Abstract
Shared care and chain of care are core concepts for analysing empirical variation of care arrangements for small children, involving more than one caregiver. The Norwegian context exemplifies an increased tendency among mothers to share the care of their young child with a co-parent at home, and with professional care providers at day care centres. Instead of drawing on prevailing psychological models and standards to assess the quality of arrangements of care during early childhood, we have tried to learn from how caregivers go about in their practice. In this respect we count parents as well as care providers in childcare centres as practitioners. Based upon parents’ detailed descriptions of their children’s everyday life, the paper analyses how parents involve others in the chain of care that they organise. Three cases of sharing are presented and discussed: same-gendered parents who demonstrate intensive parental sharing, parents who share with professional caregivers at day care and parents of children with special needs who do the same. Setting up care arrangements with more than one continuously engaged participant appeared as a process of gradual adaptation, not a sudden abdication from parental responsibility. Thus, the child is neither constructed as a baton in a relay race, delivered from one caregiver to the next, nor as a task that is easily split into pieces, one for each caregiver. Different caregivers did not necessarily treat the child in exactly the same way, but they coordinated their efforts in order to contribute to the subjectification and development of this particular little person.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The children in this sample were born before same-gendered and opposite-gendered couples were equalised by Norwegian law (Ministry of Children and Equality 2009).
References
Ahnert, L., Rickert, H., & Lamb, M. E. (2000). Shared caregiving: Comparison between home and child care. Developmental Psychology, 36, 339–351.
Andenæs, A. (2005). Neutral claims – gendered meanings. Parenthood and developmental psychology in a modern welfare state. Feminism & Psychology, 15(2), 209–226.
Andenæs, A. (2011). Chains of care. Organizing the everyday life of young children attending day care. Nordic Psychology, 63(2), 49–67.
Andenæs, A. (2012). The task of taking care of children: Methodological perspectives and empirical implications. Child & Family Social Work. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2206.2012.00897.
Aukrust, V.G. (1992). Fortellinger fra stellebordet. To-åringer i barnehage: En studie av språkbruk – innhold og struktur [Tales from the changing table. Toddlers at child care: A study of use of language – content and structure]. Doctoral thesis in education, University of Oslo.
Aukrust, V. G. (2002). “What did you do on school today?” Speech genres and tellability in multipart family mealtime conversations in two cultures. In S. Blum-Kulka & C. Snow (Eds.), Talking to adults: The contribution of multiparty discourse to language acquisition (pp. 55–84). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Bowlby, J. (1988). A secure base: Parent-child attachment and healthy human development. New York: Basic Books.
Brandth, B., & Kvande, E. (2011). Norway: The making of the father’s quota. In S. Kamerman & P. Moss (Eds.), The politics of parental leave policies: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development. Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Chuang, S. S., & Gielden, U. P. (2009). Understanding immigrant families from around the world: Introduction to the special issue. Journal of Family Psychology, 23, 275–278.
Doucet, A., & Dunne, G. A. (2000). Heterosexual and lesbian mothers challenging ‘feminine’ and ‘male’ conceptions of mothering. In A. O’Reilly & S. Abbey (Eds.), Mothers and daughters: Connections, empowerment and transformation (pp. 103–120). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Ellingsæter, A. L. (2006). The Norwegian childcare regime and its paradoxes. In A. L. Ellingsæter & A. Leira (Eds.), Polticising parenthood in Scandinavia. Gender relations in welfare states (pp. 121–145). Bristol: Policy Press.
Ellingsæter, A. L. (2009). Leave policy in the Nordic welfare states: A ‘recipe’ for high employment/high fertility? Community, Work and Family, 12(1), 1–19.
Ellingsæter, A. L. (2010). Feminist policies and feminist conflicts: Daddy’s care or mother’s milk? In J. Scott, R. Crompton, & C. Lyonette (Eds.), Gender inequalities in the 21st century (pp. 257–274). Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ellingsæter, A. L. (2012). Ideational struggles over symmetrical parenthood: The Norwegian daddy quota. International Social Policy, 41(4), 695–714.
Ellingsæter, A. L. (2014). Towards universal quality early childhood education and care: The Norwegian model. In L. Gambaro, K. Stewart, & J. Waldfogel (Eds.), An equal start? Providing quality early education and care for disadvantaged children. Bristol: Policy Press.
Ellingsæter, A. L., & Gulbrandsen, L. (2007). Closing the childcare gap: The interaction of childcare provision and mothers’ agency in Norway. International Social Policy, 36(4), 649–669.
Finsæther, K. (2009). “Vi prøver så godt vi kan, å dele på det …” en kvalitativ tilnærming til et ganske hverdagslig dagligliv, i familier med likekjønnede foreldre [‘We do our best, to share…’ a qualitative approach to an ordinary everyday life, in same-gendered families]. Master thesis in psychology, University of Oslo.
Gullestad, M. (1979). Passepiken. Om store barns omsorg for og tilsyn med mindre barn i en by i dag [The childminder. Older children taking care of younger children in a city today]. Tidsskrift for samfunnsforskning, 20, 523–545.
Haavind, H. (1987). Liten og stor: Mødres omsorg og barns utviklingsmuligheter [The little one and the big one: Mother’s care and children’s development]. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.
Haavind, H. (2006). Midt i tredje akt? Fedres deltakelse i det omsorgsfulle foreldreskap [In the middle of the third act? Fathers’ participation in the caring parenthood]. Tidsskrift for Norsk Psykologforening, 43(7), 683–693.
Haavind, H. (2011). Loving and caring for small children: Contested issues for everyday practices. Nordic Psychology, 63(2), 24–48.
Højholt, C. (2001) Samarbejde om børns udvikling. Deltagere i social praksis [Cooperation on children’s development. Participants in social practice]. København: Nordisk Forlag.
Kousholt, D. (2008). The everyday life of children across early childhood institution and the family. Australian Research in Early Childhood Education, 15(1), 13–25.
Meling, A. (2007). Foreldres fordeling av omsorgsarbeid i barnets første leveår. En analyse av sammenhengene mellom diskurs, omsorgsarrangement og kompetanseutvikling [Parents’ sharing of care work during the first year of the child. An analysis of connections between discourse, care arrangement and development of competence]. Master thesis in sociology, University of Oslo.
Ministry of children and equality. (2009, January 1). Felles ekteskapslov [A marriage act for all]. http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/bld/topics/equality-and-discrimination/homosexuality/a-marriage-act-for-all--entering-into-fo.html?id=509376 (Downloaded April 8, 2014).
Østrem, S. et al. (2009). Alle teller mer, en evaluering av hvordan “rammeplan for barnehagens innhold og oppgaver” blir innført, brukt og erfart [Everybody counting more, an evaluation of how the ‘Framework plan for the content and tasks of kindergartens’ is implemented, used and experienced] (Report No. 1). Tønsberg: Vestfold University College.
Patterson, C., Sutfin, E. L., & Fulcher, M. (2004). Division of labor among lesbian and heterosexual parenting couples: Correlates of specialized versus shared patterns. Journal of Adult Development, 11(3), 179–189.
Reve, E. M. L. (2008). Med astma døgnet rundt. Omsorgskarriere og dagligliv i familier med småbarn med astma [Living with asthma all day round. Care careers and everyday life in families med small children suffering from asthma]. Master thesis in psychology, University of Oslo.
Rogoff, B. (2003). The cultural nature of human development. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Sæther, J. P. (2010). Barn i barnehage. Foreldrebakgrunn og utvikling de seneste årene [Children attending day care. Parents’ background and development the recent years]. Oslo: Statistics Norway.
Singer, E. (1993). Shared care for children. Theory & Psychology, 3(4), 429–449.
Skjørten, K., Barlindhaug, R., & Liden, H. (2007). Delt bosted for barn [Shared physical custody for children]. Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk.
Statistics Norway. (2012). 9 av 10 barn i barnehage [9 out of 10 children attend child care]. Oslo: Statistics Norway.
Thorne, B. (2000). Pick-up time at Oakdale Elementary school: Work and family from the vantage point of children. In R. Hertz & N. Marshall (Eds.), Work and family (pp. 354–376). Berkeley: University of California Press.
Valsiner, J. (2006). The development of the concept of development: Historical and epistemological perspective. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Theoretical models of human development. Volume I of handbook of child psychology (6th ed., pp. 166–209). Hoboken: Wiley.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Andenæs, A., Haavind, H. (2018). Sharing Early Care: Learning from Practitioners. In: Fleer, M., van Oers, B. (eds) International Handbook of Early Childhood Education. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_77
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-0927-7_77
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-0925-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-0927-7
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)