of education, gender studies, and childhood studies.

How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodi Vandenberg-Daves explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society. Modern Motherhood travels through redefinitions of motherhood over time, as mothers encountered a growing cadre of medical and psychological experts, increased their labor force participation, gained the right to vote, agitated for more resources to perform their maternal duties, and demonstrated their vast resourcefulness in providing for and nurturing their families. Navigating rigid gender role prescriptions and a crescendo of mother-blame by the middle of the twentieth century, mothers continued to innovate new ways to combine labor force participation and domestic responsibilities. By the 1960s, they were poised to challenge male expertise, in areas ranging from welfare and abortion rights to childbirth practices and the confinement of women to maternal roles. In the twenty-first century, Americans continue to struggle with maternal contradictions, as we pit an idealized role for mothers in children’s development against the social and economic realities of privatized caregiving, a paltry public policy structure, and mothers’ extensive employment outside the home. Building on decades of scholarship and spanning a wide range of topics, Vandenberg-Daves tells an inclusive tale of African American, Native American, Asian American, working class, rural, and other hitherto ignored families, exploring sources ranging from sermons, medical advice, diaries and letters to the speeches of impassioned maternal activists. Chapter topics include: inventing a new role for mothers; contradictions of moral motherhood; medicalizing the maternal body; science, expertise, and advice to mothers; uplifting and controlling mothers; modern reproduction; mothers’ resilience and adaptation; the middle-class wife and mother; mother power and mother angst; and mothers’ changing lives and continuous caregiving. While the discussion has been part of all eras of American history, the discussion of the meaning of modern motherhood is far from over.

Torn is an anthology of essays that captures the voices of a generation of women caught in the crossfire of kids, career, and family life. In a series of 48 heartfelt and often laugh-out-loud essays, the book exposes the dirty truths of motherhood and the inevitable crises of that life brings: battles with cancer, lost jobs, broken marriages, unplanned pregnancies, the heartbreak of infertility, and lots of “bad mommy” moments. As these stories illustrate, there is no perfect mother, nor is there a perfect balance when it comes to kids and a successful career.

Working mothers today confront not only conflicting demands on their time and energy but also conflicting ideas about how they are to behave: they must be nurturing and unselfish while engaged in child rearing but competitive and ambitious at work. As more and more women enter the workplace, it would seem reasonable for society to make mothering a simpler and more efficient task. Instead, Sharon Hays points out in this original and provocative book, an ideology of "intensive mothering" has developed that only exacerbates the tensions working mothers face. Drawing on ideas about mothering since the Middle Ages, on contemporary childrearing manuals, and on in-depth interviews with mothers from a range of social classes, Hays traces the evolution of the ideology of intensive mothering--an ideology that holds the individual mother primarily responsible for child rearing and dictates that the process is to be child-centered, expert-guided, emotionally absorbing, labor-intensive, and financially expensive. Hays argues that these ideas about appropriate mothering stem from a fundamental ambivalence about a system based solely on the competitive pursuit of individual interests. In attempting to deal with our deep uneasiness about self-interest, we have imposed unrealistic and unremunerated obligations and commitments on mothering, making it into an opposing force, a primary field on which this cultural ambivalence is played out.

Why do women in contemporary western societies experience contradiction between their autonomous and maternal selves? What are the origins of this contradiction and the associated ‘double shift’ that result in widespread calls to either ‘lean in’ or ‘opt out’? How are some mothers subverting these contradictions and finding meaningful ways of reconciling their autonomous and maternal selves? In Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities, Petra Bueskens argues that western modernisation consigned women to the home and released them from it in historically unprecedented, yet interconnected, ways. Her ground-breaking formulation is that western women are free as ‘individuals’ and constrained as mothers, with the twist that it is the former that produces the latter. Bueskens’ theoretical contribution consists of the identification and analysis of modern women’s duality, drawing on political philosophy, feminist theory and sociology tracking the changing nature of discourses of women, freedom and motherhood across three centuries. While the current literature points to the pervasiveness of contradiction and double-shifts for mothers, very little attention has been paid to how (some) women are subverting contradiction and ‘rewriting the sexual contract’. Bridging this gap, Bueskens’ interviews ten ‘revolving mothers’ to reveal how periodic absence, exceeding the standard work-day, disrupts the default position assigned to mothers in the home, and in turn disrupts the gendered dynamics of household work. A provocative and original work, Modern Motherhood and Women’s Dual Identities will appeal to graduate students and researchers interested in fields such as Women and Gender Studies, Sociology of Motherhood and Social and Political Theory.

A comprehensive examination of welfare state surveillance and regulation of single mothers in Ontario.

In the early twentieth century, Americans often waxed lyrical about “Mother Love,” signaling a conception of motherhood as an all-encompassing identity, rooted in self-sacrifice and infused with social and political meaning. By the 1940s, the idealization of motherhood had waned, and the nation’s mothers found themselves blamed for a host of societal and psychological ills. In Mom, Rebecca Jo Plant traces this important shift by exploring the evolution of maternalist politics, changing perceptions of the mother-child bond, and the rise of new approaches to childbirth pain and suffering. Plant argues that the assault on sentimental motherhood came from numerous quarters. Male critics who railed against female moral authority, psychological experts who hoped to expand their influence, and women who strove to be more than wives and mothers—all for their own distinct reasons—sought to discredit the longstanding maternal ideal. By showing how motherhood ultimately came to be redefined as a more private and partial component of female identity, Plant illuminates a major reorientation in American civic, social, and familial life that still reverberates today.

Counsels parents on how to manage a rambunctious family, sharing the author's successes with experimenting with such tactics as instilling a fear of consequences, withholding unnecessary details, and using gentle manipulation.

Modern Mom Probs: A Survival Guide for 21st Century Mothers is a guide for modern mothers trying to navigate the daily joys and worries they face. It sheds light on the experiences modern moms eat, sleep, and breathe…and obsess about. Using checklists, graphs, and smart, funny advice, this must-have book revels in the messiness and beauty of modern motherhood. Tara Clark, creator of the popular Instagram account “Modern Mom Probs,” started the conversation for moms looking for an online village. In this book, she continues the conversation with funny, easy-to-digest information, including advice from medical professionals. Inside, she’ll tackle how to: • Manage screen time without a meltdown • Navigate playground geopolitics • Overcome information overload • Teach your children about inclusivity • Find mom friends and keep them