Travail parental et bien être de l’enfant

Abstract

Beginning by placing in perspective two investigations carried out in associative mi- lieux on the Mompreneurs in France and the “School of Parents of Geneva” Switzer- land, this article offers a sketch of contemporary forms of “children’s well-being”, while at once analysing what they mean for parents – and quite specifically the wom- en – in terms of parental work. It thus shows that the concern of mothers and childhood professionals for the “emotional balance” of children has enjoined mothers to make themselves increasingly more available for their child/children. This parental availability – thought prioritarily in the feminine –, in favour of the supreme value of the child, is nonetheless not the only source of “bringing women into line”. For certain women, intensive parental engagement also constitutes a distinctive social capital, in regard to which we propose thinking through the potential for hierarchisation between various social and ethnic groups.

Keywords

• gender
• children’s well-being
• parental work