Everyday

Abstract

If we are to represent lesbian/gay/queer parents’ lives in all their complexity, then it seems vital that we pay attention to the quotidian, the doing of everyday life and the settings in which it occurs, since statements about those parents are made within a disputed, situated and interactional context. As Damien Riggs argues, ‘we are always in the process of “becoming” and “doing” family’ (Riggs, 2007a: 28). In addition, if we are to understand what doing/being a lesbian or gay parent involves, then we will need to ask how that very category is brought into being (or made relevant) for various everyday settings (Zimmerman and Pollner, 1973). This chapter does this by using sociological theories of the everyday in order to understand the mundane aspects of LGBT parents’ lives. It tries to ‘produce a deep wonder about what is often regarded as obvious, given or natural’ (Pollner, 1987: ix).

The EDL [everyday life] is the pedestrian and mundane life that is so commonly recurrent that its participants scarcely notice it. EDL is the seen- but- unnoticed life … sociology’s distinct function is to liberate EDL from the neglect that is the fate of the commonplace. Which is to say, its task is to focalize the seen- but- unnoticed.

(Gouldner, 1975: 423–5)