Parenting culture studies

Intensive parenting and the expansion of parenting -- Experts and parenting culture -- The politics of parenting -- Who cares for children? The problem of intergenerational contact -- Policing pregnancy: the pregnant woman who drinks -- The problem of 'attachment': the 'detached' parent -- Babies' brains and parenting policy: the 'insensitive' mother -- Intensive fatherhood? The (un)involved dad -- The double bind of parenting culture: helicopter parents and cotton wool kids.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Why do we live at a time when the minutiae of how parents raise their children – how they feed them, talk to them, play with them or discipline them – have become routine sources of public debate and policy making? Why are there now so-called 'parenting experts', and social movements like Attachment Parenting, telling us that 'science says' what parents do is the cause of and solution to social problems? Parenting Culture Studies provides in-depth answers to these features of contemporary social life drawing on a wide range of sources from sociology, history, anthropology, psychology and policy studies to do so, covering developments in both Europe and North America. Comprehensive in scope and accessibly written, this book will be an indispensable resource for students, researchers, policy-makers and parents seeking a deeper understanding of the debates surrounding parenting and society today.