Playing with class: Middle‐class intensive mothering and the consumption of children's toys in Vietnam. (31st March 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Le‐Phuong Nguyen, Khanh; Harman, Vicki; Cappellini, Benedetta
• Is Part Of: International journal of consumer studies. Volume 41:Number 5(2017)
• Page Start: 449
• Page End: 456
• Publication Date: 2017-03-31
• Subjects: gender -- toys -- intensive mothering -- social class -- Vietnam; Consumer education -- Periodicals; Home economics -- Periodicals; 339.486405
• DOI: 10.1111/ijcs.12349
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1470-6423

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the way in which Vietnamese mothers purchase, gift and share toys with their children. The study utilises a qualitative design comprising semi‐structured interviews with 10 Vietnamese middle‐class professional working mothers of children aged between 5 and 9. This research highlights the way in which toys defined as "good" by mothers need to fulfil a number of important practical and social functions: they act as an investment in the child's future, as a reward, and as a means for mothers to buy time for themselves. The findings illustrate how these functions are influenced by Confucian and Western discourses of intensive mothering, generating a localized style of middle‐class intensive mothering, characterized by what we have called the ideal of the triple excellent and intensive mother .