Boxed up? Lunchboxes and expansive mothering outside home. (30th November 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Harman, Vicki; Cappellini, Benedetta
• Is Part Of: Families, relationships and societies. Volume 7:Number 3(2018)
• Page Start: 467
• Page End: 481
• Publication Date: 2018-11-30
• Subjects: INTENSIVE MOTHERING -- EXTENSIVE MOTHERING -- LUNCHBOX -- CONSUMPTION -- RISK MANAGEMENT -- GENDER; Families -- Research -- Periodicals; Families -- Periodicals; Intergenerational relations -- Periodicals; 306.805
• DOI: 10.1332/204674317X15009937780962
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2046-7435

Abstract

Abstract : This article unpacks the experiences of 30 British women making lunchboxes for their children, and their opposition to opting for school dinners. Findings emerging from photo-elicitation interviews and focus group discussions show how mothers consider themselves the only social actor able to make a 'proper lunchbox'. School dinners are considered a risky option for their children, and fathers' interference in preparing lunchboxes is viewed with suspicion. The article shows how lunchboxes can be viewed as an expansion of intensive mothering: a way of making home away from home, stretching the intensive domestic care used for toddlers to school-aged children. Expansive mothering is characterised by mothers' mediating role that places them between the child and the outside world. This role is mainly performed as a risk management activity aimed at recreating the domestic security outside the home, yet it also reinforces the message that feeding children is a mother's domain.