Organised activities, educational activities and family activities: how do they feature in the middle-class family’s weekend?

Abstract

In the context of concerns regarding work–life balance, questions have been raised in relation to the weekend and whether it is being ‘lost’. This paper presents new empirical evidence regarding the weekend of the middle-class family, who are the section of the population perhaps most likely to be subject to time pressure yet have the greatest ability and inclination to protect the weekend. The evidence comes from 73 semi-structured interviews with parents and children from 48 middle-class families living in and around a small city in the north-west of England. The data indicate that the middle-class family’s weekend is not being ‘lost’, as the paid work of most parents is undertaken during the traditional Monday to Friday working week, and Saturdays and Sundays are viewed and experienced differently to weekdays. However, the weekend is undergoing significant changes in that middle-class parents do considerably more ‘work’ in relation to their children and families. Children spend a large proportion of the weekend doing homework and organised activities, while their parents assist, transport and supervise them. Also, though ‘purposive’ family activities are limited at the weekend, parents spend a substantial amount of time with their children and doing things for them. Overall, the middle-class family’s weekend today appears to be more child-centred and structured than in previous generations. These changes can be explained by the very different social context in which parents have to parent, as well as the contemporary perception of ‘good’ parenting to which parents are subjected.

在关于平衡工作生活这方面的讨论中，关于周末是否正在消失的话题正在被越来越多的提起。本文以通过传统经验来提供关于中产阶级家庭周末的相关案例，选择中产家庭作为样本的原因是因为中产阶级是最能感受压力的一部分人，因为他们有意愿和能力去保护属于他们的周末时间。本文的样本通过73个调查得来，48个有孩子的英格兰西北部中产家庭接受了调查。数据指出中产家庭的周末并没有受到侵犯，工薪父母们主要在传统周一到周五的时间里工作，周六周日被认为与工作日有着本质的区别。但是，周末正经历着巨大的变化，工薪阶层家庭的父母们正考虑着周末跟孩子们更多的在一起，因为孩子们在周末在作业和社团活动上花费了大量的时间，父母需要起到协助与监督的作用。此外，家庭聚会的时间只能放在周末，父母需要花费大量的时间为孩子们做事。总之，现在中产家庭的周末时间正变得比以往更加以孩子中心。这种变化可以解释为如何为人父母这个概念的变化以及好家长这个角色的概念被重新定位。

Keywords:

• work–life balance
• concerted cultivation
• social class
• family time
• grounded theory

关键词:

• 工作家庭平衡
• 共同培养
• 社会阶级
• 家庭时间
• 基础理论

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Ken Roberts for his advice when composing this paper. I would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the original version of this paper.

Notes

1. It is important to point out that the degree to which individuals in some higher-level occupations can and do exercise time sovereignty might be limited. There is evidence of a ‘long hours culture’ among some professionals and managers whereby busyness is something of a ‘badge of honour’ (see Allard, Haas, & Hwang, 2007; Roberts, 2007).

2. As noted in the introduction, it is important to recognise the differences within as well as between social classes. A number of academics have used the phrase ‘class fractions’ to discuss the different groups within the middle classes (see Ball & Vincent, 2007).

3. Though it is not uncommon to encounter difficulties obtaining interviews with fathers and children in research involving families, it is important to recognise the associated limitations. Research indicates that there are discrepancies in mothers’ and fathers’ reports of parental involvement (Mikelson, 2008), thus caution should be exercised when relying on single reports. In the study on which this paper is based the mother’s voice was dominant. Consequently, the data might have been skewed in terms of the mother’s perspective and involvement.