creator: Polatnick, M. Rivka
description- – Issues of work/family conflict and child care have been addressed mainly with regard to families with young children. When children advance to middle school at age ten or eleven, families usually must make new after-school arrangements, in a context of limited options and lack of consensus about appropriate care. Based on interviews with thirty-six preteens and with forty-two of their working-class through upper-middle-class parents in a California city, this paper examines their negotiations about the after-school hours. The transition to middle school entailed an abrupt decline in school-based care resources and school-to-parent communication and emboldened most of the preteens to assert more autonomy. Some working families pieced together complicated plans for after-school coverage; others slipped into "self-care" arrangements, usually despite parents' misgivings. In analyzing ideological and structural factors that affect the negotiations, I employ the concepts growing-up schedule and care reduction schedule. Four short case studies illustrate how preteens and parents tried to speed up or slow down these schedules. Proposing the concept of an optimal care mix, I discuss how middle schools and their communities can become more responsive to the needs of working families.
collectiondatepublishercreatorformat description- – This paper explores children's views on whether they get sufficient time with dual-earner or single parents who are employed full-time. It draws on semi structured interviews with twenty two children, ages ten to twelve and from diverse backgrounds, and on supplementary interviews with twenty-six of their parents. The children's responses about parental availability were complex and contradictory. Most children seemed to feel more dissatisfaction than they stated on the surface. I argue that family, social, and economic pressures influenced them to damp down or suppress desires for parental time. I raise concerns about the potential for underestimating children's discontent.
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