Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here to sign up for SAGE Journal Email Alerts today!

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Acta Sociologica
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Forsberg, L.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

Managing Time and Childcare in Dual-Earner Families

Unforeseen Consequences of Household Strategies

Lucas Forsberg

Department of Child and Youth Studies, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, lucas.forsberg{at}buv.su.se

The article documents how dual-earner families employ different household strategies when managing time and childcare in everyday life. In particular, the focus is the unforeseen consequences of household strategies, that is, novel emerging problems, cultural ideals and subjectivities. In this ethnographic study of eight middle-class couples in Sweden, I analyse three household strategies: delegating, alternating and multitasking. While parents apparently use these strategies to juggle the multiple demands of everyday life in a time-efficient way, they also comply with a norm of involved parenthood. Thus, when employing household strategies, the parents balance between enacting themselves as involved parents and running the risk of being understood as uninvolved.

Key Words: childcare • domestic work • family life • household strategies • involved parenthood • time management

Acta Sociologica, Vol. 52, No. 2, 162-175 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0001699309104003
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?