Families

Chapter 2
An understanding of the roles that some of the key players in a child’s family system help professionals whom work with them to interact with them in sensitive and emphatic manner

Mothers
Role of mothers
5“Although mothering is often considered to be “instinctual and natural” the roles have changed over time and differ across culture”   thus making it a highly diverse role.
6Employment is considered the most prevalent issue affecting mothering today.
7In 2006, 80 percent of married Canadian women work
8Debate around if women should or should not work.
9Woman’s attitude more important than the “experts’ opinion”
10Focus needs to be on how mothers can be supported by their employers providing flexibility in schedules and “return to work” options and by the provision of flexible high quality day care
11Society presents the unrealistic image of “supermom”
12Role is often impacted by multiple stressors
13Key stressor is the “time crunch”
o Lack of time to fulfill tasks and requirements
o Results in guilt and frustration
o Daly – suggests it is a function of a “hurried society”

Attitudes toward mothers
14Societal attitudes toward mothers are vast and diverse.
15Exercise on the top of page 29
16Our assumptions are often based on our own experience and thus we should be careful not to generalize our beliefs
17Nature and relationships between mother and their child is extremely diverse

Preparation for Motherhood
18In North America many women have no experience with babies even those that delay childbearing
19Shiela Kitzinger – suggest that there is a “value conflict” – the instrumental skills (task and product focused) valued in western societies are not those that meet the requirements of parenting – that of being open and responsive to children ever changing needs.
20Instrumental skills lead to the timelines and schedules inherent to today’s hurried families
21Motherhood does not fit into a neat predetermined plan because the...