In the several decades since baby monitors first appeared on the scene, most parents have come to insist on their necessity. As noted earlier, theo­retical accounts of the rise of a more generalized “anxiety” rest on the work of Anthony Giddens and Ulrich Beck regarding the emergence of a “risk society.”6 In the case of […]

The Baby Monitor: A Relatively Modern “Necessity” Before I began conducting interviews for this book, I researched parental atti­tudes toward baby monitors on the consumer advice website Epinions. com. Although baby monitors have only appeared on the scene relatively recently, parental use of these devices is now assumed rather than explained in con­sumer reviews.1 That […]

This page intentionally left blank ♦ INTRODUCTION TO PART II Do You Know Where Your Children Are? A vast new array of surveillance technologies has become a taken-for — granted feature of our daily lives. Cameras tape our behavior on the street, smart cards record our purchases at the grocery store, and our employ­ers can, […]

When asked about problems they faced, middle — and working-class parents discussed a very different set of issues than did their professional middle-class counterparts. Of course, not all middle-class and working-class parents find that the same issues cause problems. Some focus on the absence of sufficient resources. As one parent responded, “most difficult is not […]

Like the more elite parents who were interviewed, middle-class and working — class parents find great satisfaction in raising their children. But these satisfac­tions less often hinge on their relationship with their children than do those described by the professional middle-class parents. Rather, middle-class and working-class parents cherish distinct achievements and personal successes, much as […]

Anita Mayer, a middle-class resident of rural Texas and mother to four chil­dren, used a garden image to explain her view of parenting: “I think children are like plants, that they’re predestined flowers to whatever they’re supposed to be, and you’re just the good gardener who provides a decent environment, . . . and they […]

In contrast to Anna Benton’s “1-2-3 maybe,” Margaret Davies, a white, self — employed craftsperson married to an African American building contrac­tor, characterized her parenting approach as “tell, tell, tell, yell.” Margarets approach represents well the parenting style of the working-class and middle — class parents, who seem more confident in their ability to say […]

When the professional middle-class parents are asked about their approach to raising children, they definitely do not respond with reference to the mul­tiple advantages they can afford. Some of the less privileged parents, on the other hand, do speak about what is beyond their reach, about the limits that frame their consumption patterns. On this […]

The professional middle-class parents have differentiated themselves from their parents—even rejected their parents—as they make decisions about how to approach the care of their own children. Not only do they believe that the world holds greater dangers than was the case when they were children, but they feel more alone in the task of warding […]

Availability, intimacy, trust, flexibility, and belief in potential are the hall­marks of the style that I call parenting out of control; these produce great satisfaction and provide a way for professional middle-class parents to dis­tinguish themselves from their own parents. Yet, as has been implied, elite parents often acknowledge that the attributes of parenting out […]