“You Really Do Something Useful with Kids”: Mothering and Experienced Health and Illness in a Group of Elderly Swedish Women

Abstract

This article is based on in-dept interviews with 20 elderly Swedish women, and deals with mother's child-caring work and related health and illness. Mothering included invisible work as well as physically heavy tasks, both aspects often neglected in research. The attitude of the children's father had a great impact on the work. Feelings of success or failure at bringing up their children affected the women's experience of health/ill health throughout their lives. Their health as elderly women depended on the health and happiness of their, now adult, children.

First, and most of all, we thank the women who participated in this research for sharing their memories and thoughts with us. We are also most grateful to Professor Geoffrey Shippey for helping us with the language and for questioning an unclear part of the text. The research was funded by the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research.