Mothers, Young People and Chronic Illness by Clare Williams

Author:Clare Williams [Williams, Clare]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, Marriage & Family
ISBN: 9781351733076
Google: Hn10DwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-10-24T03:42:29+00:00

Summary

This chapter explored three specific ways in which mothers could be blamed as a result of being held ultimately responsible for their child’s health. Firstly, the mothers of girls ran the risk of being blamed for their daughters’ poor control, despite the fact that girls were usually independent in the self-management of their condition. The influence of psychological discourses on health professionals was highlighted, particularly the emphasis on dysfunctional mothers and poor mother/child relationships (Askilden et al. 1993).

The mothers of boys were in a somewhat different position, because they were more likely to be blamed for ‘mollycoddling’ their sons. Husbands were particularly likely to blame their wives for this, which supports the work of Duncombe and Marsden (1995), who found that men were likely to see women’s emotional work with children as unnecessary and debilitating ‘fussing’. However, this research develops the work of Duncombe and Marsden (1995) as it was only the fathers of sons who voiced this opinion. It was argued that this is because ‘mollycoddling’ strikes at the heart of the dominant social construction of masculinities, threatening the successful transition of boys into ‘proper men’ (Prout 1986). Conversely, mothers could also be blamed by others for not ‘mollycoddling’ boys when it was thought necessary.

The third way in which mothers were blamed was for ‘nagging’. Mothers were very aware that they ‘nagged’, but it seemed to be a way of fulfilling the ultimate responsibility they felt for care, and was done for two main reasons. Firstly, it related to worries about future complications in the case of diabetes, or to a severe asthma attack causing death in the case of asthma. Young people were generally seen as not having a future orientation which placed mothers in a difficult position, because whilst they did not want to worry their child, they wanted to try and prevent future complications. This could also bring mothers into conflict with health professionals, who sometimes implied that mothers nagged unnecessarily, whilst at the same time they appeared to rely on mothers’, ‘ironclad sense of responsibility to get things done’ (Goldner 1985: 41). Secondly, nagging could be seen as a way of mothers attempting to control for the possible dangers in the public world.

Finally, the effect on mothers of their child’s non-adherence to treatment regimens was explored. It appeared that the mothers of teenage boys were affected much more than the mothers of girls, mostly because the mothers of boys were much more likely to be involved in, and consequently to feel responsible for treatment. In all of these situations, the importance for mothers of ‘displaying competence’ in the care of their child is apparent (Anderson and Elfert 1989).

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